Knight was behind albums from Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac and was sentenced the deadly hit-and-run. His numerous defence lawyers had contended he was acting in self-defence, but the Death Row Records co-founder pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter last month, averting a trial on murder and attempted murder charges.
The maximum penalty for voluntary manslaughter in California is 11 years in prison, but more years was added to his sentence because of Knight’s prior convictions under the state.
The prison sentence represents the lowest point of a long decline for Knight, one of the most important figures in the history of hip-hop. In the mid-1990s, Knight was putting out wildly popular records that are now considered classics. Knight was driving the car in which rapper Tupac Shakur was shot and killed in Las Vegas in 1996.
