Suge Knight has claimed that Tupac was interested in signing Aaliyah to Death Row Records.
The iconic label’s co-founder made the revelation in a new interview with The Art of Dialogue. Talking over the phone from prison, Knight said Tupac first learned about Aaliyah when they went to see Gladys Knight perform.
“We had a thing,” he said. “I would always listen to oldies, and Pac would listen to rap. He didn’t like oldies, so I told him, ‘I gotta show you what oldies are about.’ So, I took Tupac to go see Gladys Knight perform in Vegas.”
He went on to say that Aaliyah came out to perform. “Tupac said, ‘Don’t get up! Don’t get up!’” Knight recalled. “I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because Gladys Knight knows you, you’re gonna speak to Gladys Knight, and then you’re gonna talk to that little girl singing. And the next thing you know, you’re gonna be doing an album.’ He said, ‘I’m gonna go talk to her, you come later on, because I want to do an album with Aaliyah.’”
Knight added that the late rapper didn’t consider signing anybody else. “He thought she was the biggest star and had the best voice ever. Me and that dude spent hours and hours and days and days together. Me, personally, I never seen him get so excited about no female artist.
“He lost his mind over Aaliyah. He talked about her for days and days. I got tired of hearing him talking about that little girl. He said, ‘I got these songs I want do with her. I’m gonna do this song with her.’ … He was super, super, super excited.”
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Tupac was hit in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, before passing away six days later on September 13.
In 2023, Duave “Keefe D” Davis was arrested and charged in connection to the shooting. The police believed that Davis’ nephew, Orlando Anderson, was the shooter and that he allegedly obtained the gun used “for the purpose of seeking retribution against Tupac”.
Davis entered a not-guilty plea to one count of open murder with the use of a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement. After the news broke, Knight said that he “won’t testify” for anyone in the Tupac murder case and said he wants justice for Davis as he’s not the shooter.
Davis has previously claimed that his past comments regarding the shooting of Tupac were simply “entertainment”, and in January this year, he filed a motion to dismiss the case.
Aaliyah died in 2001 aged 22 after the plane she was on nosedived in the Bahamas. She passed along with the pilot and seven members of her team.
In 2012, reports of a posthumous Aaliyah album featuring Timbaland and Missy Elliott were denied by each of those musicians, while Drake’s rumoured collaborative project with the late singer in 2014 was scrapped following her family’s discouragement.
In 2021, The Weeknd posthumously enlisted Aaliyah for the joint single ‘Poison’. The following year Aaliyah’s uncle confirmed that a posthumous album titled ‘Unstoppable’ featuring Drake, Ne-Yo, Snoop Dogg and Future would be released, though it never materialised.
In 2023, fans petitioned to have the late star inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame.
Last month, Mattel celebrated the late singer by launching a new Barbie doll in her memory on what would have been her 46th birthday.
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