Suge Knight

Hip Hop had been no stranger to street moguls before Suge Knight founded Death Row in 1991. Luther Campbell of The 2 Live Crew and Luke Records amassed a fortune off sex raps and Miami bass. In Houston J. Prince built Rap-A-Lot into a Southern dynasty. The most infamous was Eazy-E, the Napoleon behind Ruthless Records and N.W.A. But he was cuddly compared to Knight, a former lineman who, legend has it, wrangled Dr. Dre and The D.O.C.'s contract releases by showing up at Eazy's house with a crew brandishing baseball bats and lead pipes. The stories of widespread intimidation conjured scenes from GoodFellas. Death Row's offices were flooded by Blood gang members with rivals reportedly trapped in storage rooms if they needed a warning. There was the infamous tale of Knight and his men dangling Vanilla Ice over a balcony to hijack his publishing. Writers from The New Yorker were supposedly threatened with death by piranha. But in its four years extant, Death Row racked up numbers worthy of NASDAQ, grossing approximately $325 million.

The label broke Snoop Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound, and turned Dr. Dre and 2Pac into deities. The Death Row brand existed alongside the pulp fiction of the American outlaw. They were rap's Hells Angels, a syndicate stalking their turf with bloodshot eyes and heavy munitions. And in a control room clotted with Cohiba smoke loomed Suge Knight an entrepreneur worthy of the robber barons of the late 19th century. But a business downturn was inevitable, especially when the company's most valuable asset, 2Pac, was ambushed and murdered in Las Vegas in 1996. A probation violation soon landed Knight in prison. His remaining stars left Death Row, and it was soon revealed that a shady accountant had embezzled millions. A barrage of lawsuits ensued, and the label's profits slowed. Yet Knights most damning mistake was committing the cardinal sin of rap moguldom his only extra-musical revenue stream came from the "Let Me Ride" car customization shop.