Money Talks

Only days before finishing his gun possession, assault, and parole-violation sentence at California's Mule Creek Maximum Security Prison, Knight had spoken with a British reporter in the visiting room there. He issued vague threats to Puffy, as well as to estranged Death Row artists Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre. "I'll be out of this place soon," Knight warned, "and it'll be like the Wild West all over again. I got plenty of scores to settle."

Whether Knight was grandstanding or not, there was a simple solution to all this drama, one Miami's Cuban-exile community could learn from. Snoop Doggy Dogg, set to be a presenter at the awards show, stayed home. Puff Daddy and Dr. Dre protégé Eminem sidestepped the matter; rather than risk any confrontations or Death Row nonsense inside the Jackie Gleason, both artists wisely decamped to Watson Island, where they taped performances for insertion into the TV broadcast. Business is business -- they dohave new albums to promote, after all. But today's top rap stars are just too busy managing their portfolios to engage in pointless schoolyard fights anymore.

AP/Wide World Photo

FUBU's fashion moguls and Method Man (foreground) mug for the camera at the Source awards

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Back in New York, Puffy had a telling reply to a Details writer inquiring about Suge Knight's threats on his life: "Time is money to me. And you wasting my time."