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Suge Knight was sent to jail for 28 years in 2018, after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter following a fatal hit-and-run incident in 2015. But even behind bars Suge has been able to give interviews—and he’s offered his two cents about the state of the contemporary rap scene.

At his height, Suge was at the cutting edge of hip-hop. As the co-founder and CEO of Death Row Records, he was an absolutely central figure in the development and popularisation of gangsta rap, largely because he oversaw the release of two of the subgenre’s greatest works: Dr Dre’s The Chronic of 1992 and Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle of ’93.

Hip-hop has since moved on from its G-funk days, but Suge’s tastes have developed along with it. It must be tempting to lament all the changes that have occurred within a scene you were once such a key part of, but Suge never sulked in the past. There are plenty of contemporary artists that he likes.

Change The Game TV managed to secure a phone interview with Suge in 2023, and they got him talking about the younger generation of rappers that he most admired at the time. Despite his own hip-hop heyday being way behind him, he was enthusiastic about the newer crop of rappers at work.

“You still got people still in the game doing well,” he said, “and they deserve they cigars.”

Suge was especially fond of NBA YoungBoy. “Man, I like that little young motherfucker,” as he put it. “He deserve his cigar. He talk shit. He about that life. He march to his own motherfucking beat.”

Another artist that Suge respected was perhaps a little more surprising. “Even Drake,” he said, highlighting the Canadian rapper’s commercial appeal. “He sell out at his concerts and shit! Which is a big plus.”

Suge also picked out two of the women who have been making the biggest waves in rap over the last number of years. “Cardi B is incredible,” he said. “That’s probably one of the biggest stars in the industry, and a great business woman.”

Last but not least, he spoke of Doja Cat. “There’s nothing she can’t do and be successful with,” he gushed.

This was not the first time that Suge had spoken from prison about this generation of rappers. In 2018 he chatted with The Blast and told them that YG was one of his favourite rappers around, while, again, he enthused about Cardi.

“I think Cardi B is the most incredible artist that has been in the industry in a long time,” he said on that occasion. “She a natural born star and people can relate to her.”