Suge Knight
- Category : Business-Entrepreneur
- Type : MGP
- Profile : 3/5 - Martyr / Heretic
- Definition : Triple Split
- Incarnation Cross : RAX Laws 1
Biography
American CEO of Death Row Records, a scowling black man-mountain nicknamed "sugar bear." In ten years he took a barely-known company and fledgling rap industry to center stage of the music industry. Death Row revolutionized rap by ridding it of its old school flavor in 1992 with "The Chronic." Since then, it has carried the hip-hop planet on its shoulders with over 45 million records sold, presenting artists talented in the genre.
Knight was born in Compton to a truck-driver from Arkansas and raised himself on the streets as a teen, part of the Mob Piru Bloods. After playing football with
UNLV and briefly with the NFL's LA Rams, the 6'3", 315 pounder turned to the entertainment business as a bodyguard and later as a promoter. A natural mover and shaker, he teamed up with a post-N.W.A. Dr. Dre in
1992 to form Future Shock Records which segued into Death Row Records. He immediately changed the lettering on the company logo and his buildings red to show devotion to his gang.
Suge became a legend in his own time with such incidents as dangling rapper Vanilla Ice from a 15th story balcony and forcing a rival promoter to drink his own urine, and he ended up in prison in 1996 for probation violation. He served a five-year term.
On 12/23/2002, the rap mogul was arrested in L.A. and jailed for allegedly violating the terms of his parole relating to associating with gang members.
Shortly after completing a 10-month prison sentence for violating parole, he was arrested on February 5, 2005 in Barstow, CA, on suspicion of violating his latest parole. Police claimed they found marijuana in the truck he was driving after they stopped him for a routine traffic stop.