Blu [click to read] has finally confirmed what some industry insiders have known for a while: Suge Knight was once interested in signing him.

The Los Angeles emcee spills the details in an interview with Jeff Weiss, who interviewed him for L.A. Weekly's cover story on Los Angeles' emerging crop of rappers. Faced with the possibility of pursuing deals with Death Row or Roc-A-Fella Records, Blu decided to spurn both and link with upstart indie Sound in Color, which distributed his critically acclaimed Below the Heavens [click to read], release in August 2007.

"My cousin was engineering at Death Row and he played the CD for Suge right when he got out [of prison], and had already signed Left Eye and Crooked [I]," Blu said. "My boy told me, just come with me and we'll get signed by either Suge or Roc-A-Fella."

Death Row Records, besides Kurupt's 2004 album, Against Tha Grain, has not released an active artist's album of new material since Michel'le, Knight's spouse at the time, released Hung Jury one decade ago.