Music mogul Suge Knight was arrested last week after he and his girlfriend left the Spearmint Rhino strip club in Las Vegas. Knight, who co-founded the West Coast gangster rap label Death Row Records in 1992 with Dr. Dre, was observed by police and witnesses "beating his girlfriend while brandishing a knife" in a parking lot at 6:40 in the morning. Vegas police found ecstasy and the prescription painkiller hydrocodone in Kinight's possession when he was taken into custody. This latest incident in Las Vegas is hardly Suge Knight's first brush with the law. His criminal record includes over 16 years of violence, weapons, and drug charges.
Suge's legal troubles began in 1992 at a Los Angeles recording studio. Two producers were using the studio's phone and didn't get off when Suge needed to make a call so he brutally beat and pistol whipped them. Knight got off with a suspended sentence after giving the prosecutor's daughter a $1 million record deal.
The assault charges would come back to haunt Suge Knight on September 7, 1996. He and Death Row Records' star rapper Tupac Shakur were attending a mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand in Vegas. Casino surveillance cameras captured Suge, Tupac, and their entourage beating a man in the MGM's lobby. Later that night Tupac was shot as the group drove to a party at Death Row-owned Club 662 (now the chic lounge/restaurant Seven). The videotapes of the melee at the MGM Grand led to Suge being given a nine year prison sentence for violating his parole.
Suge Knight was released from prison in 2001, but he wasn't able to stay out of trouble. In 2003, he was arrested after allegedly punching a parking lot attendant outside of Papa's nightclub in Los Angeles because he was angry that his car was blocked in the lot.
One year later, Suge was implicated when a melee broke out at the 2004 VIBE Awards, which were held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica Municipal Airport. Dr. Dre was being presented with a lifetime achievement when a man tried to attack him. Dre's attacker was thwarted and stabbed by members of 50 Cent's G-Unit posse, but Suge was widely believed to have been behind the attack.
Suge's most recent legal troubles prior to the inicident in Vegas occurred in 2005. He was stopped by police in Barstow, California for making an illegal u-turn and a search of his car turned up a marijuana stash. The moral of this story, is that if you spot Suge Knight in a night club, awards show, strip club, or parking lot you should probably run in the other direction. Definitely don't get in his way.
