Rap’s Suge Knight Has Few More Months to Serve

The hip-hop world is buzzing about the possible prison release this month of Los Angeles rap tycoon Marion “Suge” Knight.

But the government has other plans.

Knight, whose Death Row Records is expected to command the top position on the pop chart this week, will be transferred April 22 from Mule Creek State Prison near Sacramento to an undisclosed federal facility to serve an additional three months for a probation violation, law enforcement sources said.

The rap entrepreneur has been behind bars since October 1996 for a state probation violation stemming from his involvement in an assault at a Las Vegas hotel. He was placed on probation after pleading no contest in 1992 to attacking two aspiring rappers at a Hollywood recording studio.

A federal court determined in 1996 that Knight’s involvement in the Las Vegas assault was also a violation of his probation in a federal gun case, in which he pleaded no contest to attempting to purchase handguns in another state for his rap stars. Knight will complete his state probation-violation term in three weeks, but he still owes between 70 and 100 days on the federal violation, sources said.

When Knight walks out of prison sometime in July, he will return to running Death Row, once the most successful and controversial rap label in the business. And though Death Row has lost a number of its top stars, the label recently struck a new U.S. distribution pact with Sacramento-based Valley Media’s DNA arm and an international distribution deal with New York-based Ron Winters Productions.

The Justice Department five years ago launched a racketeering probe of Knight, his former lawyer David Kenner and Death Row, focusing on allegations of drug trafficking, money laundering and violent acts. A federal grand jury spent several years reviewing allegations that Death Row was a criminal enterprise but never issued an indictment. Sources say the probe is now inactive.