Jewell Explains Her Book's Claims About Tupac's Death And Dr. Dre's Sexuality

Exclusive: The former first lady of Death Row Records addresses the jaw-dropping claims made in her forthcoming memoir regarding Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur and others.

You had to be one hell of an interviewee to stand out amongst your co-stars in drug dealer-turned-Death Row Records financier Harry-O’s surprisingly well-done documentary, Welcome to Death Row. But one former Death Row inmate managed to do just that, as singer Jewell Caples arguably stole the show with her fearlessly honest (and at times cleverly humorous) observations about the rise and fall of one of the most successful, and perpetually controversial, record labels in music history. 

A little over a decade after her film debut, the well-preserved 49-year-old mother, author and performer (who began her career in the mid-1980s as part of a performance troupe for the nation’s original Hip Hop radio station, Los Angeles’ KDAY) spoke to HipHopDX on Labor Day 2011 (courtesy of Hoopla Media Group) with shockingly even more eye-popping candor than her on-camera confessional.

As she prepares for the October 25th release of her memoir, My Blood, My Sweat and My Tears, and its accompanying album (which will precede the release of her long-vaulted Death Row debut by WIDEawake Entertainment), the hookstress heard on 2Pac’s “Thug Passion,” Dr. Dre’s “Dre Day,” Snoop Dogg’s “Gin & Juice” and several other timeless tracks from the G-Funk’d 1990s discussed with DX the “intimate secrets” in her book, including the premonition that might have saved ‘Pac’s life, and maybe most notably, the seemingly never-ceasing rumors regarding Dr. Dre’s sexual preference.  

(hiphopdx)