Suge Knight

Suge Knight

Suge Knight (* 19th April 1965 in Compton , California ; actually Marion Hugh Knight Jr. ) is an American hip-hop - producer and together with Dr. Dre founder of Death Row Records . Knight was a key figure in the East Coast vs. West Coast , which shaped the public perception of the hip-hop scene in the 1990s.

Life

Early years

Knight grew up in Compton near Los Angeles . He was a member of a street gang early on and was nicknamed "Sugar".

Especially in football he stood out because of his good performances. He received a scholarship from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas . As a junior player, he made a few appearances with the NFL team Los Angeles Rams , but lost a scholarship and university place before completing his studies because his academic performance fell below the specified minimum values.

Career

After being kicked out of university, he went into business for himself and worked as a concert promoter and also as a bodyguard . Together with Dr. Dre founded the record company Death Row Records in 1991 . The first artists they signed were The DOC , RBX and Michel'le . These all came from the record company Ruthless Records, founded by Eazy-E . In 1992, Dr. Dre made his own album The Chronic . The album sold five million times during the “Death Row era” and was awarded several platinum records.

In 1995, Suge Knight posted bail of 1.4 million dollars for the rapper Tupac Shakur , who against his conviction for sexual assault had appealed. Shakur signed a three-album deal in return. Shakur's album All Eyez On Me , like the single California Love with Dr. Dre, an international sales success. A conflict with The Notorious BIG , which Tupac had accused of having carried out an attack on him, developed, as it later turned out, into a momentous conflict between the heads of the two record companies Bad Boy Entertainment and Death Row Records . This dispute was often referred to as the East Coast versus West Coast conflict in the media and resulted in several deaths.

Death Row Records suffered from the conflict for a long time. In 1996, Dr. Dre the record company. On September 7th of the same year, unknown people fired multiple shots at Tupac Shakur , who died of his injuries six days later. Until then, Tupac was by far the record company's most important artist financially.

Shortly thereafter, Knight was sentenced to nine years in prison for beating a member of the Crips , a rival gang, in a casino the day the fatal shots were fired at Shakur . Due to good conduct, Suge was released early in August 2001.

When Notorious BIG was also shot in March 1997, most observers believed that Suge Knight was in the background. The police could not solve the murder of Notorious BIG. After his release from prison, Knight tried to rebuild his record company. The most important newly signed artist Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes from TLC died in a car accident in Honduras before she was able to release something under the record company, which was renamed "Tha Row".

Suge Knight was jailed for 60 days for illegally possessing weapons, then again for beating a park attendant, most recently in August 2003 for another 10 months.

In March 2005, Suge Knight was asked to pay Lydia Harris $ 106 million. This claims that her husband, the imprisoned drug king Michael "Harry-O" Harris, contributed 1.5 million dollars to the establishment of the label and in return received a 50 percent share of the label. Suge's accounts were temporarily frozen, and in 2007 he announced that he would close his label Tha Row Records.

In August 2005, he was shot at a party in Miami Beach .

In December 2007, Knight announced that he had become a Christian and was now going to church more often. Furthermore, he wants to keep the music of his record company "curse-free" as a consequence. Critics see his sudden belief as a kind of PR move to get his already weakened record company back to some attention. A television reality show called Suge Knights Unfinished Business was also in production, in which Knight wanted to show 20 young people at risk of slipping into crime the right way. For this he founded the record company BlackBall Records, hoping to find new talent among the youth.

On August 27, 2008, Knight was arrested again by the police in Las Vegas for threatening his girlfriend with a knife. During the course of his arrest, he was found to have ecstasy and the prescription drug hydrocodone . The legal proceedings were closed in December 2008.

Knight was in on 24 August 2014 Club in Hollywood shot again.

arrest

In January 2015, Suge Knight ran over two men in a truck in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant in Compton, California, as a result of an argument . One of the two men died while the other survived, seriously injured. Knight was arrested on suspicion of murder. Suge Knight was there to work with Ice Cube and Dr. Dre shooting a commercial for Straight Outta Compton . The film by F. Gary Gray on the hip-hop group NWA came in 2015 in the cinemas. Suge Knight had been thrown off the set after an argument with one of the victims , but had argued with him again in the parking lot. Knight's attorney, James Blatt, said his client accidentally ran over people while trying to escape from an attack. A $ 2 million bail has been withdrawn because Knight is in danger of fleeing and is believed to intimidate witnesses. On March 20, 2015, prosecutors requested bail for $ 25 million. In April 2017, the responsible judge set the trial date to January 8, 2018. On September 21, 2018, the Los Angeles District Attorney announced that Suge Knight had reached a deal with them. He admitted guilty of manslaughter. A 28-year prison sentence was announced on October 4, 2018.

In August 2017, Knight was accused of making death threats against director F. Gary Gray in 2014 during the production of the film Straight Outta Compton because he was dissatisfied with the portrayal of his role in the film.

documentation

Knight's life is the subject of the documentary American Dream / American Knightmare , directed by Antoine Fuqua and released in 2018.

Web links

• Suge Knight at Discogs (English)
• Suge Knight at laut.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography: Suge Knight. In: laut.de , 2006
2. ^ Instruction from Death Row. In: spiegel.de , December 22, 2007
3. ↑ Suge Knight founds a new label. ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: hiphop.de , April 15, 2008 
4. ^ Suge Knight celebrated the dismissal of drug and battery charges. In: lasvegassun.com , December 12, 2008
5. ↑ Hollywood: HipHop producer Suge Knight shot at a party. In: spiegel.de
6. ↑ Suge Knight: Rap mogul is said to have run over two men. In: Spiegel Online . January 30, 2015, accessed January 30, 2015 . 
7. ↑ http://www.n24.de/n24/Nachrichten/Panorama/d/6076000/so-kam-es-zum-tod-von-terry-carter.html
8. ↑ http://www.bild.de/unterhaltung/fahrten/suge-knight/mord-anklage-39610312.bild.html
9. ↑ Million bail for rapper Suge Knight requested, Stern from March 20, 2015 ( Memento from March 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ Judge sets January 2018 trial date in Marion 'Suge' Knight's murder case. Los Angeles Times, April 6, 2017, accessed August 3, 2017 . 
11. ^ Former rap mogul 'Suge' Knight jailed for 28 years for killing man with car . In: The Guardian of October 5, 2018
12. ↑ Suge Knight indicted for Death Threats Against 'Compton' Director F. Gary Gray. In: TMZ.com. August 2, 2017, accessed August 3, 2017 .