Marion Hugh " Suge " Knight Jr. Knight was a central figure in gangsta rap 's commercial success in the s. In , the label released Shakur's greatest commercial success, All Eyez on Me. Three hours later, someone shot into the car Knight was driving, injuring Knight and fatally wounding Shakur. The label rapidly declined. Meanwhile, allegations mounted that Knight, beyond employing gang members, often used intimidation and violence in his business dealings.
From the late s to the early s, Knight spent a few years incarcerated for assault convictions and associated violations of probation and parole. In September , Knight pled no contest to voluntary manslaughter in a fatal hit-and-run. Gary Gray , triggered California's three-strikes law. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison, and is eligible for parole in October , when he will be 69 years old.
He graduated in Knight is affiliated with the Mob Piru Bloods , a set of the Bloods gang. From to , he attended and played football at El Camino College. He was cut by the Rams during camp, but became a replacement player during the NFL Players Strike , and played two games for the Rams. After his brief NFL career, Knight found work as a concert promoter and a bodyguard for celebrities including Bobby Brown.
In , Knight formed his own music publishing company. 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 and his bodyguards confronted Vanilla Ice several times. There was a rumor that Knight entered Vanilla Ice's hotel room and allegedly dangled him by his ankles off the balcony.
However, Vanilla Ice has said that never happened, only that Knight threatened to throw him off the balcony; the claim was resolved in court. Through the latter, he met several members of the seminal gangsta rap group N. Dre and The D. According to N. Initially, Knight fulfilled his ambitions: he secured a distribution deal with Interscope, and Dre's solo debut album, The Chronic , earned triple platinum status in the United States by the end of The following year, he opened a private, by-appointment-only nightclub in Las Vegas called Club , so named because the numbers spelled out MOB on telephone keypads, MOB standing for Member of Bloods.
