Hip hop mogul Suge Knight testified at a federal bankruptcy hearing on Friday, claiming that his record company, Death Row Records, had struggled ever since he was jailed in the late nineties.
As previously reported, Knight filed for bankruptcy earlier this year in a bid to halt legal action by the California courts in relation to claims by Lydia and Michael Harris that they helped found the legendary hip hop record label and were owed a share of its profits. The state courts ordered Knight to pay Lydia Harris $107 million last year, and were preparing to seize his assets, including Death Row, in order to force that payment before the bankruptcy took the matter out of the State court's hands.
The hearing on Friday was an opportunity for Knight's creditors to ask about his assets and debts, not that he told them much. Frequently mumbling, frequently consulting his accountant and frequently not answering questions, Knight said that more than anything else his incarceration in 1996, caused by a probation violation relating to an earlier assault charge, led to the downfall of his company. That, and the lack of any real talent on the roster post Snoop and Tupac, presumably. Asked how he knew that his company was struggling while in prison, he told the court hearing: "The magazines told me that, and the records". Knight confirmed he applied for bankruptcy as a result of the Californian court's ruling that he pay Harris $107 million.
According to the New York Daily News, Knight is claiming his assets, aside from Death Row's intellectual property, amount to $25,000 worth of "personal jewellery", $1,000 worth of clothes and $2,000 worth of furniture, and a lavish $11 in his Washington Mutual cheque account. His music assets, valued at over $4 million, are currently being held by the Internal Revenue Service, who are owed over twice that amount of money by Knight.