Did you know this? According to Kurt Kobane, former Death Row producer, Suge Knight gave Keyshia Cole power over the record label when she was only 12-years-old.
During an interview with The Art of Dialogu, Kobane spoke about Tupac’s relationship with Death Row. “He wasn’t just in the circle, he was next to the guy who ran the circle,” Kobane said of Tupac’s relationship with Death Row’s former head honcho, Suge Knight. When asked if he believes that Tupac joining the label was his downfall, Kobane said yes. “I might get a lot of bullsh*t for saying it, but looking at it, and being in the inside and not just looking at it from a fan point of who this person was and who this person was, yeah. It was his downfall because he became something that he’d never been before. He never had that power.”
Kobane was then asked about Keyshia Cole’s involvement with the label around that time. “She was a part of, I believe, Hammer’s situation from Oakland,” adding that Keyshia was “eleven or twelve.” He said, “She was really like a fish out of water in this situation ’cause she’s only 12-years-old, she’s trying to do R&B at Death Row Records… So, we was really working with her project which we wasn’t taking too serious at the time.”
Watch the full interview below.