Death Row Records was an infamous boys club in the 1990s, but women more than made their mark. Of course, The Lady Of Rage was one of the label's top emcees, and Michel'le was the chart-topping R&B vocalist who'd come over from Ruthless Records with Dr. Dre; but it was Jewell whose sultry vocals wound up all over major Death Row albums The Chronic and Doggy Style. The Chicago native became the label's go-to singer, and had the full protection of impresario Suge Knight.

"Back then, he used to say I was his sister," Jewell shared in 2011. "It was a blessing for me to be introduced to people that way. He also kept me sheltered. Back then, I thought that was a good thing because I was not burnt out like some of the other acts on the road. But when Death Row broke up, that’s when that really began to affect me as an artist. Because the powerful players wouldn’t give me a deal—because I was ‘Suge’s Sister.’ So they wouldn’t fuck with me."

The soulful singer became a Death Row fixture. Jewell dropped her own hit single, a cover of Shirley Murdock's "Woman to Woman," in 1994. As things famously turned sour at Death Row, Jewell was left in the lurch. The murder of Tupac Shakur, Knight's imprisonment and Dr. Dre's defection all combined to throw Death Row Records into limbo, and Jewell wound up in dispute against her former label. 

"Of course, Death Row never paid me the money that I was supposed to get in order to keep up my livelihood and take care of my kids," she would note later. "So it was a bitter situation for me and I was very angry and hurt."

Caples died at age 53 on May 6, 2022. Daz Dillinger of Tha Dogg Pound announced the news. Known professionally as simply Jewell, Caples was signed to Death Row Records from 1992 to 1996 and worked with N.W.A., Tha Dogg Pound, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre.

“RIP rest in peace. I’m sad this really hurt but Jewell passed this morning," Daz posted to Instagram. "Wow Death Row for life, we gone miss her. Classic music family over everything.”

The news shocked the public, but in a recently published video from months prior, the singer born Jewell Caples shares that she knows she's terminally ill. In an interview with Art Of Dialogue originally conducted in 2021, the former Death Row songbird explains that she knows she has very little time left and wants to leave more of a legacy behind.

"The doctor gave me six months to live," she explains. "So, her and...my son, never heard it. So that's why I sped up the album."

In the interview with Art, she tells him that she plans to do a "final documentary," and reiterates that "it's not going to be long."

"But I beat the odds," Jewell explains. "Because 2019 was my first diagnosis. And I have all of the paperwork to substantiate the longevity of my life. I died at Wal-Mart and they brought me back to life." She shares that an E.M.T. named Javier "saved my life" during that incident. She also admits that her family doesn't know about her diagnosis. When discussing Jewell's legacy just weeks after her passing, The D.O.C. spoke to ROCK THE BELLS about his admiration for Death Row's secret weapon.

"Jewell [is] a beautiful, wonderful, warm, talented, gracious, God-fearing L.A. chick," The D.O.C. said at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of his new documentary The D.O.C. "Which means there's some hood in there! But those are my brothers and sisters--we was just kids. They were younger than me! Just babies. God bless her. I miss her. I love her and I'm grateful that we got to do this movie and she was there so that the world could see."