Suge Knight: Gangsta Til Death(Row)

If there is one person in all of hip hop that embodies the gangster aspect of hip hop entirely (and maybe a bit excessively/unhealthily), it's Marion "Suge" Knight. Death Row CEO, co-founder, and arguably the most intimidating man in hip hop, Suge built a name and an empire through money, power, fear, and (believe it or not) respect in one of the most controversial and power packed periods of rap. The ups are some of the best and most well documented in hip hop history, which include 10 plus platinum albums, including 2 diamond, and the launching of legendary careers like Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Tha Dogg Pound, and countless others. But perhaps just as talked about (if not more) are the downs of Suge's career, which far outweigh the ups. Though I'm not wanting to break down every single one of them one by one, I am interested in how these things turn a powerful man into someone not so powerful (not physically of course, it seems Suge will always be that). I wouldn't call this the rise and fall, but more so the studying of Suge's roller coaster career. Is Suge Knight really what the public eye makes him out to be?  Is Suge's reputation real?  And is Suge's reputation partly what made Death Row so successful?  I hope to find answers to these questions just as much as anybody else out there, and that's why we're addressing Suge right now (Suge, if you see this, please don't kill me).

To start this off, I had to immediately include the fact that "Suge Knight dead" is one of the first search results that pops up in Google. Does this mean anything?  Maybe so. Do people expect it?  Probably. If I didn't know who he was, this would tell me that Suge's reputation is probably not great. And if you are just learning about Suge, you would be right in that assumption. Suge has had endless legal troubles that include assault charges, drug charges, traffic violations, he's been shot at multiple times (and being hit 6 times the most recent shooting at a Chris Brown party), and the most recent occurrence being theft (for taking a paparazzi camera along with Katt Williams, though Katt isn't seen in the video. I couldn't find it to post, instead I included a video of Katt talking to TMZ about Suge's shooting).

There's just something about Katt Williams and Suge Knight being together that brings the bad out of people (no shade Katt, you're a great comedian). Obviously there have been multiple occurrences including Katt and Suge, including a fight outside of a night club in January of 2013 (which there is also a TMZ video of floating around online), but to prove that Katt is not the common denominator in the bad press, here is a video of Suge throwing some sneak disses at (what you'd think as "former", apparently there still might be some bad blood even today) rival Bad Boy label head Diddy.

  
So discussing this video (besides the conspiracy theories surrounding it and Suge fueling the 'Tupac is alive" debate), the first thing that comes to mind is Suge's very unhesitant diss of Diddy. Which leads to the question: why diss Diddy after all these years?  Seriously though:  how does dissing Diddy right now help your career out?  Back in 94-96 this certainly would have made for great press, but right now can anyone honestly say they feel this holds any sort of significance?  Piling this on top of the "Tupac is alive right now smoking a Cuban cigar" comment makes it seem more of a cry for attention than trying to make a valid point on an issue. Not to mention that Diddy is currently worth $500 million and is in the top 3 on the Forbes list of wealthiest hip hop artists. Who out of these two would you say is winning?  Success is the best revenge.

A very big conspiracy I have to address is Suge's supposed role in Tupac and Biggie's deaths. There are definitely more than enough theories in both rappers' deaths to detail in one post (or several posts for that matter, especially Tupac), whether people believe the shootings were gang-related, that one or both of the rappers are still alive, or that Suge actually orchestrated the hit on one or both of the rappers, the speculation is endless. These arguments are certainly all just rumors, but nonetheless could sway the way somebody would view Suge and what his true intentions are. Why kill off one of your own rappers?  Some might say more money for Suge, others would say that Suge was jealous of the attention Pac was getting that Suge felt he himself deserved, and some might even say that Suge woke up on the wrong side of the bed. While the last one might not be as reasonable (though it could be plausible from what we know about Suge), it seems that people wouldn't know enough about Suge personally to form an honest opinion.

When we get into talking about Suge's most recent burst back into the spotlight, this might be evidence that Suge is indeed human after all. Suge recently had a court hearing for his alleged robbery charge of a paparazzi camera and was taken into custody with bail set at $500 thousand. If Suge were to be convicted, he would be facing 30 years to life in prison (with past charges being mostly because of an assault with a deadly weapon). While all of the charges Suge has faced have been no joke, it seems that it all finally begins to pile up on him in a TMZ video that shows Suge visibly upset with the ruling, and his face wet from crying. You'd have to be a past victim of Suge's to not feel a little bit of sympathy towards him in this video.

                                (*I do not own any of the videos in this post, or the rights to them*)


So while the evidence shows that Suge may not deserve to have any sympathy thrown his way, I'd most certainly love to hear what the audience has to say!  Do you believe that deep down Suge might be a good man whose made mistakes?  Or do you think there's no excuse for so much error and he needs to pay for his wrongdoings?  The sensible person in me believes that Suge is an egotistical, power driven maniac who doesn't care about anything but money, but then the good in me thinks that if anything were to make Suge Knight cry, it's probably pretty harsh. I tried my best to include 2 sides to Suge, but his history of violence and crime charges make it barely believable that there is good in Suge. Let me know your thoughts on Suge and if he's just made a lot of mistakes in his life and you think he can correct them, or if you think that there is no changing a man who has done so much wrong (Vanilla Ice might go with the latter, though that is also just speculation as well). All I really have left to say is that Suge Knight might really be gangster until death row, whether that be his desire or not.