Marion 'Suge' Knight: Shot Six Times, Related To Old East Coast, West Coast Rapper Feud?
While fans were salivating at Beyonce's performance on Sunday night's MTV Music Video Awards, Marion "Suge" Knight was fighting for his life.
Knight, the founder of Death Row Records, was shot a reported six times on Saturday night at Chris Brown's pre-VMA party in West Hollywood, Calif..
Apparently witnesses believed Brown was the intended target, but others believe this could be a re-ignition of the infamous East Coast, West Coast rivalry, TMZ reported on Aug. 24.
There is a lot to say about why Knight could have been targeted in the attack. For starters, the record producer was with rapper Tupac Shakur when he was shot to death in Las Vegas in 1996. This sparked a spiral of controversy as to whether he was involved or not. Snoop Dogg, a rapper and friend of Shakur, eventually left Death Row Records because he believed in Knight's involvement.
A friend of Knight spilled to FOX411 that the hip-hop mogul was reportedly planning to reveal new information about his part in the East Coast, West Coast rapper feud.
"Suge has been writing a pretty controversial film - lots of shocking details - about Tupac's death," the friend said. "He also plans a reboot of his record label, and there are still a lot of haters out there because of his past negative publicity."
Even Knight's family commented on his negative publicity, asking for peace during their time of prayer.
According to an Aug. 25 report by Fox, the family statement read, "Suge is currently resting and has lost a lot of blood, he's human. He's done a lot of things for the community and culture as a whole so we ask that you respect that."
As of now, TMZ claims Knight is in stable condition and is expected to survive. After shots were fired, hitting his arm and stomach, he was still able to walk out of the club on his own, but was immediately taken by ambulance for surgery.
Chris Brown took to Twitter after the shooting, telling fans, "It's disappointing that we as society can't have fun or enjoy ourselves without any altercations sometimes."
Brown's rep additionally reminded the public that Brown hosted the event, and that was all his involvement. TMZ obtained the statement, which read, "Chris hosted an event in Los Angeles last night to celebrate the upcoming release of his album X, during which an incident occurred. This incident did not involve Chris; he was merely the host of the event. He has and will continue to cooperate with the investigation."
Strange how reminiscent this incident is to Kanye West's pre-VMA party in Miami in 2005, when Knight was shot yet again. At the time, the producer was shot once in the leg, but made a full recovery.
While Knight is expected to make a full recovery in this latest incident, his shooter remains at large.