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attempt to leave Death Row that led to his death. Dre had managed to do it, but only by relinquishing any claim on Death Row. A music-business veteran who is close to Dre told me that “if Tupac had left Death Row . . . it would have been worse than devastating—it’s an insult. It's a public slap in the face. It is not tolerable, ‘I’ve made you and you're going to leave me? And six months after Dre did it?’ In another cul- ture,” he concluded, “people sue you.” Tn the last few months, Knight has been buffered by one damaging revelation after another. The Los Angeles Times reported in October that he had given a recording contract to the daughter of the deputy district attorney Lawrence Longo, who had helped strike his probation deal in the assault case, and also that David Kenner had rented a nineteen-thousand- dollar-a-month Malibu Colony house from the Longo family and that Knight had stayed in it. (Longo denies any wrongdoing.) Then, in December, the Los Angeles Times reported that Steve Cantrock, Death Row'’s accountant and a principal in the L.A. office of Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, a division of Coo- pers & Lybrand, had signed a document saying that he stole four and a half mil- lion dollars from Death Row, Cantrock was said to have told federal investiga- tors that he had been invited to a San Fernando Valley house where Knight, Kenner, and others were gathered, that he had been forced to his knees and, fearing for his life, signed the handwrit- ten confession that Kenner had drafted on the spot. (Knight says that no force was involved. Cantrock denies stealing the money.) Cantrock, who is in hiding, has since been forced out by his firm. He has also been reported to have been an intermediary between Knight and al- leged organized-crime figures; federal investigators have reportedly been exam- ining possible links between Death Row and organized-crime families in New York and Chicago. When federal grand jury subpoenas were sent out last Febru- ary, they focussed not only on Knight's role but on Kenner's as well, In mid-April, Afeni Shakur filed a racketeering suit against Death Row, Suge Knight, and David Kenner, alleg- ing that they were engaged in a con- spiracy to steal from Tupac. The suit in- cluded a claim against Kenner for - malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty, charging that his “purported representa- tion of Tupac was in hopeless conflict” with his own interests—inasmuch as Kenner, the suit alleges, was both an at- torney for Death Row and an owner of it. Several people close to the situation say that the suit is on the verge of being settled, and that Interscope has helped to make that possible. Since Tupac’s death, Interscope has repeatedly sought to mollify Afeni. In October, when she found Knight and Kenner unresponsive and she was threatening to block the release of Tu- pac's last album unless she got an ac- counting of the money due to him, it was Jimmy lovine who met with Afeni and her lawyer, Richard Fischbein, and apreed that Interscope would pay her an immediate three million dollars with more to come. And it was Interscope, not Death Row, that underwrote a me- morial service for Tupac in Atlanta in November. Interscope has, in a way, been a modei of corporate responsibility. In- deed, in a strictly corporate sense it has done more than was required. Tupac was not officially Interscope’s artist, af- ter all. But Interscope executives may feel a level of responsibility for hav- ing pushed Tupac into Suge’s arms. And there is also a compelling business ratio- nale for Interscope to do everything pos- sible to quell the skirmishing between Tupac's estate and Death Row. As one lawyer close to the situation points out, if Afeni didn’t get what she wanted from Death Row she would surely sue not only Death Row but Interscope as well, on the theory that the companies were so closely related as to have shared ex- posure. Being subject to a legal pro- cess of discovery on this issue could hardly have been an attractive pros- pect for Interscope—particularly in light of the ongoing criminal probe of Death Row. F Interscope escapes unscathed in the federal probe, Suge Knight's undo- ing could well prove a boon. “Joint ven- tures are only as successful as the opera- tors are frugal,” an executive close to Interscope points out, and at Death Row the spending was “obscene.” “If they’can shift the Death Row assets within Interscope, they'll come out . yt smelling like roses—and not have the wild card of Suge and Kenner.” A cou- ple of months ago, it was reported that Seagram, the parent of Universal, is con- sidering buying, for three hundred and fifty million dollars, the half of Inter- scope that Universal does aot already own, This would mean a colossal profit for Iovine and Field. To many blacks in the music busi- ness, the lack of congruency in this par- ticular morality tale is bitterly familiar. Suge Knight has retained Milton Grimes, who defended Rodney King, to represent him in the federal investiga- tion. Grimes argues that Death Row did not operate in a vacuum. “Their money came from Interscope, and from MCA, and they"—Interscope—“were hands- on. So if there are going to be indict- ments, let them take on the industry— not just this one black business.” That Interscope is widely regarded as the most successful new label since Geffen Records cannot be attributed solely to its affiliation with Death Row. Interscope has hugely successful rock groups, including Nine Inch Nails, Bush, and the Wallftowers, and the pop groups No Doubr and God’s Property. But it was Death Row that rescued them from their early doldrums and that delivered one multi-platinum album af- ter another. And the legacy of Death Row to Interscope is a rich one. “Death Row served an amazing purpose for In- terscope,” an entertainment executive told me. “It helped put them in the black-music business. Today, no matter what happens, they 4ave that. People in that community feel that they gave a black man power. They gave a black man autonomy. They gave a black man money.” Tovine and Field did bet on Suge Knight and Dre when other companies would not. They have justified what they did by alluding to the First Amend- ment, and to their belief in giving a chance to black artists and entrepreneurs from the street, But Death Row was no enterprise zone. And anyone who got near it could have predicted that there would be a Price to pay for its cultiva- tion of gangsterism—in lyrics, in social conduct, and perhaps in business prac tices as well. Tupac, of course, paid the heaviest price of all. «