2Pac's first manager and the woman credited with discovering the late entertainer Leila Steinberg recently sat down with podcast host Allison Kugel. Steinberg detailed her history with 2Pac before describing how the rapper was financially exploited by those around him.
"I don't think, I know 2Pac was exploited financially," Steinberg said. "I witnessed it. I witnessed the direction of his career and the power people that didn't want to hear my voice or my resistance. I did choose to stop managing him, but I stayed close, and there were people making a ton of money from the beginning of his career until the end of his career."
After explaining how the music industry was set up to place music artists at a disadvantage, she singled out Suge Knight when describing whether 2Pac was a true millionaire or not.
"He did [make some money], but he didn’t have access to it," she responded. "Especially at the end, Suge controlled everything. Millions were made. He did own some houses. He saw a million, but what's a million? It's crumbs. There were hundreds of millions made off of 2Pac. There are people who own homes and property now off of 2Pac money, and it's not those of us that were there grinding and working."
Later in the interview, she explained how 2Pac's deal with Death Row was not favorable. To hear more on the topic, check out the interview above and skip to the 26:30 mark.
