You can’t talk about 1990s hip hop without talking about Death Row Records and its former CEO Suge Knight. The Compton-born music mogul was behind some of the biggest albums of the time, including Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” and 2Pac’s “All Eyez On Me.”
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But with all of the highs, Knight’s life included some serious lows, including run-ins with the law and ultimately losing his record label to bankruptcy. This is the story of legendary Suge Knight.
Born and Raised in Compton
Born Marion Hugh Knight Jr. on April 19, 1965, in Compton, California, Suge Knight is the youngest of three siblings. Those close to him shortened his childhood nickname, “Sugar Bear,” to Suge, which would go on to become his musical moniker.
A Football Star
Knight was a standout football player at Lynwood High School and went on to play for the University of Nevada Las Vegas for two seasons. In 1987, he got a break in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams as a replacement player during the 24-day player’s strike.
Making His Way Into Music
Before he became music mogul, Knight started off in the music industry as a bodyguard, with a famous client list that included Bobby Brown.
Starting Death Row Records
In 1992, Knight along with rapper-producer Dr. Dre, launched Death Row Records. The label would soon become known for putting West Coast rap firmly on the map in the 1990s, with a string of hit albums, including Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic,” Snoop Dogg’s “Doggystyle” and 2Pac’s “All Eyez On Me.”
Dissing Diddy
Knight was known for his outspoken nature and having an ongoing beef with his East Coast rival, former Bad Boy Records CEO Sean “Diddy” Combs. Knight had everyone talking after he publicly dissed Combs during an acceptance speech at the 1995 Source Awards.
“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,” he said.
Tupac’s Death
The Death Row Records family suffered a tragic loss on September 13, 1996, when rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in Las Vegas while riding in a car with Knight after watching a Mike Tyson fight.
The shooter was riding in the backseat of a white Cadillac which pulled up alongside the BMW Knight was driving. He fired 13 shots from a semiautomatic weapon into Knight’s car, including four which struck the “All Eyez On Me” rapper.
Although the case was cold for almost 30 years, an arrest was made in 2023, when authorities accused Duane Keith Davis of being the mastermind behind the plot to kill Shakur.
The Beef Over “Ice Ice Baby”
In a 1996 interview with ABC News, Vanilla Ice recalled the night Suge Knight pulled up on him at his hotel room to get him to sign over rights to his breakout hit, “Ice Ice Baby,” to Mario LaVell Johnson, one of Knight’s associates who Ice maintains had nothing to do with the song.
“They roughed one of my bodyguards up. They roughed everybody else in my whole entourage up. Suge took me out on the balcony, started talking to me personally,” he said. “He had me look over the edge, show me how high I was up there.” When asked if the incident left him scared, the “Ice Ice Baby” rapper said, “I needed to wear a diaper on that day.”
One Big Misunderstanding
But years later, Ice downplayed the story, claiming the whole thing had been exaggerated over the years, saying the dispute was settled in court and not on the balcony.
“He never hung me over no balcony, man,” Ice told Sway Calloway in a 2013 interview. “The truth is he was nice. The story seems a little bit better, a little bit more interesting, and got better ratings when you have Vanilla Ice hanging upside down and you see his change coming from his pockets. The truth is, he took that money, but I look at it in a positive way because I’ve made great investments.”
Romantic Relationships
Among his romantic relationships, Suge Knight was famously linked to R&B singer Michel’le. The pair share a daughter, Bailei, who was born in 2002. The “Nicety” singer says she was drawn to Knight after he helped her deal with the hurt of being cheated on by her then-fiancé Dr. Dre.
“He started seeing that this man is mistreating this girl and she’s trying to really be with you,” she said in an interview with VladTV. “He worked on me, and he was a confidant.”
In her memoir, “Who’s That Girl?” rapper Eve writes about also having a brief relationship with Knight in 2001 to get her revenge on Dr. Dre after she was dropped from his Aftermath Label shortly after Eminem was signed.
Losing Control of Death Row
In July of 2006, Knight lost Death Row Records after a Federal judge ordered a bankruptcy trustee take it over. Knight admitted in court that he had not paid attention to the label’s financials in over ten years, which led to a series of issues.
“It seems apparent there is no one at the helm,” US Bankruptcy Judge Ellen Carroll said during her ruling, in which she determined that there had been “gross mismanagement” at the once-successful label.
A Deadly Accident
In 2018, Knight was sentenced to 28 years in prison after he pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter related to a 2015 hit-and-run accident in Compton that left Terry Carter dead and another man, Cle Sloan, injured. According to CNN, Knight’s defense maintained that he was trying to get away from the men who he believed were trying to ambush him. But witnesses say Knight was arguing with Carter on the “Straight Outta Compton” film set and followed him to the parking lot of Tam’s Burgers in Compton, where he attempted to kill them.
Suge’s Health Problems
Since Knight has been in prison, his family has tried to advocate for his release. In 2018, Knight’s son, Suge Jacob Knight, told TMZ that his father suffers from diabetes and blood clots, and says he is concerned about the toll the time in prison is taking on his health.
“With all of his health issues, I’m very worried about my father,” he said. “He’s a strong dude, but he’s human. The more he’s in there, it’s stress that’s causing his health to be f’*d up. It’s set up for him not to make it out.”
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