Suge Knight

Marion Knight was born April 19, 1965, in the Compton area of Los Angeles; his trademark nickname was short for "Sugar." As a youth, he was involved with the Mob Piru Bloods street gang, and during his later years was frequently seen wearing their colors. However, he remained an excellent student and athlete, so much so that he won a football scholarship to University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he also made the dean's list. After school, he played professionally for the Los Angeles Rams for a short time, but couldn't quite make the grade. Instead, he found work as a concert promoter and a bodyguard for celebrities including Bobby Brown. Knight's legal problems began in 1987 when he faced auto theft, concealed weapon and attempted murder charges, ultimately receiving probation. Two years later, he formed his own music-publishing company, and allegedly made his first big fortune in the business by coercing Vanilla Ice into signing over royalties from his smash hit Ice Ice Baby owing to material that he supposedly sampled from one of Knight's company associates. (The apocryphal story holds that Knight held Ice by his ankles off of a 20th-floor balcony, though in Ice's version, the threat was more implied.) Knight next formed an artist management company and signed prominent West Coast figures The D.O.C. and DJ Quik. Through the former, he met several members of the seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A.

Suge Knight motivated Dr. Dre, co-owner of Death Row Records, to come out behind the boards as not just a producer, but a solo rap artist. Knight and Dre wanted to get all the new Death Row acts on the album to give them a chance to showcase their talent and piggyback their opportunity with an album of their own in the future. Knight secured a distribution deal with Interscope through Jimmy Iovine and Ted Fields (Time Warner), at the time, making history as the biggest joint venture between a rap label and a major distributor in the history of music. Dre's solo debut, The Chronic, became one of the most influential rap albums of all time selling over 6 million copies to date. It also made a star of Dr. Dre's protégé, Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose debut album, Doggystyle, went on to sell over 5 million copies and secured the label as being the biggest force in rap music. As Death Row's signature G-funk production style took over hip-hop, Death Row became a reliable brand name for gangsta rap fans, and spawned a massive G-Funk movement on the West Coast in which other artists such as Warren G, The Twinz, The Dove Shack, and many veterans such as DJ Quik, Too Short, Ice Cube, and E-40 would adopt as the signature West Coast sound. Through Death Row's success, the door opened up for West Coast artists as they dropped platinum and gold albums and dominated the rap industry. Knight had an unfortunate run-in with the law in the recording sessions for The Chronic in which he was arrested for assaulting two aspiring rappers who allegedly used a phone without his permission, and was placed on probation and given a suspended sentence. Meanwhile, Death Row had begun a public feud with Miami rapper Luke (The 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell), and when Knight traveled to Miami for a hip-hop convention in 1993, he was allegedly seen openly carrying a gun. Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg created controversy when they began a beef with Dre's former label-mate Eazy-E. On the popular track, "Fuck Wit Dre Day", Dre and Snoop dissed Eazy-E, Luke, and rapper Tim Dog. In the classic video they parody Eazy and Luke and openly brandish a gun and represent Death Row not just as a label but as a crew. In 1995, he ran afoul of activist C. Delores Tucker, whose criticism of Death Row's glamorization of the "gangsta" lifestyle helped scuttle a lucrative deal with Time Warner. Despite the setback, Knight presevered through the controversy and released Tha Dogg Pound's debut album Dogg Food on Halloween 1995. By early 1996, Knight's label dominated the entire rap industry selling more records than any other label and the West Coast set record numbers for album sales. He opened a private, by-appointment-only nightclub in Las Vegas called Club 662, so named because the numbers spelled out "MOB," Knight's gang affiliation, on telephone keypads. He also pleaded no contest to firearms trafficking charges, and was sentenced again but placed on probation. Additionally, Knight's feud with East Coast impresario Sean Combs took a nasty turn when Knight insulted the Bad Boy label honcho on air. Knight mocked Bad Boy CEO Sean 'Puff Daddy' Combs at the Source Awards in August 1995, announcing to the assembly of artists and industry figures: "Anyone out there who wanna' be a recording artist and wanna stay a star, but don't have to worry about the executive producer trying to be all in the videos, on all the records, dancing, come to Death Row," a reference to Puffy's tendency of ad-libbing on his artists' songs and dancing in their videos.

In 1995, Suge Knight, as mentioned in several interviews, said that he felt sorry that Tupac was imprisoned and none of his close friends helped him out or publicly supported him as he sat behind bars. Knight posted the $1.4 million bail and signed Tupac with a cash bonus of 1 million. Allegedly the three album contract Tupac signed in prison was written on a napkin by Death Row attorney David Kenner. Tupac began recording "All Eyez On Me", the first double album in the history of rap music. The album, which was largely produced by Daz Dillinger and Johnny J only featured two Dr. Dre produced tracks and went on to sell over 10 million albums to date and is considered by many to be the greatest rap album ever in the history of Gangsta Rap.

In 1995, Tha Dogg Pound was in a trailer getting ready to shoot their video for "New York, New York", a video which would feature Kurupt, Daz, and Snoop stomping down on buildings in Times Square. Tupac went on a local New York radio station and called out many mainstream rappers in New York and made threats. Several bullets were fired at Tha Dogg Pound's trailer, none which caused harm, but served as a notice that Suge Knight's label was not welcome on the East Coast with open arms. Tupac later claimed that he was mad at Snoop Doggy Dogg for not defending him publicly and having his back dissing the East Coast with him. Snoop refused to record diss records towards the Notorious B.I.G. and backed off in his involvement with the Death Row vs. Bad Boy feud. Knight claimed in a post-prison interview that the reason Tupac did not appear on Snoop's 1996 "Tha Doggfather" album and Snoop did not appear on Tupac's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory was because Tupac had an in-house beef with Snoop Dogg.

Tupac became the lead act on Death Row Records in a marketplace that was dominated by West Coast rap. Knight's co-owner and business partner, Dr. Dre, decided that he did not like the direction that the company was going and wanted to produce rap in a positive direction and left Death Row Records in 1995. Dre later went on to say in an interview that the one incident that pushed him over the top to make his decision was when he witnessed a producer get beat down for rewinding the tape too far. Dr. Dre forfeited his half of the company and his master recordings for his "Chronic 2" release to Suge Knight. Tupac went on KMEL radio in the Bay Area and dissed Dre stating that he was a bomb producer but he never produced any tracks. Tupac claimed that he had grown tired of waiting for beats from Dre and that's why there was only two tracks produced by him on his album ("California Love" was actually a duet with Ice Cube and intended for Dre's "Chronic 2" but Knight and Tupac decided to erase Cube's vocals use it on "All Eyez On Me"). Death Row recorded and released many diss tracks implying Dre was a homosexual and used ghost producers. Some of these songs included Tupac's "To Live And Die In L.A.", "Toss It Up", "Fuck Friendz", and "Against All Odds". "Toss It Up" had a similar beat to Dr. Dre's track he produced for Blackstreet titled "No Diggity". Dr. Dre's image was tarnished by the label he helped create and it was not until his 1999 smash release "Dr. Dre 2001" that he was able to redeem his character.

Death Row moved along smoothly without Dr. Dre as they dominated the industry and released hit records including a diss record titled "Hit Em Up" which was aimed at the entire East Coast including rival rapper Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, Lil Kim, Mobb Deep, and Nas. They had announced plans two weeks before Tupac died of forming a Death Row East. Tupac stated that they would overthrow the rappers like Nas and Bad Boy Records, and bring a "new government" to the East Coast. Knight and Tupac had an altercation with Crips members in the lobby of the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino after a boxing match in Las Vegas. After the fight, Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight were leaving in a vehicle driven by Knight when a white car drove up on the side and sprayed the vehicle with bullets in a drive-by shooting. Tupac was hit by several bullets and bleeding internally and Suge Knight claimed he was struck in the head by a bullet and it was lodged in his skull, although reports from medical examiners on-scene deemed it to be a scratch from broken glass. Suge Knight rushed Tupac to the hospital and claimed that Tupac was joking with him, asking him why he was asking if he(Tupac) was okay when it was Knight who was shot in the head.. Although the murder is unsolved to this day, many on the West Coast speculate that the gunman was Orlando Anderson, the individual who was involved in the earlier altercation. Orlando Anderson was gunned down in 1998 in a car wash in Compton, California. There was speculation that Bad Boy Entertainment CEO Puff Daddy and the Notorious B.I.G. ordered the hit through rival gang members as a retaliation to "Hit Em Up", where Tupac claimed he had slept with Biggie's wife, Faith Evans. When Shakur's East Coast rival, Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls), was murdered in a similar fashion in early 1997, speculation immediately arose that Knight was involved and that the killing was revenge. Others claim that Suge owed Tupac millions of dollars in royalties, and that Tupac was about to leave and start his own label, prompting Suge to have Tupac killed. To date, both murders remain unsolved, but the investigations exposed a web of connections between Death Row Records, gang members who worked there, and LAPD officers who sometimes worked security for the label and its artists during off hours.

Knight would later be sentenced to prison for violating his probation from the 1992 assault on the two aspiring rappers as he was caught on casino security cameras fighting and he would have to attempt to run Death Row Records from prison. Moreover, Bad Boy and Death Row, who were the elite labels on their respective coasts in 1996, had lost their top recording acts due to the violence. As this occurred, Interscope Records wanted to distance itself from Death Row Records and Knight moved to Priority Records.

Snoop Doggy Dogg, who saw the demise of the label, the departure of Dr. Dre, and the death of Tupac, told the Long Beach Press-Telegram that he was leaving the label because he was scared for his life. Snoop Doggy Dogg headed south to join Master P's No Limit Records. Tha Dogg Pound, Daz Dillinger and Kurupt, stayed on the label in hopes to release their second group album. In 1998, Kurupt would briefly leave on good terms with the blessing of Suge Knight to form his own label and drop his debut album "Kuruption" before later returning. Daz stayed on the label and released his debut album in 1998 "Retaliation, Revenge And Get Back," which went Gold. Daz was promoted as the lead producer, the role once held by Dr. Dre, and recorded and produced several tracks and maintained a relationship with Knight, visiting him in prison and talking to him on the phone.

In 1999, the label released "The Chronic 2000: Suge Knight Represents," a double disc to introduce Suge's second generation. The album featured tracks from Suge's new rappers and Tha Dogg Pound. Kurupt was the only rapper to appear on both Dr. Dre's "2001" album and Suge Knight's "The Chronic 2000: Suge Knight Represents." Knight and Dre battled in court over the rights to the "Chronic" title and Knight would win the rights of the "Chronic" title only if he agreed not to put unreleased Dr. Dre tracks on it. On the album, Knight pushed Top Dogg who had beef with Snoop Dogg, and released the track "Top Dogg Cindafella" in which Snoop would release an identical track and a title that mocked the Death Row rapper's name on his release called "No Limit Top Dogg". While Knight's album was certified platinum, Dr. Dre's went on to sell over 8 million copies and is regarded as equal to if not better than the original. Suge Knight released Tha Dogg Pound's second album in 2000 titled "Tha Dogg Pound 2002" which was basically unreleased material from Tha Dogg Pound. Daz left the label in 2001 because of a dispute with Suge Knight. Kurupt would work with Knight's label briefly on and off until officially returning as the companies president in 2002. The label failed to release any solo albums of its much anticipated new acts, specifically Crooked I, Eastwood, Tha Realest, Top Dogg, and Soopafly.

Videotape at the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel where Knight and Shakur had attended a boxing match prior to the shooting showed an altercation with Crips gang member Orlando Anderson, who some believe was the eventual shooter. Knight's involvement in the fight violated the terms of his probation. Moreover, it was revealed that Knight's light sentence may have involved a conflict of interest on the part of prosecutor Lawrence Longo, who rented out a Malibu home to Knight and even had his teenage daughter sign a recording contract with Death Row. Knight was sentenced to nine years in prison, which effectively spelled the end of his Death Row empire. Knight's home was also burglarized, and a search warrant was issued at his office and police seized a vehicle thought to be the batmobile in the Batman movies.

In 2001, Suge Knight was released from prison and tried to re-start his label by pushing new artists such as Crooked I, Top Dogg, Soopafly, Tha Realest, and later, Eastwood, Ray J, and, under the pseudonym "N.I.N.A.", the late Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes of TLC, before her untimely death in a car accident in 2002. However, in December 2002 he was jailed again for violating his probation by associating with gang members. After his release, he was arrested and jailed yet again in 2003, for assaulting parking lot attendant Mehdi Lazrak.

Knight was released from jail April 23, 2004. Original artist Kurupt is now the label's headliner, and his album, Against Tha Grain, was released in 2005. After his release, Knight announced Death Row Records would join with other labels to produce a Christmas hip-hop album to benefit both the families of soldiers serving in Iraq and the relatives of those who died. However, no such album has been released.

Suge Knight has a son who goes by the name Taj Knight who lives in Atlanta. He was born on September 30, 1991, in Los Angeles, California. He lives with his mother Davina Barnes.[citation needed]

Suge is said to be developing an autobiography entitled "American Dream/American Nightmare". However, a targeted release date of fourth-quarter 2005 came and went with no book being released. He has hinted that he will describe his experiences as a bodyguard and rap impresario and relate stories about John F. Kennedy, Jr., Jennifer Lopez, and the "scoop" on Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, as well as his first public statement about the deaths of Tupac and Biggie. Suge also claims to be planning a movie to tell the "real story" of Death Row. [1]

In October 2004, despite having not been formally invited, Suge attended the VIBE Awards, ostensibly to support Petey Pablo, whom he manages. That night Dr. Dre was to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. With Suge in the audience, a man approached Dr. Dre shortly before Dre was called up for the award and feigned interest in an autograph before punching Dre. In the resulting scuffle, G-Unit rapper Young Buck stabbed the man. Immediately, stories pointed fingers at Suge, who went on The Late Late Show and insisted he supports Dr. Dre. The man, Jimmy James Johnson, faces life in prison due to the three strikes law in California, after Dre insisted he be charged. Johnson is now claiming that Suge paid him $5,000 to punch Dre in order to humiliate him before Dre received his Lifetime Achievement Award from Quincy Jones and Snoop Dogg.

On the evening of February 5, 2005, Knight was arrested in Barstow, California, after police pulled him over for making an illegal U-turn. They found marijuana in his Ford pickup truck. He was booked on suspicion of violating his parole. Sheriff's officials detained Knight pending his transfer to state prison, where it was to be decided whether Knight would be charged or released. He was released shortly thereafter. [2]

Early Sunday morning on August 28, 2005, the day of the MTV Video Music Awards, Knight was shot in the leg in Miami Beach, Florida during a party held in honor of Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music record label. He was taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center and treated for the gunshot wound. Police say they have not been able to identify the assailants, but they are still talking with eyewitnesses.

On April 4, 2006, Suge Knight filed bankruptcy due to civil litigation against him in which Lydia Harris claimed to have been cheated out of a 50% stake in Death Row Records. Prior to filing, Knight had been ordered to pay $107 million to Lydia Harris. [3] Under questioning by creditors, he denied having money tucked away in foreign countries or in an African company that deals in diamonds and gold. Bankruptcy documents filed showed Knight had no income this year from employment or operation of a business. His bank account contained just $11, and he owned clothing worth $1,000, furniture and appliances valued at $2,000, and jewelry worth $25,000, according to the records. He had testified that the last time he checked the label’s financial records was at least 10 years ago. Knight’s lawyer said that his client was still “at the helm” of Death Row and had been working on securing distribution deals for the label’s catalog. Knight had also testified that he had reached an agreement with Lydia Harris, saying "I settled for a million and signed off on it." Harris told reporters she had received a $1 million payment but had not agreed to settle the matter. "I'm telling you, I didn't do a settlement for $1 million. That's ridiculous. Let's keep it real," she said.

Knight skipped a meeting with his creditors after injuring himself in a motorcycle accident. Another scheduled meeting with the creditors had been missed after Suge said he had experienced a death in his family. Finally, the federal judge Ellen Carroll on July 7, 2006 ordered a bankruptcy trustee takeover of Suge Knight's Death Row Records, saying the record label has undergone gross mismanagement. She commented that "apparently there's no one at the helm of Death Row".

He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which allows a company to continue business operations while restructuring. Death Row is currently being operated by Neilson during the bankruptcy proceedings, while Knight oversees his bankruptcy estate as a debtor in possession.

Recently he was engaged again in a feud with his archrival Snoop Dogg after Snoop disrespected him in Rolling Stone magazine. Suge responded on Pagesix.com calling Snoop Dogg "a rat" and "a crybaby", accusing him of not serving time in prison (due to his close relations with the police) and running away from "real" fights.[1]

In the 2006 movie The Hard Corps (starring Jean-Claude Van Damme), the character of Terrell Singletery (a violent rap mogul with criminal intentions who was released from prison) is loosely based on Suge Knight's profile.

Knight is also featured in the 2007 movie Reno 911!: Miami, though off-camera, as Lieutenant Jim Dangle and Deputy Travis Junior investigate a noise complaint at Knight's Miami home during Knight's birthday.

In June 2007 he placed his seven-bedroom, 9 1/2-bath home in Malibu on the market for $6.2 million as part of his financial makeover.

During Dr.Dre’s defection from Ruthless Records there was a fear of further violence. Ruthless Records executives, Mike Klein and Jerry Heller sought assistance from the Jewish Defense League (JDL). Mike Klein, former Ruthless Records director of business affairs said "The League offered to provide bodyguards to Eazy-E when Knight allegedly threatened him in the early 1990s." This provided Ruthless Records with muscle to enter into negotiations with Death Row Records over Dr.Dre’s departure. While Suge Knight violently sought an outright release from Ruthless Records for Dr.Dre, the JDL and Ruthless records management were able to sit down with Death Row and negotiate a release in which the record label would continue to receive money and publishing rights from future Dr.Dre projects. It was under these terms Dr.Dre left Ruthless Records and formed Death Row Records with Suge Knight.

The DEA launched a money laundering investigation, assuming that the JDL was extorting money from Ruthless Records to fight their extremist causes. This led to JDL spokesperson Irv Rubin to issue a press release stating "There was nothing but a close, tight relationship" between Eazy-E and the League.

Jerry Heller has explained JDL’s involvement with Ruthless Records for even more reasons than the FBI investigated. Heller has acknowledged that Eazy E received death threats, and it was discovered that he was on hit list by some neo-Nazi skinheads. The FBI did not inform Eazy that his life was in danger. Heller has speculated that it may have been because of the Fuck Tha Police song. Heller said "It was no secret that in the aftermath of the Suge Knight shake down incident where Eazy was forced to sign over Dr Dre, Michel'le and The D.O.C., that Ruthless was protected by Israeli trained/connected security forces." Jerry Heller maintains that Eazy E admired the group for their slogan Never Again, and that he had plans to do a movie about the group.