Suge Knight
 |
Suge Knight |
Marion Knight Jr., a.k.a
Sugar Bear,
Suge Knight (born
April 17,
1964), is an
American entrepreneur in the
hip hop music industry and co-founder of
Death Row Records with
Dr. Dre. The
record label rose to dominate the charts after Dr. Dre's breakthrough success
The Chronic in 1992. After several years of outstanding chart success for artists including
Snoop Doggy Dogg,
Tupac Shakur,
Tha Dogg Pound and at one time even
MC Hammer, Death Row Records fell into a stagnant limbo after Knight's incarceration on
parole violation charges in 1996. He was born in
Los Angeles, California.
Knight was born in
Compton, California. Knight's father was a custodian and his mother was a school-teacher. Knight went to
UNLV on a sports scholarship from 1985 to 1987. It was during his UNLV football playing days that he was dubbed Suge, short for Sugar Bear. It was a fellow team mate dubbed
Cuspus Crispy that first started to call him by his now present moniker. After setting up operations in Las Vegas he moved back to L.A. and played
football as a replacement player for the
Los Angeles Rams during the 1987 NFL players' strike. He then retired from professional sports and decided to become a bodyguard for musicians like
Bobby Brown, at which point he learned, as he would later say, that the key to artistic and financial freedom is owning your masters.
A physically very large man, standing 6 feet and 4 inches (1.93 m) tall and weighing 320 pounds,
[Sager, Mike. Scary Monsters and Super Freaks: Stories of Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll and Murder, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2004. p. 134.] Knight has been accused of acts of violence including forcing business rivals to drink urine and having extensive ties to
street gangs, specifically the
Mob Piru Bloods located in his hometown of Compton, California.
Rapper Vanilla Ice has accused Knight of dangling him out of a window of a high-rise building several stories up. Ice claims that he was forced to agree to grant him a majority of Ice's own royalties from his signature hit "
Ice Ice Baby", which a friend of Suge's claimed he had written. Ice later retracted the balcony story. There is also speculation regarding Knight's involvement in the deaths of rappers
Tupac and
Notorious B.I.G..
Allegations of involvement in murder
In 2002, British documentarian
Nick Broomfield made a film called
Biggie & Tupac, which explored the theory that Suge masterminded the murder of
Tupac Shakur because he was planning on leaving Death Row and wanted to retain his unreleased tapes and royalties, and that he was also involved in the murder of
The Notorious B.I.G., attempting to cover up his involvement in Shakur's death by making it look like part of an
East Coast-West Coast conflict.
In 2001, Suge Knight was released from prison and tried to re-start his label by signing new artists such as Crooked I, Krucifixx, Tha Realist, Eastwood, 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 on
April 23,
2004. Original artist
Kurupt is now the label's headliner, and his most recent 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. No such album has been released.
Suge claims to be developing an autobiography entitled "American Dream/American Nightmare". However, a targeted release date of fourth-quarter 2005 came and went with no biography 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 a U-turn and 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, but 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 a fractured femur resulting from the gunshot wound. Police say they have not been able to identify the would-be assailants, but they are still talking with eyewitnesses.
On
April 4,
2006, Suge Knight filed for 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. He has to pay $107 million to the Harris family. Knight told a court that he only had $11 to his name (along with about $28,000 in material possessions). He also 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 also skipped a meeting with his creditors after injuring himself in a motorcycle accident. Another scheduled meeting with the creditors was missed after Suge said he had experienced a death in his family.
Meanwhile, trustee owners of Death Row may take whatever assets are left and convert them into cash to pay off the creditors.
Have Gun Will Travel: The Spectacular Rise and Violent Fall of Death Row Records, Ronin Ro, Doubleday, 1998, 384 pages, ISBN 0385491344
Labyrinth: Corruption and Vice in the L.A.P.D.: The truth behind the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls by Randall Sullivan, Atlantic Monthly Press, April 2, 2002, 384 pages, ISBN 0871138387
Biggie Smalls and the Super-Sized Poutine: The truth behind the Fries and Gravy by Sylvain Bujold, June 24th, 1980, Quebec City Press, ISBN 0I812
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Video of Suge Disrespecting Eric 'Eazy-E' Wright*
Suge Knight files for bankruptcy*
MP3.com about Suge Knight
