Multimillionaire Walks The Talk On Death Row

Eric Ellis, Los Angeles

03/12/1997

MARION Suge Knight is not the type of guy to bump into in a boardroom let alone on a dark night in south-central Los Angeles.

Some 190 cm tall, weighing 150 kg and sporting a neck that Mike Tyson would be proud of, Knight is a multimillionaire who punctuates business discussions with remarks like "if you talk, I'll have my people kill your family".

His entertainment company is called Death Row and he apparently is obsessed by the numbers 662, which translates as MOB on a US telephone keypad. One of his clients, "gangsta" rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, himself recently acquitted of murder, has just released an album called The Doggfather.

With form like that, it's little wonder that Knight, one of America's most successful black businessmen, is in jail doing nine years for assault. But even from behind bars intrigue swirls around this unsavoury character.

At the weekend, rival rap artist Notorious B.I.G was gunned down in a gangland-style assassination a kilometre from our office. That slaying followed the Las Vegas killing last September of Knight's star signing Tupac Shakur, a passenger in the then free Knight's BMW.

And then there's the case of the deputy LA district attorney in whose Malibu beach house Knight rented and stayed last summer for $US19,000 a month while the same DDA was assigned to Knight's criminal case.

The prosecutor's 18-year-old daughter was Knight's only white act, a $US50,000 recording deal negotiated at the house by her brother on commission. She claims the deal was done on her merit as an artist.

Into this sordid world stepped two of North America's biggest companies, the American media giant Time-Warner Inc and Canada's drinks-to-entertainment conglomerate, Seagram.

Knight's Death Row Records is a recording industry success story at a time when the recording industry is in a prolonged slump.

Death Row and its affiliate labels that fall under the Interscope Records group are having a banner year, trading the death of Tupac Shakur for all its worth.

This year's followed a phenomenally successful 1996, when Interscope set an industry record by holding the top four slots on the nation's music charts and having 10 albums in the top 100.

It reportedly posted revenues of $US300 million and profits of up to $US50 million. It is regarded as the most successful new label in the industry, quickly snaring 3 per cent of the market against giants such as Polygram, BMG and EMI. Knight's net worth is reportedly anything from $US20 million to $US100 million.

Interscope was founded in 1990 with seed finance from Warner. But in 1995, as Interscope's phenomenal run gathered pace, Time-Warner chairman Gerald Levin caved into intense pressure from politicians like Bob Dole and church groups inflamed at Death Row's gangsta rappers whose lyrics glorified violence and sexual abuse. Time-Warner quietly sold its stake.

The interest was soon bounced to Seagram's MCA division in a $US200 million deal through Time-Warner's erstwhile partners. Seagram's chairman Edgar Bronfman Jnr has so far managed to resist the withering attacks from the right to follow Time-Warner's example for the simple reason that Interscope and Death Row are very profitable.

The US Justice Department is reported to be investigating Death Row's alleged ties to the Bloods street gang, drug traffickers and East Coast mobsters. The investigations so far involve just about every federal law enforcement agency.