Music

Suge Knight says Dr. Dre has hired hitmen to kill him

by Richard Howard

There was a time (a faraway, mythical period known to the elders as ‘the 90’s’) when Suge Knight was one of the most feared men in the music industry. Sure, he had pull due to the star-studded roster of the Death Row Records label he co-founded with Dr. Dre, but it was more his reputation as a legit psycho that his competition would take into consideration. From allegedly threatening to hang Vanilla Ice off a balcony to using an armed posee to bully Ruthless Records from releasing Dr. Dre from his contract, Knight wasn’t one to do his negotiating in a boardroom, or ask the courts for help. This asshole has even alluded to being behind Eazy-E contracting HIV.

Operative word, of course, being wasn’t. Now it seems, as he awaits trial for murder and attempted murder, litigation is his jam. And the filings range from amusing to “this dude can’t be serious.” F’rinstance, in August 2014, Knight was shot multiple times at a party hosted by his successor for the title of biggest-turd-in-the-industry: Chris Brown. Knight went on to sue Brown and the club, charging with bold-faced irony that Brown is a “known gang associate” known to host events where violent incidents happen. Now, though, things have gone from “is this dude serious?” to “Um..I think he’s cracking up.” Knight recently filed a lawsuit claiming that Dr. Dre has been attempting to kill him using hitmen in an effort to avoid paying Knight money he’s owed.

Stay with me here. Suge reportedly has a lifetime management agreement with Dre, which entitles him to 30% of all the megaproducer’s earnings. If this is true, that means Dre owes Knight $300 million from his $1 billion Beats by Dre deal. The suit alleges that, in an effort to avoid parting with the hefty sum, Dr. Dre orchestrated both the 2014 shooting at Brown’s party and an attempted hit during the shooting of Straight Outta Compton which lead to Knight running over two men ‘in self-defense’…and his pending murder charge. Probably the only thing more entertaining that the suit is the response by Dre’s lawyers to Rolling Stone:

“Given that Dre has had zero interaction with Suge since leaving Death Row Records in 1996, we hope that Suge’s lawyer has lots of malicious prosecution insurance.”