Suge Knight Net Worth 2024

What is Suge Knight’s net worth?

Suge Knight is an American report government, music producer, and entrepreneur who has a net worth of $200 thousand. Suge Knight is greatest recognized for being the co-founder of Death Row Records, a music label that skilled huge success within the Nineties because of artists reminiscent of Tupac, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

Marion “Suge” Knight, the co-founder and former CEO of Death Row Records, is a major but controversial determine within the hip-hop trade. His profession and private life are marred with varied authorized troubles and allegations of violent habits, but his affect within the Nineties West Coast rap scene is simple. Launching and guiding the careers of artists like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur, Knight performed a pivotal function in shifting the epicenter of the hip-hop world to the West Coast throughout that period.

Death Row Records, established in 1991, grew to become synonymous with gangsta rap, that includes artists who usually drew from their very own experiences with violence, crime, and societal disaffection to create their music. Knight himself was no stranger to the violent imagery his artists depicted, having had quite a few run-ins with the legislation, each earlier than and after establishing his report label. The notoriety that surrounded him considerably contributed to the menacing status of his report label.

One of probably the most notorious chapters in Suge’s profession entails his affiliation with the East Coast-West Coast rivalry, which pitted artists, followers, and executives in opposition to one another in a bicoastal battle that dominated rap music within the Nineties. Suge Knight was usually portrayed as a villainous determine within the media on account of his intimidating demeanor and alleged involvement in varied unlawful actions. His rivalry with Sean “Puffy” Combs of Bad Boy Records, based mostly in New York, fueled a bitter and, at occasions, harmful battle throughout the trade.

Knight’s controversies did not finish with the decline of the East Coast-West Coast feud. Over the years, he confronted a number of authorized points, together with incarceration and quite a few lawsuits. In 2018, Knight was sentenced to twenty-eight years in jail after pleading no contest to a cost of voluntary manslaughter for a hit-and-run incident.

Despite his contentious status and tumultuous profession, Knight’s impression on the music trade, notably within the realm of hip-hop, stays vital.

Early Life

Suge Knight was born Marion Knight, Jr. on April 19, 1965, in Compton, California. His childhood nickname “Sugar Bear” gave rise to the longer term moniker “Suge.” He is the son of Maxine and Marion Knight Sr. Suge attended Lynwood High School the place he was a soccer and observe star and graduated in 1983. He performed soccer at El Camino College for 2 years, and in 1985 transferred to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the place he performed soccer for 2 extra years.

Knight grew to become a alternative participant in the course of the 1987 NFL Players Strike for the Los Angeles Rams. He performed two video games with them.

Early Career

After his time with the NFL, Knight started working as a live performance promoter and bodyguard for varied celebrities, together with Bobby Brown. In 1989, Knight fashioned his personal music publishing firm and struck it large when Vanilla Ice agreed to signal over the royalties to him for his hit “Ice Ice Baby.” However, it got here with controversy. Allegedly, Knight and his bodyguards confronted Vanilla Ice many occasions to harass him into signing over the music rights, even getting into his resort room and allegedly dangling him by his ankles off the balcony.

Next, Knight fashioned an artist administration firm and signed hip hop artists DJ Quik and The D.O.C. He met many members of the gangsta rap group N.W.A. this fashion.

Death Row Records

Suge is most well-known for being the previous CEO and co-founder of Death Row Records, an organization that was instrumental in bringing gangster rap to the mainstream within the Nineties.

Suge co-founded Death Row with Dr. Dre, The D.O.C. and a silent associate named Michael “Harry-O” Harris. At the time, Harry-O was incarcerated after being arrested and convicted of working a big scale drug trafficking operation with the Cali Cartel. Harry-O offered Death Row with $1.5 million in startup capital. Harry-O’s prison lawyer David Kenner went to work because the label’s in-house lawyer whereas additionally overseeing his funding. In receiving the funding, Suge additionally promised to make Harry-O’s spouse Lydia a popstar.

Suge and Death Row had been early to signal artists reminiscent of Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, and Snoop Dogg. By the top of 1993, Dre’s solo album, “The Chronic,” made it to Triple Platinum standing within the U.S. It secured the profession for Dre’s protege, Snoop Dogg, who launched his debut album in 1994. “Doggystyle” went quadruple platinum within the U.S. that very same 12 months.

Knight had public feuds going with 2 Live Crew and Sean Combs (“Puff Daddy”). His feud with Combs progressed when Knight insulted him on air on the Source Awards in August 1995. Later that 12 months, Suge Knight provided to put up a $1.4 million greenback bail for Tupac Shakur however provided that the rapper agreed to signal with Death Row. He agreed and launched his 1996 double album “All Eyez on Me” and The “Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory.” In 1995, M.C. Hammer signed with Death Row however left the corporate shortly after.

Death Row Records started to collapse after Mr. Knight was jailed on parole violations. Soon a number of of Death Row’s most outstanding artists started to depart the label, most notably Dr. Dre.

During its heyday, Death Row offered over 150 million albums around the globe and generated an estimated $750 million in web revenues.

Murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls

Suge Knight, although by no means charged for any involvement, has been the topic of a number of theories involving the murders of each Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. Tupac Shakur was shot in a drive-by capturing on September 7, 1996. Suge Knight had been within the automobile with Tupac. At 11:15 p.m., a white Cadillac pulled as much as Knight’s proper aspect and Shakur was shot 4 occasions. Knight was hit within the head by the fragmentation of the bullets. Knight was capable of drive one mile from the positioning the place they had been pulled over by police and paramedics had been alerted. They had been taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada the place Shakur died six days later. While a number of theories have swirled on who killed Tupac, The LA Times indicated that the capturing of Tupac Shakur was carried out by a Compton gang.

Shakur’s East Coast rival, Biggie Smalls, was murdered in a similar way on March 9, 1997. Speculation amongst former Death Row artists like Snoop Dog arose that Knight was concerned in each murders and that Biggie’s demise was a revenge killing. The most outstanding principle is that he was killed by the Crips road gang, however his homicide has by no means been solved. Snoop Dog’s launch “Tha Doggfather” incorporates open criticism of Knight for the homicide of Shakur. In 2006, Snoop once more verbally attacked Knight over the homicide of Biggie Smalls.

Financial Issues

In 2002, the IRS introduced that Suge owed $6.5 million in again taxes. In 2006 Suge filed for private chapter. At the time he claimed to have property valued between zero {dollars} and $50,000. He additionally claimed to have money owed totaling greater than $100 million, though a lot of that was the results of a single $107 million judgment that was awarded to the previous spouse of his enterprise associate. These money owed compelled Death Row to file for chapter later that very same 12 months.

In 2009, the property of Death Row had been offered at public sale for $18 million. The profitable bidder was an organization referred to as WIDEawake Entertainment Group. WIDEawake ultimately was offered to a Canadian firm referred to as New Solutions Financial Corp. New Solutions Financial Corp filed for chapter in 2012. In 2013 Death Row’s property had been purchased by an organization referred to as Entertainment One, also called eOne. In 2019 eOne was acquired by toy maker Hasbro. In 2021 Hasbro offered its music division, together with Death Row’s property, to personal fairness big The Blackstone Group. In February 2022, Blackstone offered the model title and mental property rights for “Death Row Records” to Snoop Dogg for an undisclosed quantity. Blackstone retained possession of the music firm’s extraordinarily invaluable grasp recordings.

Legal Issues

Over the 20 years after Death Row, Suge has had a number of run-ins with the legislation. He ended up serving 4 years in jail on parole violations between 1997 and 2001. He was despatched to jail once more in 2003 for violating parole.

Suge had many bodily altercations between 2008 and 2009. He was arrested once more in Las Vegas on February 8, 2012, on marijuana costs. In 2014, Knight was shot at a Video Music Awards celebration hosted by Chris Brown at a nightclub on the West Hollywood Sunset Strip. He was shot six occasions however was capable of stroll himself to a hospital. In October 2014, Knight and Katt Williams had been arrested and charged with theft in reference to the theft of a digicam from a paparazzi photographer. In August 2017, Knight was indicted for threatening the lifetime of F. Gary Gray, the director of “Straight Outta Compton.” Gray’s portrayal of Suge Knight had been adverse within the film. Knight skilled blindness and blood clots in 2017, which stored him from attending his varied courtroom hearings.

Fatal Hit And Run Incident

On January 29, 2015, Suge Knight was allegedly concerned in a deadly hit and run accident in Compton. The incident could have been associated to a struggle that happened at a film set. Witnesses allegedly noticed Suge again his truck over the sufferer then drive off. Suge then reportedly fled the scene and deserted his automobile in a car parking zone. On September 20, 2018, Suge pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and will now serve as much as 28 years in state jail. As of 2023, Knight is incarcerated in San Diego on the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility and isn’t eligible for parole till October 2034.

Personal Life

Knight married American R&B singer Michel’le in 1999 when he was in jail. He had beforehand helped her get clear by sending her to rehab. She filed for divorce 6 years later, then found their marriage was really invalid as a result of he was nonetheless technically married to an ex-wife. The two have a daughter, Bailei (b. 2002). In 2018, Suge’s fiance Toi Lin Kelly was sentenced to a few years in jail for aiding Knight in corresponding and speaking with the producers of a Death Row Records tell-all in 2015. During this time, a decide had beforehand barred Knight from all communication with anybody however his lawyer forward of his homicide trial.

In 2019, VH1 launched the true property sequence “Love & Listings” that includes Suge’s son Jacob Knight. Suge Knight has 5 youngsters in complete.