Suge Talks 9.11 & Being Out Of Jail

Suge Knight checked in for the second part of his interview with Greta van Susteren on Fox News on Friday. Suge talked with Greta about what he’s been doing since being released from jail, how life is different after being in jail for five years, his thoughts on September 11 and where he was on that day, and more on his planned book. Read on for a transcript.

Greta: Now for part two of our exclusive interview with rap music mogul
Suge Knight. What’s he been up to since he was released from jail last
August?

Suge: Not a whole lot. I’ve been in the studio. I finished up an album,
best in the west coast. Say hi to the bad guy. We finished up Nina’s album,
Left Eye, and first thing was a song with her and as far as that, keeping
all of it squared away, this is Eastwood, a lot of producers, and actually
enjoying life, really getting back to focusing on enjoying my freedom.

Greta: Let’s talk about your freedom. You got out of jail in August.
You were away for five years. What’s the biggest difference? How is life
different in that five years?

Suge: I think the people have changed. I think people change over the
years. You can be gone a year and come back and it seem like a whole new
crowd of people. I think the mentality is totally different. I think the
whole industry and business, I think it’s just about the mope now. Used
to be a time when it was about the art. Where artist would go in and make
a record and he would put his heart and soul in and he would make a record
where he wanted everybody to enjoy it. Now it’s a situation where the majors
have said ok, turn a record in, we’re going to make some record sales and
if we have to buy some records ourselves to make you sell rofrdz, it’s
ok, you look good, you just don’t make money. Or we’re discounted five
or six dollars and you look good on sales, you just don’t make real money.
I think that’s changed as far as the business side of it.

Greta: Let me
switch gears for a second. So much is going on in the world. You got out
of prison in august and then September 11 rolled around and we had that
horrible violence in this country, that terrorism. Do you follow the news?
Do you follow that stuff?

Suge: Yeah, I follow the news. That affected us so much as far as that
tragedy that happened out here. One of the things, not only did it affect
us as far as we losing — even though we didn’t know them, but still it
was human being that we had love for. I think one of the things that changed
things around, because even though I just got out of prison, it seemed
like I was back in prison because if you went to Warner Brothers or Universal,
they want you to either wear name tags or stickers to get in the building.
That’s like being in prison. You can’t go nowhere unless you have your
I.D. Or you giving them your booking number to get somewhere. Now it’s
like that all over again. I’m saying wait, I just got out of prison, I’m
ready to live free, go as I want to go. If I want to go have an appointment
somewhere at universal, I should be able to go there. Now they’re at a
point where they want to give you a badge or sticker. I think it’s changed.
It’s like putting us in prison because of the situation that’s going on
in the world.

Greta: How did you hear about september 11? Where were you?

Suge: Actually I was in L.A. I was in L.A., And when I heard about it,
you know, it was like anybody else. The first thing I thought about is,
any time someone’s life is lost, it’s very sad, and that’s like what happened
at Columbine, that premium tried to forget about that. I mean, that’s not
nothing to be forgetting and that’s nothing, something to be — people
— a lot of people made heroes. I mean, what bothered me that Timothy McVeigh,
when I left state prison, I had to go to the county jail to go to the federal
pen, when I went to the county jail in Sacramento, they worshipped Tim
McVeigh. They even took pictures with him and treated him great. When I
got there, they treated me like I’m the one who was worse than that guy.
Because it’s a good thing I got there when he left because if we was around
each other, I probably would have caught him one more time.

Greta: You’re writing a book, or at least you want to.

Suge: Yeah, I’m doing a book. At first I wasn’t too excited about it.
I’m in prison, people asking me all the time what about a book. My idea
of a book usually is a person usually does a book, it’s usually on their
way out or they don’t have a place to stay so they call somebody and say,
you know, my career is over, let me get a book deal. That’s not the case
with me. But I felt this time to write a book because there’s been so many
books written not only about me but about my company, about my friends
and people who used to be on death row. I think it’s time to set the record
straight and tell the real truth about it, and you know, one thing about
me, it can be a tell all. I don’t hold any punches. I don’t have anything
to hide. A lot of people are afraid to say certain things. To me I say
what I feel and state truth.