T-Spoon said:
aight, got one more question, wut about that group mayhem that eiht put out? where they from and wut happened to em? but year, i thought i heard about that unknown shit and eiht. fold.
Mayhem i aint even sure on tha one eiht has been working on some c.m.w. stuff,and of course that lynch and eiht
You were only getting $5,000 for albums and Unknown was getting the rest?
Yeah, he was getting $200,000 budgets to do Compton’s Most Wanted records. He had the production deal.
How did he get the deal?
He went into the label acting like "These is my cats." So they gave him the deal.
Was he even part of the group?
No. He was just the nigga that the record company needed. We at the time were just young babies. They needed someone to represent as far as to who was going to take charge for this group. Who was going to sign the contracts? Who was going to cash the checks? I was only seventeen. Slip was older, but all he knew how to do was be a DJ and run a sound company. We didn’t know nothing about $200,000 deals. I was used to getting $5,000.
That was totally fucked up
When it would come time for me to do a record, Unknown would give me a check for $5,000. He would say "There’s going to be more on the back end," but there never was a back end. I did two albums and wrote all of that.
Did you want to go in there and jack his shit up?
At first I didn’t because I didn’t know shit. I didn’t know anything. Then a nigga would come to me and offer me $30,000 for a commercial, I knew something was up.
Did you see any royalties?
The first album came out and I didn’t see any royalties. The second album came out and I didn’t see any royalties. Three months after the records came out, I would be sitting at home broke. Something is not right. Every time I would go to the studio Unknown would have a brand new Benz, or motorcycle. Out of about 15 beats he was only doing two or three. The majority of the production came from DJ Slip.
Was DJ Slip getting paid for his production?
Slip was getting less than what I was getting. Slip is a big nigga. This nigga is like seven feet, three hundred and something pounds. I’m telling this nigga you need to speak up. It’s like the same shit with Cube. Cube was going "I’m writing all the songs and I’m still driving a Suzuki and living at home". Eazy is living in a big house. That was me. Everything on the first 4, 0r 5 albums nobody wrote but me. I wrote every lyric. So I went and did the commercial for St. Ides and they gave me about $25,000.
What did you do with the money?
I went and put down on a Benz. I thought" shit, if you’re gonna have a Benz, then so am I". Then he started to get jealous. He was asking me" where did I get the money"? Cause he knew I wasn’t making no money. The nigga talked shit because I did a St. Ides commercial.
Why did he have a problem with you trying to make money for yourself?
He knew that if he was able to control that, he would’ve kept twenty grand and gave me five grand. That’s how he would’ve did it. He would’ve said" St.Ides is only offering you $10,000". He would’ve only gave me $5,000 up front. They would’ve gave him $25,000 and he would’ve kept $20,000. That’s how greedy Unknown was. I started to get suspicious. Right around that time Unknown had signed a publishing deal for Compton’s Most Wanted. This deal was through MCA. He took us all out to a restaurant one night. It was me, him and Slip. He said this "Eiht, I just signed a publishing deal. You are going to get about $9,000. Slip, you are going to get about $3,500." He tells me I would get about $6,000 of it at first. He gives me a check for $5,000. He gives Slip a check for $3,500. So we went to the studio. Niggaz was happy. We had some money in our pockets. So the nigga gets drunk and leaves his check book in the studio. The next day Slip calls me. He says "Unknown left his check book here."
Did yall look through it?
I was already suspicious anyway. I told the nigga to look through it. He didn’t want to do it. I said look through it. He looked through it and called me back. He said, Guess how much that nigga got for the publishing deal? I said how much? He said $70,000. It was right there in plain English. It said MCA: $70,000 for publishing. I told the nigga to give it to his dad and tell his dad to make a copy of it. Cause you knew as soon as the nigga woke up he was going to go to the studio and get his checkbook. I told him to tell his pops to photo copy the whole damn thing. That was what he did. He had copies, 7 proof. That was when my balls got big. I ain’t taking it no more. So we went out to the bank to cash some checks. The nigga tells me that he is going to take a thousand dollars out of my money.
What for?
He said it was for a portable DAT player. It was for when we go on the road. I said "No, you ain’t taking shit out of my money, fuck that." I not going to buy no $800 portable DAT player. I got other shit to do with my money. We were going back and forth. The nigga calls me stupid. I said "Yeah, I’m stupid." From that day on I went and got my own lawyer.
What about having a part in the publishing deal, was he still involved?
Epic got rid of Orpheus and they were getting ready to pick a nigga up directly. I told Epic "I’m not going to do this record if he was involved." I was about to start working on "Music to Drive By". They complained back and forth. It was a bunch of bullshit. In the meantime I started filming Menace II Society. I had got the part in the movie. They knew I was getting ready to do this movie. They knew this movie was going to propel me. They decided to let me and Unknown spilt the money for production on the next record. Instead of me getting my normal $5,000 I got $30,000. This way I could go and do my own thing. I was tired of this nigga doing his little production. I was tired of him saying what goes on the record. He ain’t the one rappin’. He ain’t the one that people see. I wanted some say so. So they included my production company on the credits. They also made me one of the executive producers. I was still unhappy because I couldn’t get rid of this nigga. This nigga just juked me out of $30,000 because I was supposed to get 80% of that publishing deal. I was writing all of the lyrics. He wasn’t writing no songs. Why was he getting publishing money. We finish the album and it comes out. It sells 400,000 copies. Epic was happy. They wanted to start working on the next record. I was like no way. Menace II Society was getting ready to come out.
How did you finally get rid of Unknown?
Menace II Society had just came out. I told them that I wont do no more records. I said I will just act. I said I’m not going to cut another record with Unknown. Menace II Society came out and the movie was so popular. The single for the movie was platinum. The song "Straight Up Menace" was blowing up the soundtrack. They knew that I wasn’t gonna play ball no more. So they got rid of Unknown. That was when I took over as executive producer. That was when I was able to take control. I was getting that $200,000 up front to cut a record. It still didn’t matter because they never promoted shit.
