There was once a time when Suge Knight didn't just rule hip-hop: he was the industry. Back in the 1990s, the former Death Row Records honcho made over $100 million in a year thanks to the label's all-star roster of West Coast rap stars, most notably Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur. Albums like The Chronic by Dr. Dre, Doggystyle by Snoop, and All Eyez on Me by Tupac have catapulted the label's status in hip-hop like never before.
However, the glory days of Death Row Records are long gone. Tupac's sudden 1996 death and Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's mass exodus from the label marked the beginning of Death Row's end. Adding insult to the injury, Death Row was the center of the West Coast-East Coast hip-hop rivalry against Sean P. Comb's Bad Boy Records. To sum it up, here's how Suge Knight's life looks like after Death Row.
6 Suge Knight Filed Bankruptcy In 2006
Following a series of unfortunate events from the artists' deaths to the mass exodus, Death Row rapidly declined. The pinnacle of it came in 2006 when Suge Knight filed bankruptcy and had been ordered to pay $107 million to Lydia Harris to avoid losing control of the label. She claimed that the rap mogul had cheated her out of a 50 percent stake in the music label. While Death Row continued to operate during the bankruptcy proceedings at the time, the damage was done and irreparable.
5 He Sold His Mansion A Year Later
A year after filing for bankruptcy, Suge Knight put his seven-bedroom Malibu mansion on the market for $6,2 million. The home was finally sold in 2008 in bankruptcy court for $4,56 million. In the same year, he also sued Kanye West for allegedly allowing a person to sneak a gun past security into Suge's MTV VMAs party, resulting in the person shooting Suge in his upper right leg.
"I’m a product of the inner city, and if you’re from off the block, more than likely, you’re going to go in a violent way or spend your life in prison," he said during an interview. "But no matter what, mine will be a peaceful death. You see, I have made history. And I know one thing: Ain’t no man can stop me from going to heaven."
4 Suge Knight Was Arrested For Second-Degree Robbery
In 2014, Suge Knight was arrested for an attempted second-degree robbery against a female photographer in Beverly Hills, California. At the time, As reported by CNN, the event took place on September 5 outside a studio, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office charged each man with one count of robbery.
In the same year, Suge's former artist Dr. Dre sued him and Death Row Records over for $3 million over unpaid royalties from Dre's debut album The Chronic. While Suge did not helm Death Row since selling it to WIDEawake Entertainment Group in 2009, he sued Dr. Dre back in 2016 for $300 million for allegedly calling a hitman on him.
3 He Feuded With Most Of His Former Artists, Including Snoop Dogg
Suge Knight has been feuding with many people, and his former artists are not immune from it. Shortly after leaving Death Row, Snoop Dogg signed to Master P's No Limit Records and often bashes his former boss in songs and interviews. When asked what he thinks when Suge said, "He [Snoop] used to be a superstar, now he’s just a No Limit soldier," Snoop had one clever comeback: "He used to be a CEO now he's just an inmate." .
2 Suge Knight Sued Dr. Dre For $300 Million
In 2016, Suge dragged another former Death Row artist, Dr. Dre, into the court for allegedly calling a hitman on him in a lawsuit worth over $300 million. As The Guardian reported, the former hip-hop mogul also believed that he deserved Dre's fortune after selling Beats to Apple and the success of Straight Outta Compton biopic film.
"Given that Dre has had zero interaction with Suge since leaving Death Row Records in 1996, we hope that Suge’s lawyer has lots of malicious prosecution insurance," Howard King, Dre's attorney, said in a statement to Rolling Stone.
1 Suge Knight Was Charged For Voluntary Manslaughter
In 2015, after an argument on the Straight Outta Compton set, Suge crashed his car into filmmaker Cle Sloan and Terry Carter, the Heavyweight Records honcho and his former business associate, killing the latter as result. The judge incarcerated him at RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego in 2018, although he often cites health problems throughout the ruling. He's sentenced to 28 years in prison and won't be eligible for parole until October 2034.
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