Suge Knight

Real Name: Marion Hugh ‘Suge’ Knight Jr.
D.O.B: 19 April, 1965 Compton L.A., California

Co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Death Row Records.

If boxing's most ruthless promoter, Don King ran his own record label he would be Suge Knight. The same way King runs his stable of primed battering studs of the ring, Knight ruled his roost of rappers in the same feared manner. Hip-hop's most brutal pimp had everyone within Death Row Records under his cast-iron thumb, dancing and rhyming at his beckon call. Like Don King, he left every talent despising the way he chewed and spat out their god-given gifts of entertaining. Knight turned one of the industry's fast-growing and most dominant record company from a successful business into a wild-west street gang. nevertheless, the west coast was Suge Knight's and some of the most memorable music came from within his domain. Suge Knight was and still is a powerful force at the round table of hip-hop's CEOs. He was an arsehole to work for and some still believe he destroyed the life of hip-hop's favourite son but he got things done, his way! Through fear and intimidation.

Suge Knight was born in 1965 by his father, Marion and mother, Maxine. Born and raised in Compton, a city of 110,000 at the time that saw the southern Los Angeles County still racially mixed of black and brown. So called ‘Sugar Bear’ because of his sweet disposition as a child, Suge was only ten years young when Compton was desolated by two parallel pandemics, the loss of it’s manufacturing plant bringing despair and unemployment into the community and the scourge of two of the most murderous gangs in American history, the Bloods and Crips. Unlike most children in his neighbourhood, both Suge’s parents were gainfully employed, his father a janitor at UCLA and mother who worked on the assembly line at an electronics factory. Suge had grown up north of Alondra Boulevard and west of Wilmington Avenue, a patch held by the Leudis Park Piru Bloods. By the time Suge reached his teenage years he was exempted from joining the destructive forces of the street gang, because at six feet, two inches tall he was a talented athlete. He earned letters in both football and track all four years at Lynwood High School eventually achieving a football scholarship from El Camino Community College after graduation in 1983.

In 1985 Suge transferred to the University of Nevada in Las Vegas wearing number 54 and starting at defensive end, he was a powerful build, listed on the program at 260 pounds. He was voted UNLV’s Rookie of the Year, elected defensive captain and won first-team all-conference honours. On campus he carried due respect as a promising athlete with all-American smiles. He socialised in College party circles with drugs, sex and alcohol, while team-mates committed armed robberies, carjacking and sexual assaults. He earned honest money as a bouncer for the Cotton Club.

His senior year Suge’s reputation took a change of direction, earning enough money for his own apartment and a series of late model sedans. With regular visitors from Compton, it seemed Suge had now earnt a title of being possibly the biggest drug dealer on campus. As he was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams NFL team Suge promptly dropped out of school and moved back to L.A. He made the run-on roster during the NFL lock out season in 1988-89 crossing picket lines to play as a ‘Replacement’ player. As the strike ended, so did his short football career with professional players returning to their positions.

Having detrimental effect on Suge, his attitude turned for the worst as he steered himself into negative territory. His criminal record began almost immediately after leaving the field. A restraining order was placed on him after several altercations with his girlfriend Sharitha Golden. He was arrested for assaulting her and cutting off her ponytail in front of her mother’s home. Two weeks later on Halloween night Suge was again arrested in Las Vegas for shooting a man twice, in the leg and wrist whilst attempting to steal his Nissan Maxima. When the LVPD arrested him he was found with a .38calibre Smith and Wesson revolver in his waistband. Extraordinary events influenced felony charges dropped to a misdemeanour by way of a well-connected lawyer and reputation as an All-American football athlete. He was released with a $1000 fine and three years probation. In 1990 Suge used a pistol to break a man’s jaw. He pleaded guilty to felony assault with a deadly weapon yet again managed to walk away with a $9000 fine and two year suspended sentence.

The Music Business

At this stage Suge Knight was working as a bodyguard for R&B sensation, Bobby Brown where he learned the fundamentals to the entertainment business by owning your masters. It wasn’t long before he found a new employer heading toward the direction of entertainment management by way of Beverly Hills sports agent, Tom Kline who was very interested in getting involved in the music industry. He hired Suge as a driver/bodyguard and soon evolved into talent scout. He soon used Kline’s office for auditioning local rap acts with the intentions of soon forming his own record label.

His first interest was in a young talented rapper from Dallas, Texas who was already signed with Eazy’s Ruthless Records working alongside the emerging legends of Ice Cube and a radical and prolific producer named Dr. Dre who was bound in a group called Niggaz With Attitude. Suge put into play what would be his greatest manoeuvre of business by infringing on the susceptibility of the artist when he was down. Tracy ‘The D.O.C.’ Curry was hospitalised from an automobile accident. Ruthless Records had all but given up on the star as his voice was rendered out of action for his career. Already with a successful album and chart-topping single he was a local L.A. celebrity affiliated with the colossal notoriety of N.W.A. Suge visited him daily with D.O.C.’s mother driving her to and from the hospital. He began to take over managerial jobs and arranged autograph signing sessions for the star. He eventually built up the level trust to convince the rapper that Eazy’s Ruthless records’ was financially robbing him of his royalties for ghost writing for N.W.A.’s lyrics. Suge Knight had started a campaign of destroying the Ruthless label and harbouring the talents under his own company. Becoming a confidant of The D.O.C. gave Suge the opportunity to approach Dr. Dre with the same intentions. Suge Knight’s immense power and serious reputation would allow him to physically sort out industry-related and contractual issues suffered from artists and management, becoming a dominant stand-over gangster in the surfacing west coast rap industry. Suge offered these artists powerful protection from outside attention and the realities of the content of the gangsta rap they emulated on. When Suge had knocked out an attempted assault on The D.O.C. at a club appearance one night, it became apparent Suge Knight could physically look after these stars.