Suge Knight

Suge Knight

Marion Hugh Knight, Jr. (born April 19, 1965), better known as Suge Knight, is an entrepreneur in the hip hop music industry and co-founder and CEO of Death Row Records. The record label rose to dominate the charts after Dr. Dre's breakthrough success The Chronic in 1992. After several years of chart successes for artists including Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound, Death Row Records stagnated after Knight's incarceration on parole violation charges in September 1996.

Early life

Marion Knight was born in Compton, California. His name, Suge (Template:PronEng), derives from "Sugar Bear", a childhood nickname. He remained an excellent student and athlete, so much so that he won a football scholarship to University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he played collegiate football for several years. After school, he played professionally for the Los Angeles Rams as a replacement player during the 1987 NFL strike. Later, 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 possibly 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 hip hop artists The D.O.C. and DJ Quik.

Through the former, he met several members of the seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A. In 1993, Suge would have a son, Andrew, born on April 19, sharing the same birthday as him. Andrew is currently living in Greater Los Angeles area with his mother, "Tia". Another son, Taj, is said to be living in Atlanta with his mother, Davina Barnes. Most recently, a daughter, Bailei, with R&B singer Michel'le.

Death Row Records

File:Deathrowlogobig.jpg

The logo for Death Row Records is a blindfolded man strapped into an electric chair

Dr. Dre of N.W.A wished to depart from both his group and their label, Ruthless Records, run by Eazy-E, another member of N.W.A. According to N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller, Knight and his henchmen threatened Heller and Eazy-E with pipes and baseball bats in order to secure Dre's release. Ultimately, Dre co-founded Death Row Records in 1991 with Knight, who famously vowed to make it "the Motown of the '90s."

For a time, Knight made good on his ambitions: He secured a distribution deal with Interscope, and Dre's 1992 solo debut, The Chronic, became one of the most influential rap albums of all time. It also made a star of Dre's protégé, Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose debut album, Doggystyle, was another smash hit in 1993. As Dre's signature G-funk production style became an influential part of hip-hop, Death Row became a reliable brand name for gangsta rap fans, and even its lesser releases sold consistently well.

Meanwhile, Death Row had begun a public feud with 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell, and when Knight traveled to Miami for a hip-hop convention in 1993, he was apparently seen openly carrying a gun. The following year, 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. In 1995, he ran afoul of activist C. Delores Tucker, whose criticism of Death Row's glamorization of the "gangsta" lifestyle may have helped scuttle a lucrative deal with Time Warner{fact}.

The addition of Tupac

Additionally, Knight's feud with East Coast impresario Sean Combs (aka P Diddy) took a nasty turn when Knight insulted the Bad Boy label honcho on air at the Source Awards in August 1995. Openly critical of Puffy's tendency of ad-libbing on his artists' songs and dancing in their videos, Knight announced to the audience of recording 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, all on the records, dancing, come to Death Row."

The same year, Knight offered to post a hefty bail for Tupac Amaru Shakur if the troubled rapper agreed to sign with Death Row. Shakur agreed, setting the stage for his 1996 blockbuster double album All Eyez on Me and the smash hits "California Love" and "How Do U Want It." Shakur helped Death Row stay on top of a marketplace that was already shifting back toward the East Coast, which had devised its own distinct brand of hardcore rap.

The loss of Dr. Dre and Tupac

However, the label suffered a major blow when Dr. Dre, frustrated with the company's increasingly thuggish reputation and Knight's violent inclinations, decided to leave and form his own label. A stream of Dre-dissing records followed, but things turned tragic later in 1996, when Shakur was murdered in a drive-by shooting. When Shakur's East Coast rival, The Notorious B.I.G., was murdered in a similar fashion in March 1997, speculation immediately arose that Knight was involved and that B.I.G.'s death was a revenge killing, although former artists like Snoop Dogg would later state that Suge was involved in Tupac's murder as well, despite being wounded himself in the incident. Subsequent 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, but to date, both murders remain unsolved.

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The end of Death Row

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 Harris. 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. According to financial records, 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. He also testified that the last time he had checked the label’s financial records was at least 10 years prior. 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 on July 7, 2006, the federal judge, Ellen Carroll, ordered a bankruptcy trustee takeover of Suge Knight's Death Row Records, saying the record label had undergone a gross amount of 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 was being operated by Neilson during the bankruptcy proceedings, while Knight oversaw his bankruptcy estate as a debtor in possession.

Knight was engaged again in another dispute with former friend and ex-associate 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.

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". The mansion was finally sold in December 2008 in bankruptcy court for $4.56 million.

Knight has started a new record label called Blackball Records, with its first signee Young Life and has featured it in his new reality show called "Unfinished Business". The show is based on Knight dispelling long-standing rumors in sit down interviews, his days with Death Row and the artists he worked with, and finding new talent for his record label. As of June 2008, the show has not been picked up by any major network.

Later troubles

On May 10 2008, Knight was involved in an altercation involving a monetary dispute outside of a nightclub in Hollywood. He was knocked out for 3 minutes, taken to the hospital, and did not cooperate with the LAPD. About a month later, he sold Death Row Records to New York-based company Global Music Group, which confirmed it had purchased the firm in a statement to the Associated Press news agency

On August 27, 2008, Knight was arrested on drug and aggravated assault charges after leaving a Las Vegas strip club. When police arrived on the scene, Knight was beating his girlfriend of three years and brandishing a knife. Reports also allege that he was under the influence of both ecstasy and hydrocodone. He was later released on $19,000 bail. Knight's girlfriend, Melissa Isaac, who was scheduled to testify against him in the assault case, has since gone missing, leading to speculation that Knight is involved in her disappearance. As of October 31, police and prosecutors had still failed to contact Knight's girlfriend, Melissa Isaacs, and no formal charges have been brought against Knight. On December 5, 2008 Suge Knight was cleared of all charges. Knight’s attorney, David Chesnoff, said the prosecution had "discovery problems and witness problems." Prosecutor Susan Benedict did not immediately return a call for comment. When Knight was asked about the positive verdict he replied "God is good, Happy Holidays".

As part of an October 30, 2008 bankruptcy claim, Suge also filed a lawsuit against Kanye West and his associates. The lawsuit concerns an August 2005 shooting at Kanye's pre-Video Music Awards party, where Knight suffered a gunshot wound to the upper leg. The lawsuit cites damages of mental and physical pain caused by the shooting, costs of surgery, loss of income and the theft of a 15 carat $135,000 diamond earring.

On January 25 of 2009, an auction was held for everything found in the Death Row Records office after the company filed for bankruptcy, including some of Suge's personal items. Of note was the Death Row Records electric chair which sold for $2500.

On February 16, 2009, Suge was beaten so badly at a private party at the W Scottsdale Hotel, held in celebration of the NBA All-Star Game, that he was taken by ambulance to an Arizona hospital for treatment of extensive facial injuries including broken facial bones. Robert Carnes Jr., who identified himself to police as the business manager of hip-hop star Akon (but was later denied by Akon's publicist), was arrested along with Thomas Anderson Jr., and charged with assault and disorderly conduct. Officers were called by hotel security and arrived to witness Carnes punch Knight in the face twice before subduing him.

Further reading

• The Killing of Tupac Shakur. by Cathy Scott[1], Huntington Press, October 1, 2002, 235 pages, ISBN 0-929-71220-X

• Have Gun Will Travel: The Spectacular Rise and Violent Fall of Death Row Records, Ronin Ro, Doubleday, 1998, 384 pages, ISBN 0-385-49134-4

• 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 0-87113-838-7

• Suge Knight: The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Death Row Records: The Story of Marion 'Suge' Knight, a Hard Hitting Study of One Man, One Company That Changed the Course of American Music Forever by Jake Brown, Amber Books, October 1, 2001, 218 pages, ISBN 0-9702224-7-5

• Biggie & Tupac. Dir. Nick Broomfield. Lafayette Films, 2`002.

• Philips, Chuck. "Who Killed Tupac Shakur? How Vegas Police Probe Foundered." Los Angeles Times. 7 Sept. 2002, p.1.

• Raftery, Brian M. "A B.I.G. Mystery." Entertainment Weekly. 27 Sept. 2002, p. 19.

• "Suge Knight Sentenced to 10 Months for Parole Violation." MTV.com. 31 July 2003.

• Sullivan, Randall. LAbyrinth: A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. 2002.

• Welcome To Death Row. Dir. S. Leigh Savidge & Jeff Scheftel, 2001.

External links

• Suge Knight bio The 411 on Death Row's Boss [authored by Balance: 411@hiphop.sh]
• "Dead Poets Society," George magazine, Cathy Scott
• Suge Knight
• NFL stats at Databasefootball.com
• Suge Knight website