Platinum songwriter Delray Richardson recently claimed that 2Pac was never actually signed to Death Row. During an interview with The Art Of Dialogue, Richardson supported his claim by showing and breaking down the agreement that 2Pac signed with Death Row in order to get bailed out of jail.
Richardson, who's worked with 2Pac, Eminem, The Game, 50 Cent, and Dr. Dre, said 2Pac was locked up and desperate when he signed an agreement with Death Row. However, he claims that what 2Pac signed wasn't an actual contract.
"So when they went to get 2Pac out of jail, it wasn't a contract that he signed," Richardson said. "That was like a deal memorandum if you will. And it was deal points as to what would be included in a contract had he signed with Death Row and they actually wrote up a contract and that was supposed to be in it and that was the language in the agreement. But the first thing that he had signed was a letter to Interscope basically explaining that David Kenner and Suge Knight would be respectively 2Pac's lawyer, David Kenner, and Suge Knight would be his manager."
Richardson highlighted that 2Pac was still signed to Interscope at the time, so that deal would have to be voided in order for 2Pac to sign to Death Row. He not only pointed out that that never happened, but said 2Pac's tentative agreement with Suge Knight "was ripe" with a conflict of interest. Because Kenner was Suge and Death Row's lawyer, Richardson questioned how the late rapper's rights could be protected and said Kenner shouldn't have represented 2Pac according to legal ethics.
Because a contract was never written up despite 2Pac being a part of Death Row for nearly 11 months, Afeni Shakur put a cease and desist order on the Makaveli album after her son's passing. Richardson said nobody from Death Row stepped up to dispute because Suge was already in jail for a parole violation and there was no contract to present.
Richardson claimed the Makaveli album was only released after Jimmy Iovine stepped in and paid Afeni $3 million to release the album and adjusted 2Pac's royalty rate.
The songwriter also pointed out that Suge Knight never bailed 2Pac out. According to the alleged paperwork, "In truth, Death Row did not post that bail. The bail had three components. $850,000 was posted in the form of a corporate guarantee by Atlantic Records; $250,000 was posted by Interscope, and the balance of $300,000 was posted in the form of a bail bond. All three components were secured by the future royalties to be earned by Tupac."
Richardson posed the rhetorical question as to why Interscope and Atlantic Records (both owned by Warner Bros. at the time) would put up almost $1 million to get 2Pac out of jail if he wasn't their artist anymore. He added that Interscope and Warner Bros. couldn't publicly bail 2Pac out because C. Delores Tucker was a shareholder in Warner Bros. and a vocal rap critic.
According to Richardson, Interscope used Suge Knight as a face to bail out 2Pac because it was more fitting, worked for public relations, and record sales because of Death Row's reputation and the charges 2Pac was fighting. He called the business move brilliant before pointing out that 2Pac attempted to solve his contractual discrepancies prior to his death.
"2Pac tried to remedy that situation," Richardson claimed. "I think when Dr. Dre left Death Row, that's what really woke him up because Dre really left with nothing."
