Marion Hugh “Suge” Knight Jr. is an American former music executive and convicted felon. He was a central figure in gangsta rap’s catapult to massive commercialization. In September 2018, he was sentenced to 28 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter in a fatal 2015 hit-and-run.
About Suge Knight in brief
Marion Hugh \”Suge\” Knight Jr. is an American former music executive and convicted felon. As co-founder and CEO of Death Row Records, he was a central figure in gangsta rap’s catapult to massive commercialization. In September 2018, upon pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter in a fatal 2015 hit-and-run, Knight was sentenced to 28 years in prison. He is scheduled to become eligible for parole in October 2037. Knight was born in Compton, California, the son of Maxine and Marion Knight Sr. His name Suge derives from \”Sugar Bear\”, a childhood nickname. He attended and played football at El Camino College. Knight went undrafted in the 1987 NFL Draft, but was invited to the Los Angeles Rams training camp. He was cut by the Rams during camp, but he became a replacement player during the 1987NFL Players Strike, and played two games for the Rams. In 1991, Knight co-founded Death Row records with Dr. Dre, who vowed to make it “the Motown of the ’90s” In 1992, he secured a distribution deal with Interscope, with whom he had a public feud with 2 Live Crew’s Luther Campbell and Luther Campbell. In 1993, he traveled to Miami for a hip-hop convention and was apparently seen carrying a stolen gun. In 1994, he signed Snoop Dogg, whose debut album Doggystyle obtained a quadruple platinum certification in the United States in 1994. In 1996, the label released 2Pac’s greatest commercial success, All Eyez on Me.
In 1999, Knight formed an artist management company and signed prominent West Coast hip hop artists DJ Quik and The D. O. C. Through the latter, he met several members of N. W. A. and their label, Ruthless Records, run by Eazy-E. In 2000, Knight spent a few years incarcerated for assault convictions and associated violations of probation and parole. His first big profit in the business came when Vanilla Ice agreed to sign over royalties from his smash hit \”Ice Ice Baby\”, because the song included material allegedly written by Knight’s client Mario Johnson. In 2009, Knight and his bodyguards confronted Van Winkle several times. There was a rumour during that time, that claimed Knight entered van Winkle’s hotel room and allegedly dangled him by his ankles off the balcony. However, Van WINKle has said that never actually happened, only that Knight threatened to throw him off a balcony; the claim was resolved in court. In 2010, Knight signed rapper Lil’ Kim to Death Row. In 2011, he formed a management company with DJ Qik and the D.O.C. to sign prominent West coast hip hop artist DJ Quk and the N.W.A. group. In 2012, Knight founded a music publishing company with Vanilla Ice. In 2013, Knight became a bodyguard to rapper Ice-T. In 2014, he founded a record company with rapper Vanilla Ice, which he also signed to.
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This page is based on the article Suge Knight published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 09, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
