Marion Hugh "Suge" Knight Jr.
born April 19, 1965) in Compton, California,
the co-founder and former CEO of Death Row Records. Knight was a central figure in gangsta rap's commercial success in the 1990s. From 1983 to 1985, he attended and played football at El Camino College. In 1985, he transferred to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and played football there for two years. Knight played college football at UNLV as a defensive end. He briefly played in the NFL for the Los Angeles Rams as a replacement player during the 1987 NFL players strike. After his brief NFL career, Knight found work as a concert promoter and a bodyguard for celebrities including Bobby Brown.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. Knight next formed an artist management company and signed West Coast hip hop artists DJ Quik and The D.O.C. Through the latter, he met several members of the seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A. In 1995, Tupac Shakur began serving a prison sentence of up to 4+1⁄2 years for a sexual abuse conviction. Knight struck a deal with Shakur that October, posting his $1.4 million bail and freeing him from prison pending an appeal of his conviction, while signing him to Death Row Records. In 1996, the label released Shakur's greatest commercial success, All Eyez on Me. That September, after departing a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas, a group that included Knight and Shakur assaulted Orlando Anderson, a Southside Compton Crips gang member. Three hours later, someone shot into the car Knight was driving, injuring Knight and fatally wounding Shakur.
Knight is currently serving a 28-year sentence in prison for a fatal hit-and-run in 2015. In September 2018, Knight pled no contest to voluntary manslaughter. Knight's conviction, along with his previous felonies of stealing a camera and sending a harassing text message to Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray, triggered California's three-strikes law. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison, and is eligible for parole in October 2034.
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