The Business Dispute That Suge Knight Says Led to Alleged Altercation With Vanilla Ice
Suge Knight earned a reputation for handling business conflicts for his music label with excessive force. The Death Row Records founder’s first public instance of using alleged intimidation practices was a dispute with Vanilla Ice. Ice accused Knight of threatening his life.
Suge Knight began a publishing company and says Vanilla Ice took full credit for a song he didn’t write
Knight briefly played in the NFL before he began working as a bodyguard for major celebrities, such as Bobby Brown. His experiences around the artists gave him firsthand insight into how artists were being scammed.
“When I was on the road, I seen [sic] everybody getting f—d. I’d have guys come up to me like, ‘Man, I have this hit song’ and they’d give the demo to the artist or manager and all of a sudden, somebody else is singing the song and they’re not getting credit, or they sold it to them for $1,000 and it was worth half a million” Knight explained in the Showtime documentary American Dream/American Knightmare. “So the first thing I did was I started a publishing company.”
He says he saw Ice’s music video “Ice Ice Baby” one day as he watched television and became excited when he realized it was his song. “I hear the song, I get up and they are dancing in the muthaf—-r, he was doing the running man and he’s dancing in the video and I am dancing too – I’m like ‘Money! We about to make some money. That’s my song,” he explained. “I paid for the dude to go out there and write the song. So that was my first experience with the music industry because when I first called them about my bread, they basically told me f–k off…Vanilla Ice and all of his people.”
Vanilla Ice alleged Suge Knight and handlers threatened him and hung him from a balcony
Ice told a different story. In a 1996 interview with ABC News, Ice claimed Knight nor his writers had anything to do with his hit 1990 single. He told the reporter that the first time he ever came into contact with Knight was when Knight and his crew approached him at an upscale restaurant. Months later, Ice claimed they did the same thing, making him confused about how Knight knew of his whereabouts. But Knight claimed he and Ice were always friendly.
According to Ice, Knight and his bodyguards stormed his Beverly Hills hotel suite to demand money from the song. “He roughed one of my bodyguards up, they roughed another one up and my whole entourage. Suge took me out on the balcony and started talking to me personally – like 15 floors (up) – he had me look over the edge to show me how high I was up there – I needed to wear diapers on that day, I was very scared.”
Ice says Knight forced him to sign over points to the song to a man named Mario La Velle johnson. But the rapper insists Johnson did not contribute to the song at all. Knight denies Ice’s account.
Suge Knight is currently serving 28 years in prison
Knight was infamous for handling business issues with similar behavior as Ice explained. It’s since come to an end as he is currently serving a 28-year sentence in prison for the death of a man during a hit-and-run incident on the set of the movie Straight Outta Compton. He pleaded no contest to manslaughter in connection with the death of Terry Carter.
