DX: How was it having Hip Hop’s most feared figure in your entourage?
BW: It was chaotic to the point where the people made it bad. Everywhere Suge went, people would say, “Oh man, there’s Suge!” and everybody was scared of him. The more people that say that, the more Suge was going to stick his chest out.

DX: What about the horror stories saying people got beat down during that era? Isn’t that part of the reason why people were scared of him too?
BW: Yeah, people got their ass whooped. But the ones that got their ass whooped was because they were doing some bullshit. I couldn’t understand why certain people would come to a crew that they knew wasn’t going to take their bullshit and after trying to do some work with us would try to beat us in the end. How can you not expect no repercussions?

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t just running around jumping on people. It wasn’t that type of thing. Going to clubs, Suge didn’t really give a damn. When we came to the door it was “Fuck security, fuck the bouncers, everyone move!” He just wasn’t out there fucking with people for no reason. A lot of shit that went down were because people were on his turf. Why were you on his turf?

“I walked to the suite down the hall. Inside was Suge, Party Man, and a couple of Death Row thugs. As soon as he saw me, Party Man had this look on his face like, ‘Please, whatever you can do, help me.' And I’m lookin’ back at him like, ‘Ain’t a damn thing I can do for you, man. You just fucked with the wrong niggas.’
‘Bruce, how much money in that thang?’ Suge asked.
Man, I don’t even wanna say it, but I have to: ‘We short.’
‘How much?’ Suge asks
‘Forty Gs.’
…They took Party Man to the bathroom and fucked him up so bad he didn’t even press charges.” – pgs 62 - 63

DX: Aside from the obvious, what were the differences between Suge and Dre?
BW: Dre was that laid back dude, but Suge was that go-getter. With Suge, if he got respect for you and you show him respect, it’s a whole different ballgame. You don’t have to deal with him on a bullshit level. When it came to business, when Dre said he wanted to do something, Suge was already hooking it up. But when it came to Aftermath, those things changed.

DX: I’ve heard that there was actually a different version of The Chronic. Is there any truth to that at all?
BW: A different version of The Chronic album? Nah. Dre will make a song like this: you have a beat then some lyrics on top of it and everyone will think that’s the record. Then Dre will switch the whole beat up. People kinda got mixed up around the time when we left Death Row, and we had a beef with Suge when he wanted the masters. People got it misconstrued then but there wasn’t ever two different Chronics.

DX: What was it like being in the studio with everyone on Death Row back in the day?
BW: The first day I stepped in the studio and saw everyone work was phenomenal man. Just imagine this: Dre’s going to be the first one in the studio and the last one to leave. He’ll start messing with a beat. As the beat starts pumping, the guys start filtering in. Everybody will get their little drink and smoke in. Soon enough the beat starts to make a presence. You’ll look around the room and every cat that was a rapper – from Kurupt to Daz to Snoop – will grab a pen. They would start writing while Dre is making a beat so by the time he’s finished with the beat, they are ready to hit the booth and start spittin'. To see those young cats – they were all hungry and wanted to make something dope. The atmosphere that was there, you couldn’t be wack.

DX: Anything that nobody knows about that you can bring up?
BW: Snoop’s first album [Doggystyle]. A lot of people don’t understand that the album was never finished. They were demanding that album so much that it came to a point where the distributors said, "We’re going to cancel our orders if you don’t get this to us." In 48 hours, Dre mixed the album and did all of the skits. So they had to record all of that and it was done in 48 hours straight. For me, that was the most phenomenal shit in the world. You could just see a line of Hennessy bottles in the studio. You saw lobster and stuff everywhere. But nobody touched it. Everything for that 48 hours was all about music. I remember that Dre laid on the sofa for about 15 minutes and Snoop looked up and saw him laying down. All I remember is Snoop with a pool cue hitting the sofa saying, "Come on Dr. Dre! Get your ass up! You gotta mix my album!” So in a 48 hour period we went from mixing the album from top to bottom, putting the skits in and getting it out there.

DX: What exactly is Dre’s mentality when making an album?
BW: If you really listen to a Dre album, Dre doesn’t make an album to bump in the club. His songs crossover to the club. All of his songs are riding albums. It’s something you can throw in your tape or CD player and roll with. Never have to take it out. What a lot of producers don’t understand about this game is the flow of your songs. You can have dope songs but if you don’t have that one to lead off, then you don’t have anything. Your songs can’t jump from one place to another. With Dre, each songs levels out to the next song. They all blend in good. A lot of people didn’t understand that. He made the game different and nobody could stop him or top him because he had those ears. Even when an album wasn’t finished, it was dope. Everyone always asks why does it take him so long. He will - still to this day, in the studio - go over a song word for word to make sure it is pronounced exactly right. You’ll be listening to it and say that you don’t hear any difference but he does. Continued on page 3 »