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Could This One Small Detail Have Changed Tupac and Suge Knight's Relationship Forever?

“If he knew the truth, according to them, maybe he wouldn’t have been so loyal.”

Despite Tupac’s biopic finally making it to the silver screen for fans and rap tenderfoots everywhere to witness, the most intricate and complicated relationships during his 25 years of life is still hotly debated 21 years later.

Of those relationships, the shakiest one was with his Death Row Records boss and longtime confidante Suge Knight. Allow the the Outlawz to tell it, the now two-man rap clique founded by the West Coast icon, and that relationship might have also been the shiftiest, according to alleged details of The Defiant Ones.  

Sitting down with Vlad TV, the men shared their thoughts on the aftermath of Pac’s All Eyez on Me biopic and HBO’s new retrograde hip-hop miniseries The Defiant Ones. Chronicling famed music industry mogul Jimmy Iovine’s relationship with another West Coast icon, Dr. Dre, the docuseries touches on Pac’s 1995 bailout from the Clinton Correctional Facility. According to Iovine, Death Row received advanced cash for Pac’s bail after Time Warner would not allow Interscope to put up the cash. E.D.I. Mean, however, is calling B.S. on the claims.

“Remember, this man had the No. 1 album [Me Against The World] while he was in prison — the first artist to ever do that — back when a million scanned was really a million records,” E.D.I. said. For that reason, he continued, there should have been no question of finances when it came to Pac’s bail. But if statements made in The Defiant Ones are true, he believes that Pac’s misguided belief that Suge fronted the money for his jail release may have led to misguided loyalty to him and Death Row as well.

“I think it’s B.S. not only because I don’t think it’s true, but the timing is just real weird to me,” E.D.I. declared. “You got this Pac movie that just came out and now all of a sudden, y’all want to take credit for bailing him out, when before, y’all kinda hid your hands. Y’all never come out, not once, publicly, and said that Suge Knight never bailed Tupac out.”

Such a bold (possible) mistruth is especially bothersome for E.D.I., he added, because the 25-year-old was “loyal to [Suge] until his last day on earth.” Besides, he said, as far as Pac knew, Suge came to his rescue at a time where he may have felt no one else had his back and even put Pac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, up in her own home.

“If [Tupac] knew the truth, according to [The Defiant Ones], maybe he wouldn’t have been so loyal him, and kept his distance,” E.D. I. said. “And maybe he might still be here. But we all know that’s some garbage, because Death Row was the No. 1 label at the time. In my opinion, Suge had plenty of money to bail Pac out.”

Listen to all that he had to say about the Defiant Ones' claims and the truth behind Pac’s bailout in the video below.

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