The incredible ascent and the shocking case of Suge Knight: $ 750 million Rap Empire up to 28-year prison sentence

Sug Knight has been making headlines for decades, almost always for the wrong reasons. In February 2015 he was charged with murder and murder after he was in his hometown Compton, California, Fatal Hit-and-Run incident. Knight claimed self -defense. He collapsed in court when a judge set his deposit at $ 25 million and was briefly taken to the hospital before returning to prison.

This shocking moment was a low point in the life of a man who was once one of the most powerful – and feared – educational features in the music industry. Sug Knight not only influenced rap music – he changed her forever. Before the recordings between the death lines, the mainstream hip-hop of cleaned, optimistic acts such as MC Hammer and Marky Mark was dominated. What Knight and his label did was to put down the wall between Underground Street Rap and the Commercial Music Machine, to start gangsta rap into the mainstream and from artists such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur to make global stars.

The rise of a future mogul

Marion Hugh Knight Jr. was born on April 19, 1965 in Compton, California. He earned the nickname “Sug” (short for sugar bear) as a child. As an outstanding football and track at the Lynwood High School, he completed in 1983 and played College football for two years – for the first time at El Camino College, then at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Knight was not selected in the NFL design, but during the strike of the NFL players from 1987 he briefly played two games as a substitute for the Los Angeles Rams. After his short -lived football career, Knight worked as a bodyguard and concert promoter for acts such as Bobby Brown.

Early legal problems

Knight's first serious brush with the law came in October 1987 when he was arrested for domestic violence after attacking his girlfriend at the time and cutting her ponytail on the street. Just a few weeks later, in Halloween night, he was arrested in Las Vegas with a hidden weapon and attempted murder in Las Vegas. The police said Knight shot a man three times when he tried to steal his car. Ultimately, he owed a lower indictment and served two years of probation.

The birth of death cells

In 1989 Knight founded a music publisher. As a result, an artist management company was founded that led to it to make members of the legendary Gangsta RAP group NWA Dr. Dre met, and the Doc not only wanted to leave the NWA, but also her label Ruthless Records, which was operated by another member of the NWA, Eazy-E. Knight and his buddies allegedly threatened to give Eazy-E and NWAS managers with lead tubes and baseball bats to force them to hand them out of their contracts.

Knight, DRE and the DOC were the records of the records between the death cells in 1991 to make it “the Motown of the 90s”. Death Row was successful from the start. Knight secured a sales contract with Interscope Records, and Dr. Dre's Solo -Debüt “The Chronic” was certified by the end of 1993 Triple Platinum. “The Chronic” also started the Snoop Dogg career. Snoop's debut “Doggystyle” was certified in 1994.

Feels, assets and tupac

In the mid -nineties, Knight had been involved in a feud with Sean “Puffy” Combs of Bad Boy Records. At the 1995 Source Awards, Knight made a veiled shot in Combs on stage and further ignited the rivalry of the east coast opposite the west coast, which would ultimately be fatal.

In the same year, Knight offered to achieve a deposit of 1.4 million US dollars for Tupac Shakur if the detained rapper would sign during the death cell. Shakur agreed, and in 1996 Death Row published “All Eyez on Me” a double album that would be one of the most influential in hip-hop history.

During his reign, Death Row Records sold more than 50 million albums worldwide and created an estimated 750 million US dollars in sales.

The murders of Tupac and Biggie

On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur was shot several times during a drive-by shoot in Las Vegas. He died six days later on September 13, 1996. Knight had been in the car with him. The murder was never solved.

Dre was frustrated by the violent culture of the label and founded Aftermath Entertainment, the next chapter of his legendary career began.

On March 9, 1997, Tupac's rival of the east coast, the notorious Big (also known as Biggie Smalls), was murdered in a similar drive-by shoot in Los Angeles. It began to circulate rumors that Biggies Murder was orchestrated as a revenge for Tupac's murder. Snoop Dogg and other former artists from the death line would later say that Knight was also involved in Tupac's murder. The theory was this Tupac, the success with the hits “California Love” and “How do you want it?” Was ready to take the notes between the death lines, and Knight murdered him for it. He then conspired to kill Biggie to draw attention from the speculation that he murdered Tupac. These accusations have never been proven, but irreparable damage to Ritter's reputation was done.

Legal and financial free case

Ritter's legal problems only assembled. In 1996 he was sentenced to prison for a violation of an earlier attack on a violation of probation. In 1997 he received a nine -year prison sentence and was released in 2001. He was sent back to prison in 2003 after beating a parking lot attendant.

Until 2006, Death Row was in financial ruin. Sug Knight reported bankruptcy and applied for only $ 12 on his personal bank account and $ 137 million. He listed jewelry worth 25,000 US dollars, clothing of 1,000 US dollars and furniture of 2,000 US dollars. A federal judge accused Knights of Grand Missmanagement and ordered an insolvency administrator to take over the label.

In January 2009, the trustee approved by the court sold the assets of death figures-the master's records, publication rights and the name-AN a Canadian company called Wideaawake Entertainment Group for $ 18 million in an insolvency auction. The purchase included music from Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

Wideawake was financially supported by New Solutions Financial Corp., a private Canadian investment company. The acquisition was positioned as a revival of the legendary label, but the relaunch stumbled. New solutions went bankrupt in 2012, and Death Row's catalog changed the owner again.

The rights were finally acquired by Entertainment One (Eone), and in 2022 Snoop Dogg bought the Death Row brand and brought the Full Circle label.

The arrests continued to stack. Sug Knight was arrested on August 27, 2008 for drug and severe assault after leaving a Las Vegas Strip Club.

In March 2009, a group of five armed men broke into the house of the Akon producer Noel “Detail” Fisher. They stated to collect in a guilt in the name of Ritter. A closed safe, the key to a Mercedes, stereo equipment and jewelry worth 170,000 US dollars were stolen.

Sug Knight was arrested on February 8, 2012 in Las Vegas after the police found Marijuana in his car. He received unattended probation for three years for driving with an exposed driver's license.

On August 24, 2014, Knight was shot six times at a party for music award before the video management of Chris Brown in Los Angeles. However, he was able to go to the ambulance from the event location of the party.

On October 29, 2014, Knight and Comedian Katt Williams were arrested in Beverly Hills for theft of a photographer's camera. The men were charged with second degree due to robbery. Knight should return to court for this indictment on January 27, 2015, but …

The deadly hit-and-run

On January 29, 2015, Knight ran over two men with his truck in the parking lot of a burger stand in Compton, killed Terry Carter and injured Cle “Bone” Sloan. The incident followed an argument on the set of “Straight Outta Compton”. Safety material showed that Ritter supported himself and then accelerated through both men before fled to the scene.

Knight was charged with murder, murder and hit-and-run and claimed that he had acted in self-defense-but the film material told a different story. The charges formed the possibility of a life in prison according to the law of California.

Prison sentence and legacy

In September 2018, just a few days before the start of his trial, Suge Knight did not advocate voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison – 22 years for the murder of Carter and six years due to previous violent convictions. He is currently detained in the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.

The records between the death lines helped to definition an era and permanently changed the trajectory of the hip-hop. But while Dr. Dre a trillionair and Snoop Dogg built a global brand, Sug never escaped the violent shadow who rose. He remained chained to the same impulses that built the death cell – and finally destroyed it. Its history is a raw, wasted potential and a legacy that is stained in blood forever.