Suge Knight was one of the most successful record executives from the 1990s.
His label Death Row Records produced several albums that are now considered West Coast classics,
from Dr Dre’s The Chronic, to Doggystyle by Snoop to 2pac’s All Eyez on Me.
Suge was also known for popularizing gangsta rap in the mainstream
and had his own criminal past before getting into music.
Here is a look at the criminal history of Suge Knight.
Suge was born Marion Hugh Knight in Compton, California in April 1965.
Growing up, his family called him Sugar Bear,
which he eventually shortened to just Suge.
He attended Lynwood High School where he played football and track.
After graduating, he went to El Camino College to play football
and eventually transferred to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
He was even drafted to the NFL in 1987
and was invited to play at the training camp of the Los Angeles Rams.
But, he was cut from the team before the season began.
He played two games for the Rams during the 1987 NFL draft,
but after that, his football career didn’t work out.
After leaving the NFL, he found work as a concert promoter and bodyguard
for various celebrities like Bobby Brown.
The same year, Suge would be arrested and charged with domestic violence
after his girlfriend at the time claimed that they got into a fight and Suge chopped off her ponytail.
Just a few weeks later, on Halloween 1987
Suge would be arrested again for attempted murder and carrying a concealed weapon,
while in a stolen car.
Suge allegedly stole the car and shot at the driver three times during the theft.
He eventually pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to two years of probation.
In 1989, Suge founded his own music publishing company.
He made his first big check from music after Vanilla Ice used material from a song
written by one of his clients Mario Johnson,
in his smash hit Ice Ice Baby.
According to rumors, Suge held Vanilla Ice off a balcony at his hotel room,
until the rapper agreed to sign over the royalties.
In the early 90’s he started managing artists and his first big clients
were West Coast legends DJ Quick and the DOC.
Through them, Suge would meet Dr. Dre and other founding members of NWA.
But, at the time both the DOC and NWA were already signed to Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records.
According to Jerry Heller,
the music executive who helped Eazy_E run the record label,
Suge and his crew threatened them with baseball bats and lead pipes
so that they would release the artists from their contract.
Heller eventually agreed to let them go
and Dre and Suge would go on to found Death Row Records in 1991.
In 1992, Suge would violate his probation by assaulting two rappers at a Hollywood Recording studio.
He would plead no contest and be sentenced to another five years of probation in '95.
But, that same year as the altercation,
Dr. Dre would release The Chronic, the first official album on Death Row Records.
It would become an instant classic and went triple platinum, making Suge one of the biggest executives in hip hop.
The following year, Snoop Dogg would release Doggystyle
and continue the streak of best-selling albums coming from the label.
But, all the success would also spark some drama in the music industry.
Uncle Luke from 2LiveCrew would drop a solo track called Fakin Like a Gangsta,
where he criticized the new wave of gangsta rap,
popularized by Dre and Suge.
While at a 1993 hip hop convention,
Suge was allegedly seen walking around with a stolen gun, looking for Uncle Luke.
Then, in 1995, Suge would get on stage at the Source Awards and openly diss Puffy from Bad Boy Records.
He mocked Puff’s strategy of appearing in his artist’s videos and being featured on their songs
and told any artists in the audience that if they wanted a serious record label,
to come and sign with Death Row.
Puff and Suge had already been beefing,
but this was the moment that their issues were made public,
lighting the fuse for the East Coast West Coast beef.
Not long before that, Suge had already signed 2pac to Death Row Records.
Pac was already a huge star,
but his career had been full of controversies and problems with the law.
In November 1993,
Pac and three other men were charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a New York hotel room.
In ‘95, he was sentenced to 18 months to 4.5 years for the crime.
While he was locked up Suge convinced him to sign with Death Row
and posted his $1.4 million bond.
He was released later that same year
and began work on his 4th studio album, All Eyez on Me,
which was released on Death Row Records in '96.
Before going to jail, Pac was already beefing with the Notorious B.I.G.,
who was the biggest artist on Bad Boy Records and one of the most popular rappers in New York.
At one time, Pac and Big were cool with each other.
But their relationship would change after Pac was shot at a New York City recording studio.
On November 30th, 1994, while in NYC,
2pac got a page from music mogul and alleged drug kingpin Jimmy Henchmen,
who offered him $7,000 to record a verse for his client Lil Shawn.
Henchmen was a well-known figure in the streets of New York City at the time.
He was later accused of running a huge drug trafficking ring and sentenced to life in jail in 2014
for the murder of G-Unit affiliate Lodi Mack.
So, when Jimmy Henchmen offered him 7 grand to record a verse, Pac was skeptical.
But he was in the middle of fighting the case that would land him in jail
and needed to pay legal fees, so he agreed.
When he arrived at Quad Studios in Times Square,
three armed men were waiting.
They attempted to rob him,
but he resisted and ended up getting shot.
He underwent surgery and left the hospital three hours afterward, against the doctor’s advice.
Pac always believed that he had been set up to get robbed that night.
In an interview with Vibe Magazine in 1995,
Pac accused Jimmy Henchmen, Puff and Biggie of setting him up.
Then, in February 1995,
Biggie would release the track Who Shot Ya?
which Pac believed was a diss aimed at him.
So, when Suge came to 2pac and offered to sign him with Death Row Records,
they already had a lot in common.
Suge was beefing with Puffy and Pac was beefing with Big,
so the relationship made sense because they both had the same enemies
and were both on the same side of the beef.
Plus Suge had already built the gangster rap image that Pac was slowly beginning to adopt.
In June 1996, 2pac would release the track Hit Em Up,
which is widely believed to be one of the most savage diss tracks of all time.
On the track, Pac viciously insults Big and claims that he slept with his wife.
He also throws some shots at other East Coast rappers like Junior Mafia member Lil Cease
and the legendary Mobb Deep.
This track further pushed the East Coast West Coast beef
and turned it into an all-out war.
Behind the scenes, Suge was also adding fuel to the fire.
He paid a visit to Uptown Records where Puff had started his career and convinced major artists like Jodeci
and Mary J. Blige to leave the label and sign to his management company.
Puff confronted Suge about this at a party hosted by Jermain Dupri in Atlanta and a fight broke out.
Suge’s bodyguard Big Jake,
ended up shooting Puff’s childhood friend and bodyguard Anthony “Wolf” Jones.
So, the East Coast – West Coast beef was no longer just in the music –
blood had been spilled and even the fans were forced to choose who they supported.
Then in September 1996,
2pac was killed in a drive-by shooting at an intersection in Las Vegas.
Pac was a friend of Mike Tyson
who was fighting Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand that night.
Pac went to the fight with Suge and on the way out,
they spotted a man named Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.
Anderson was a member of the Compton Southside cripps,
who had beef with the blood set that Suge and many of his entourage were in.
Several months before the Mike Tyson fight,
Anderson had been involved in an altercation where a Death Row member named Travon Lane
was beat up and had his chain snatched.
Lane saw Anderson there that night and called Suge to let him know to be on the lookout.
On the way out of the fight, Suge and his crew spotted Anderson
and beat him up badly.
2pac can be seen on security footage joining in on the attack and even throws the first punch.
After the fight, they left the hotel and headed out to Suge’s venue: Club 662
which on a keypad 662 spells out MOB
or “member of bloods”.
Around 11:15 pm, their car stopped at a traffic light
and a white Cadillac sedan pulled up and started letting off shots into the car.
Pac was hit four times and Suge was grazed in the head.
Pac was brought to the intensive care unit at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada,
where he eventually passed away after 6 days.
An investigation was launched into the 2pac’s death
and the fight between Suge’s crew and Orlando Anderson
was brought to the attention of the court.
Suge was still on probation after pleading guilty to assault in 1995.
Starting a gang fight in the lobby of a hotel was a major violation of his probation.
So, Suge was found guilty of violating his parole and was sentenced to an additional 9 years in prison.
While Suge was behind bars,
wild rumors about 2pacs death would surface.
The main theory is that 2pac was killed by Orlando Anderson and his crew in retaliation for jumping him in the lobby.
But others have claimed that Puff put a hit out on Pac as a part of the East Coast-West Coast beef.
The fact that Biggie was killed about 6 months later under suspicious circumstances
also added fuel to this rumor.
Others have accused Suge of arranging the hit on Pac because he was unhappy with his contract
and thinking about leaving Death Row.
An even more wild theory is that Pac is still alive and living off the grid in Cuba.
A man named David Meyers came forward in 2015 and claimed that he had helped 2pac fake his own death
and he was hiding out somewhere in a foreign country.
This idea was also supported by Suge himself,
who claimed that 2pac was still alive in an interview with TMZ he did in 2014.
Check out our previous video on Tupac is Still Alive
for more info on Suge’s involvement in 2pac’s death.
Suge would eventually be released from prison in 2001 after serving about 5 years.
But the time behind bars would only make him more of a criminal and he would keep getting sent back to jail
until he was finally locked up for good.
In 2002, he moved to Malibu without notifying his parole officer
and spent 61 days in jail for violating his probation.
The following year,
he punched a parking lot valet in the face and did another 10 months.
In 2005, he was pulled over for doing an illegal U-turn and police discovered marijuana in his car,
another violation of his probation.
He was placed on house arrest for 2 months after that.
That same year, he was shot while attending a VMA party hosted by Kanye West
and ended up suing Kanye for mental and physical damages,
as well as the cost of his surgery.
In 2014, Suge was shot again at another VMA party,
this time hosted by Chris Brown.
He was shot six times and had to undergo surgery,
but refused to cooperate with the police.
The same year, Suge and comedian Katt Williams were arrested and charged with second-degree robbery
after a camera was stolen from a member of the paparazzi in Beverly Hills.
Then the following year,
Suge would commit the crime that would put him behind bars for good.
On January 29th, 2015
Suge and two men got into an argument on the set for Straight Outta Compton.
The two men were Cle “Bone” Sloan,
a gang member turned actor and activist,
and Terry Carter,
a music executive and founder of Heavyweight Records.
Bone was also a member of the Bloods,
but he and Suge had problems with each other.
He was working security on the set of Straight Outta Compton and had issues with Suge being there.
A verbal fight broke out between the two on set and Suge ended up taking off.
Carter came up with Suge in the music industry and was close to Ice Cube,
so he thought he could help Bone fix the situation.
The two of them agreed to meet at Tam’s Burgers in Compton to talk it over.
Suge ended up following them to the restaurant and spotted Carter first.
They chatted for a few minutes from inside their cars.
But when Bone showed up,
he tried to attack Suge through the window of his truck.
Suge tried to back up and avoid getting hit.
But instead of getting out and fighting Bone face to face,
he backed up his car, running him over.
Suge then accelerated and ran over Terry,
who had gotten out of his car to try to stop the fight.
Bone suffered a mangled foot and head injuries, while Terry Carter ended up passing away.
Suge’s lawyers claimed it was an accident and that he didn’t know he had hit the two men.
But security camera footage shows Suge clearly mowing them down
and then fleeing the scene of the crime.
Suge eventually pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter for Terry Carter’s death
and was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Suge Knight rose from the streets of Compton to being one of the most successful rap executives of the ’90s.
But he let the gangsta rap persona go to his head and continued to use fear and intimidation to get his way,
even after making millions off music.
His tactics worked for a while,
but eventually it crumbled his entire empire and cost him his freedom.
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