Key Takeaways
- Daz Dillinger says he recreated 2Pac’s "Ambitionz Az a Ridah" beat for Cam'ron's 2002 track 'Live My Life" and helped record the song but received no production credit.
- Daz claims Roc-A-Fella credited another producer because Suge Knight was harassing people at the label, though Knight no longer controlled the music because Death Row was bankrupt.
- He also says he gets paid whenever artists use recognizable lyrics or riffs from "Ambitionz Az a Ridah," citing songs by The Game, Meek Mill, and Lil Wayne.
Daz Dillinger has opened up about the time Cam'ron used a version of 2Pac's "Ambitionz Az a Ridah" beat, and the issues that followed via Suge Knight.
In a recent interview with The Art of Dialogue, Daz explained that he still receives money when artists incorporate recognizable elements from the 1996 track he produced. "If anybody in this world say, 'I won't deny' or say, 'Ambitionz Az a Ridah,' anything in their song, we get that," Daz said. "That's a sample clearance for me."
Daz pointed to songs by The Game, Meek Mill and Lil Wayne as examples, before adding: "Even if they use a riff of that shit, we get paid for it."
The conversation eventually turned to Cam'ron, who used a reworked version of the "Ambitionz Az a Ridah" production for "Live My Life" from his 2002 album Come Home With Me.
Daz recalled being invited to New York's Baseline Studios through his friend Kyambo "Hip-Hop" Joshua, who was working with Roc-A-Fella as an A&R and executive. He said he didn't know who the session was for until he arrived.
"I heard somebody say, 'What's up, Daz?' It was Cam'ron," he recalled.
Daz said Cam wanted the "Ambitionz Az a Ridah" beat; so he went upstairs and produced it for him. However, he claims trouble involving Knight eventually led to another producer receiving the official credit.
"Suge Knight was harassing muthafuckas at Roc-A-Fella," Daz alleged. "And so they didn't give me my credit as the producer, they gave it to somebody else to finish up the music."
According to Daz, he was present for much of the song's creation. "We laid all that down. Everything, the vocals, all that you heard, we laid all that down," he said. "And then when you look at the credits, it had somebody else's name as the producer. And I'm like, damn, what happened?"
When the interviewer brought up Cam previously saying Knight confronted him over using the beat, Daz confirmed the dispute but claimed the former Death Row boss no longer had control over the music.
"Yeah. All that shit," Daz said. "But he didn't have nothing to do with it because it was bankrupt. He was already bankrupt. He was out of it already."
Daz also discussed his long-running disputes over publishing and Death Row, saying he first sued the label in 2001. "In this business, ain't no friends," he said. "We acquaintances. We deal with each other until something go wrong."
