The lavish Malibu mansion with its own helipad that was built for disgraced Death Row Records boss Marion ‘Suge’ Knight has gone on sale for $30m, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
Knight, 55, is currently serving a 28-year jail term having been convicted of voluntary manslaughter after running over and killing his friend Terry Carter in 2015.
His former home, which he was forced to sell after going bankrupt in 2008, is a far cry from the 6ft by 8ft cell he now occupies at the R.J Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California.
Perched on a clifftop in Malibu, seven-bedroom Villa Pacifico sits on seven acres of landscaped gardens and has 10 bathrooms, a chef’s kitchen and a media room.
The 8,272sqft property, which was built to Knight’s specifications in 2001, also boasts a theater and a gym, a pool and beach access.
It also has its own recording studio which retains the purple color scheme chosen by Knight and was used by Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber and Rihanna among others.
Part of an exclusive gated community, model Bella Hadid lives on the property next door while Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill occupies another home in the complex.
The home is being offered for sale as a ‘development project’ in need of remodeling, along with an additional three acres of clifftop land.
Knight owned the mansion until 2008 when he was forced to sell up due to a succession of legal wrangles, including one involving Kanye West after the 55-year-old claimed he was shot in the leg during a VMA pre-party hosted by the rapper the same year.
The Death Row Records boss had initially listed the home for $6.2m but had to accept a cut-price $4.56m following an order from the bankruptcy court.
After being bought by a German investor, it has been available as a $35,000-a-week rental since 2009 but was listed for sale last week by realtor Dylan Eckhart.
Speaking of the home, he said: ‘This property is, in a word, epic. The panoramic ocean views are spectacular.
‘This is an incredibly rare opportunity for a visionary to create an iconic Malibu masterpiece.’
Knight, who was born in Compton, California, started his career as a security guard for Bobby Brown but struck gold after founding his own record label in 1989.
His first success was Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby but he is better known for signing then N.W.A stars Dr Dre and The D.O.C to his record company – and allegedly having his associates threaten Eazy-E and N.W.A manager Jerry Heller into releasing them from their contracts.
Other signings included Tupac Shakur, M.C Hammer and Snoop Dogg, although Dre left shortly after the release of 1992’s The Chronic to set up his own label, Aftermath.
Dre is thought to have grown tired of Knight’s gang affiliations, which he never managed to shake – nor his track-record of run-ins with the law.
In 1996, he was suspected of involvement in the deaths of Tupac and arch nemesis Biggie Smalls, which led to Snoop Dogg leaving the label in 1998.
Ten years later, he filed for bankruptcy after Lydia Harris – who helped him found Death Row Records – won a $107m civil claim against him after she said he cheated her out of a 50 per cent stake.
He also served multiple short sentences: probation in 1996 for assaulting two rappers in 1992, then a four-year jail spell for breaching the terms when he and his entourage attacked gang member Orlando Anderson.
Knight was sent back to jail in 2003 for violating his parole by hitting a parking attendant and was accused in January 2008 of being part of the Compton branch of the Mob Street Piru gang.
His current jail term came after he was convicted in 2018 of voluntary manslaughter over the death of his friend Terry Carter in January 2015.
Carter and another man, filmmaker Cle Sloan, were run over twice by Knight following an argument on the set of Straight Outta Compton – a biopic of N.W.A.
Knight fled the scene and later told police he had run the men over in self-defense. Security footage revealed a different story and he pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter as part of a deal in September 2018.
The 55-year-old was handed 28 years in jail and told he has no chance of parole until 2037 at the earliest.
