Marion Knight Jr., a.k.a Sugar Bear, Suge Knight (born April 19, 1965), 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.
Early life
Knight was born in Compton, California. Knight's father was a janitor 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.
Accusations of criminal activity
A physically very large man, standing 6 feet and 3 inches (1.93 m) tall and weighing 320 pounds,[1] 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.
Allegations of involvement in racketeering
In recent years, Knight has been accused by the LAPD of being involved in racketeering, or running a criminal organization through Death Row that primarily traffics narcotics, utilizing the help of the Rampart Division of the LAPD. Det. Russell Poole has commented on this; the Los Angeles Police Department raided the offices of Death Row in 2003,[citation needed] but has made no official statement regarding the incident.
Further time in prison
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.[citation needed]
Recent activities
Knight was released on April 23, 2004. Original artist Kurupt is now the label's headliner, and his new LP Against the Grain is currently on hiatus. 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. [citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
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.[3]
References
- ^ Sager, Mike. Scary Monsters and Super Freaks: Stories of Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll and Murder, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2004. p. 134.
Further reading
- 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