DJ Quik is speaking about his time at Death Row Records and the label’s infamous reputation.
“Sometimes it was cool and then it just became the streets. All the stuff that I got away from, all the gang-banging and all that, just met me right there head-on at the office. It was hood shit. And you had to kind of be hood to deal with it because they were in there…them n-ggas was detecting fear,” he said on the All The Smoke podcast.
“They just wanted to see if you were scared. Make you feel some kind of way. It’s like, that energy doesn’t go with making the right songs. Songwriting is a beautiful process, you know what I mean? And it’s a lot of thought involved. You got guys in here gang-banging and sh-t and threatening you and saying crazy sh-t,” he continued.
He added: “It was dangerous and it didn’t have to be, because it was the greatest record company at one point in the world. It was going to be the biggest thing in the game.”
In 2021, Quik went viral for burning his royalty check from the label.
“I’m not so happy; I’m real offended by this Death Row check and its amount. As much work as I did for these sons of b-tches, I just feel like the respect factor is crazy—there is none. So, to show you what your money means to me, Mr. Death Row Records—,” Quik said as he burned the $188.96 check.
