It was just about a year ago, Thanksgiving 2016, when Diddy made a revelation that captured headlines worldwide. During his appearance on Drink Champs, the REVOLT TV Chairman told hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN that the infamous Suge Knight speech at the 1995 Source Awards, in which the Death Row CEO threw a dis that started to fracture hip-hop, was aimed at Jermaine Dupri. Or so Puff had been told by Knight directly.
“Any artist out there [that] wanna be artist and wanna stay a star and don’t have to worry about the executive producer being all in the videos, all on the records, dancing, come to Death Row,” Knight said then, accompanied on stage with singer Danny Boy, causing an eruption of boos from the audience.
This week on Drink Champs, Dupri responds. He feels Suge was going at Puffy.
“He was talking about me? C’mon man,” JD said with a grin. “Y’all know better than that. We was there. I was there. I’m the guy that’s been on the forefront of everybody movement. Me and Snoop was [very close]. That’s how Bow Wow came [to So So Def]. Me having beef with Death Row? Never. Suge was in my office kicking it.”
Later in the show, Diddy would come on stage during his own acceptance speech. Puff then confirmed to the crowd that he was the CEO Suge was talking about and proceeded to calm down the riled up audience. Later that night, he stepped to Knight in the Tunnel nightclub.
“We had a conversation,” Diddy said on Drink Champs last year. “The Tunnel was mine at the time. Let’s not get it twisted. I was ordering garbage buckets full of champagne. The bar is where I would stand and walk around. My feet would not touch the floor. To make the long story short: this is where the after-party was, the world famous Tunnel, so when I had ran up and asked [Suge], he said, ‘Nah, I was talking about Jermaine Dupri.’”
The saga just scratches the surface of the untold stories JD gets into on Drink Champs tonight. The 25-year veteran also discusses why a studio session with him and Whitney Houston was a tremendous fail, how Biggie coerced Lil Kim into recording a verse for Usher, and why he still stands behind the words that caused Dr. Dre to dis him on records.