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particular – has betrayed the ideals of politicised 70s
and 80s black music from protest songs to Public Enemy,
and Rebel For The Hell Of It cleverly analyses
and contrasts the expression of Black culture in popular
music over several decades like an angry Greil Marcus.
Clearly appalled at the waste of talent and ambition
which gangsta rap embodies, White’s novel is wellargued
but its academic tone ultimately lacks emotion.
Have Gun Will Travel is certainly full of emotion –
most of it negative. Journalist and former rapper Ronin
Ro provides an insight into the workings of the Death
Row label and clearly differentiates fact from rumour
and legend. Ro demonstrates beyond any doubt that,
preying on the ambition and gullibility of his artists,
Suge Knight made a great deal of money while his artists
received little or nothing. Few artists had recording
contracts and many worked for free on some of the
1990s biggest-selling albums (Dr Dre’s The Chronic
and Snoop’s Doggystyle) while Suge received 100% of
the publishing royalties.
Although many of his sources are understandably
anonymous, Ro tells a compelling if frightening story
of associates forced to drink urine at gunpoint, business
rivals being sodomised, publicists being savagely
beaten, journalists held over piranha tanks and the
increasingly deranged and uncontrollable behaviour of
Knight. Obsessed with movies like Scorcese’s Casino
(to the point of buying one of the houses used in the
BUY Tupac Shakur music online from and
film) and De Palma’s Scarface, Knight surrounded
himself with gang members and actively encouraged
the burgeoning rivalry between East Coast and West
Coast artists and fans.
It’s hard to feel any sympathy for the gangsta
rappers portrayed in these books, the quiet and
determined Biggie Smalls excepted. Tupac is vain
and hot-headed, drawn to Death Row after yet another
period of jail time for serious assault. Dr Dre is
shown as an egotistical, self-obsessed control freak,
while other rappers – Snoop included – seem to have
a curious ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ attitude when
given a choice between advancing their careers and
basic human decency. Ro, like White, highlights the
mainstream record industry as an amoral and cowardly
business which chose to ignore the activities
of Death Row for as long as record sales remained
high. It’s an argument given extra weight by the rash
of legal action and the mass evacuation from Death
Row following Knight’s incarceration.
Despite the titillating content, Have Gun Will
Travel is no hastily-scribbled collection of rumours.
Death Row’s reputation for violence and intimidation
was well-deserved and Ro tracks down a sufficient
number of eyewitness accounts to corroborate
his story. The label’s finances and criminal backing
are exhaustively researched, and the result is a
comprehensive history of one of the most successful
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