Suge Knight

At 59 years old, Suge Knight has this physical status:

Football career

He played football at El Camino College from 1983 to 1985. He went to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 1985 and spent two years playing football there.

Knight was undrafted in the 1987 NFL Draft but was invited to the Los Angeles Rams training camp. He was suspended by the Rams during camp but he became a backup player during the 1987 NFL Players Strike, and the Rams played two games for the Rams.

Career

Knight, a fan of NFL football, began his career as a concert promoter and a bodyguard for celebrities, including Bobby Brown. Knight formed his own music publishing company in 1989. Vanilla Ice (Robert Van Winkle) was unable to sell royalties from his smash hit "Ice Ice Baby" because the song contained lyrics allegedly written by Knight's client Mario Johnson. Many times, the Knight and his bodyguards confronted Van Winkle. During that time, a rumor emerged that Knight entered Van Winkle's hotel room and allegedly pulled him by his ankles off the balcony. Van Winkle, on the other hand, has denied that it ever happened, but that the Knight threatened to throw him off the balcony; the allegation was settled in court.

DJ Quik and The D.O.C. are two West Coast hip hop artists who have signed Knight as a member of an artist management firm and moved to the United States. He met several members of the seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A.

Dr. Dre and The D.O.C. Dr. Dre and The D.O.C. Eazy-E, another N.W.A. member, wanted to leave both N.W.A and their company name, Ruthless Records. According to N.W.A.'s boss Jerry Heller, Knight, and his henchmen threatened Heller and Eazy-E and their henchmen with lead pipes and baseball bats to free them Dre, The D.C., and Michel'le from their contracts. Dr. and D.O.C. eventually became a family unit in the United States of D.C. Knight and Co-founded Death Row Records in 1991, promising to make it "the Motown of the 1990s" on the website.

Knight fulfilled his ambitions early on: he signed a distribution deal with Interscope, and Dre's 1992 solo debut album, The Chronic, went on to triple platinum status in the United States by the end of 1993. Snoop Dogg, Dr. Roger Dogg's protégé, whose own debut album Doggystyle received a quadruple platinum award in the United States in 1994, also worked in the United States.

In the meantime, Death Row's Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crews had started a public feud. Club 662, a private, by-appointment-only nightclub in Las Vegas, was so named because the numbers spelled out MOB on telephone keypads, not MOT standing for Member of Bloods. He ran afoul of civil rights activist C. Delores Tucker's struggle against gangsta rap, whose critique of Death Row's glamorization of the "gangsta" lifestyle may have helped to scuttle a lucrative deal with Time Warner.

On air at the Source Awards in August 1995, Knight's rivalry with East Coast entrepreneur Sean Combs ("Puff Daddy") progressed when Knight insulted the Bad Boy brand founder. Knight revealed to the audience, "Anyone out there who wants to be a singer and want to be a celebrity and want to be in the pictures, come to Death Row" and is openly critical of Combs' reliance on his artists' songs and dancing in his videos.

If Tupac Shakur agreed to join Death Row, Knight would post bail (US$1.4 million) for the remainder of the year. Shakur agreed, putting the stage for his 1996 double album All Eyez on Me and The Don Killuminati: The 7 Days Theory.

M.C. Suge Knight's association with him goes back to 1988. Hammer's 1994 album The Funky Headhunter (featuring Tha Dogg Pound), by 1995, Hammer, Snoop Dogg, and his close friend, Tupac, signed to Death Row Records. Hammer's music (titled Too Tight) was not released on the label during his time with them, but the label did release a version of several tracks on his forthcoming album. Hammer did record tracks with Shakur and others, most notably the song "Too Late Playa" (along with Big Daddy Kane and Danny Boy). Hammer left the business after Shakur's death in 1996. In an interview on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), he later expressed his worry about the situation since he was in Las Vegas with Tupac the night of his death. On his Family Affair album, Hammer released his "Unconditional Love" in 1998. In the television film Too Legit: The MC Hammer Story (airing on VH1 in 2001), the friendships between Hammer (played by Romany Malco), Tupac (played by Lamont Bentley), and Suge (played by Anthony Norris) were portrayed.

Dr. Dr. Dre was dissatisfied with the company's increasing shady image and Knight's virulent tendencies, and he founded Aftermath Entertainment.

Suge Knight has been the object of conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of two well-known rap artists, despite the fact that he was never charged by any prosecutor for any involvement. On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, and died six days later on September 13. When Shakur's East Coast rival, The Notorious B.I.G., was killed, he was in danger. On March 9, 1997, Biggie Smalls, aka Biggie Smalls, was killed in a similar drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California, sparking rumors that Knight was involved and that his assassination was a revenge murder. Snoop Dogg, among other Death Row artists, were later accused of being complicit in Tupac's murder.

According to a theory linking Suge Knight to the deaths of Biggie and Tupac was that of ex-detective Russell Poole, who said the Knight had Tupac killed before he could parte with Knight's name and plotted to distract attention from himself in the Tupac case. Suge Knight, a rogue cop and a mortgage broker named Amir Muhammad (who was never a police officer), along with the chief of police and the LAPD in a plot to murder and cover up Biggie's murder attempt. The Biggie theory was the basis for a US$500 million lawsuit brought by his relatives, the Wallaces, against Los Angeles's city. Kevin Hackie was a key source for Poole's belief. Suge Knight and David Mack had been charged with hacking, according to Hackie. Hackie, a former Death Row agent, said he was aware of Suge Knight's and David Mack's relationship with other LAPD officers. The Wallace family brought a lawsuit against Biggie's death from the city of Los Angeles. However, Hackie told Los Angeles Times reporter Chuck Philips that the Wallace attorneys had altered his statements. The Wallace family's complaint against the city of Los Angeles based on the Russell Poole theory was dismissed in 2010.

According to a 2005 Los Angeles Times article, Amir Muhammad, David Mack, Suge Knight, and the LAPD may have been a schizophrenic man who later admitted to hearsay and memory lapses without incorrectly identifying Muhammad. The article "demolished" Phillips' theory of Biggie's murder, according to John Cook of Brill's Content.

Philips wrote "Who Killed Tupac Shakur," an L.A. Times two-part series. Based on police affidavits, court records, and interviews, an investigation was launched into the assassination of Shakur and events surrounding it.

According to a Los Angeles Times article, "the shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the Southside Crips to venge the beating of one of its members by Shakur just a few hours before." The fatal shots were fired by Orlando Anderson, the Crip, whom Shakur had assaulted. After briefly questioning Anderson, Las Vegas police dismissed him as a criminal. He was later killed in an "unrelated gang shooting," according to police. The article criticized East Coast musicians, including Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace, Shakur's nemesis at the time, who claims that he paid for the gun. Smalls, his family, and Anderson denied any involvement in Shakur's assassination. Biggie's family reportedly had papers proving that the rapper was in New York and New Jersey at the time. According to the New York Times, the records were inconclusive.

In an opinion piece in Rolling Stone, Mark Duvoisin, an editor at the Los Angeles Times, said Philips' account had provoked questions about its credibility.

During a wave of layoffs, the Los Angeles Times published a complete retraction of the two-part series and released Philips shortly thereafter.

Before I Wake, Tupac Shakur's bodyguard's documentary, he and Cathy Scott, author of The Killing of Tupac Shakur and The Murder of Biggie Smalls, say the Knight would not have placed himself in the path of bullets he knew were coming. On her website, Archived Letters Scott responds to a fan of her book's claim that there were never reasons to connect Knight to Tupac's murder. "That belief doesn't even add up," Scott told CNN. "Open fire on my car, but please don't try to hit me?"

The murder of Shakur, which included then-LAPD Detective Greg Kading, was part of a 2006 law enforcement task force investigating Biggie Smalls' murder, which also included then-LAPD Detective Greg Kading. Duane "Keefe D" Davis, a member of the "Crime" street gang, pleaded guilty, according to Kading's book Murder Rap, who claimed he rode in the vehicle used in Shakur's Las Vegas shooting. Shakur was reportedly offered a million dollars by associates of Bad Boy music to murder Shakur. Kading, a conspiracy prosecutor, also reported that a reward was given for Suge Knight's assassination.

Davis and fellow Crips supporters crossed paths with a BMW driving Knight and Shakur while Kading's book in Las Vegas, claims. Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, who sat on the side of the vehicle nearest to BMW, fired the fatal shots.

Following a bash at the Peterson Automotive Museum, Kading alleged that Knight hired Wardel "Pouchie" Fouse to murder Sean Combs' most important actor, Biggie Smalls, who was killed by his uncle, Biggie Smalls. Pouchie recovered a murder attempt later in life, but a year after the first attack. Fouse or Knight was never charged, and the task force was disbanded for "internal affairs."

Snoop Dogg blasted Knight for the murder of Shakur and the appearance of Tha Doggfather in 1998. He signed with Master P's No Limit Records and later formed his own record label, Doggystyle Records. Snoop released the song "Pimp Slapp Snoop," in which he mocked Knight and Death Row. Snoop said he had verbally abused Knight in 2006. Snoop was a "police advisor" who "never goes to prison," Knight explained, adding that he did not go to prison.

Knight resigned in 2006 following civil action against him, in which Lydia Harris claimed to have been tricked out of a 5 percent interest in Death Row Records. Knight had been ordered to pay Harris US$107 million prior to registering. He denied having money tucked away in foreign countries or in a African company that deals in diamonds and gold, despite creditors' concerns. Knight had no income from work or the operation of a company, according to bankruptcy records. According to financial reports, his bank account was worth just US$11, furniture and appliances valued at US$1,000, furniture and appliances valued at US$2,000, and jewelry worth US$25,000. He also testified that the last time he had checked the label's financial records was at least ten years ago. Knight's counsel said that his client was still "at the helm" of Death Row and had been working on securing distribution contracts for the label's catalog. Harris told reporters that she had received a US$1 million settlement but that she had not decided to end the case. "I'm telling you that I didn't do a settlement for US$1 million." That's ridiculous. "Let's keep it real," she said.

Ellen Carroll, a federal judge, ordered the bankruptcy trustee takeover of Suge Knight's Death Row Records on July 7, 2006, finding that the record label had undergone a significant amount of mismanagement.

He applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy insurance, which allows a business to continue operating while undergoing reorganizing. During the bankruptcy proceedings, Neilson was running Death Row, while Knight oversaw his bankruptcy estate as a debtor in possession.

He listed his 7 bedroom, 912 bath home in Malibu, California, for $6.2 million as part of his "financial makeover" in June 2007. The mansion was finally sold in December 2008 in bankruptcy court for US$4.56 million.

Death Row Records were auctioned in Bankruptcy Court in June 2008. Global Music Group, a New York-based company, was the winner of the competition. Global Music Group was unable to obtain funds, and the Death Row Records catalog was eventually sold to Wideawake Entertainment.

Following the company's bankruptcy, an auction was held for all items discovered in the Death Row Records office, including some of Knight's personal possessions. Of note: The Death Row Records electric chair, which sold for US$2,500. During the debut episode of A&E's Storage Wars, some of Knight's personal items were auctioned, and featured buyer Barry Weiss obtained a vault full of items, including a coat.

Source