Snoop Dogg & Suge Knight’s Rocky Relationship Explained

While Snoop was first introduced to Dr. Dre and signed with his Future Shock records in 1991, the label would undergo a major change the following year, becoming the now-infamous Death Row Records. Co-founded with Suge Knight, the new label allowed the two rappers to meet for the first time. While Snoop is very much Dre’s protege, the relationship between the rap star and Suge Knight started off as mainly positive. In an interview back in 2018, Snoop said that while he made a lot of money during Death Row’s early days, everything was controlled by Knight.

Snoop Dogg’s seminal debut Doggystyle dropped on Nov. 23, 1993, exploding in popularity on the Billboard charts. Doggystyle earned Snoop his first two solo top 10 hits on the Hot 100: “What’s My Name?” and “Gin and Juice.” Additionally, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and topped that chart for three weeks. The RIAA-certified multiplatinum project initially sold 803,000 copies its premiere week which, at that time, was a first-week record for a debut rap album. That record stood for nearly a decade until 50 Cent’s 2003 debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, which moved 872,000 units in its first week.

While Snoop was at the height of his post-Doggystyle fame, cracks began to show at Death Row despite widespread fame for its star-studded roster. Snoop and Dr. Dre began having issues with Knight’s controlling business mentality. Soon after, rap legend 2Pac was shot and killed while Knight was driving him away from a boxing match, with Knight being subsequently jailed for a probation violation. Around the same time, Snoop’s widely publicized murder trial over the death of Philip Woldemariam began to take place. The rapper was found not guilty in late 1996.

Dr. Dre soon after left the label, followed by Snoop before ’96 was a wrap. He released his last album with Death Row, The DoggFather, in November of that year.

After leaving Death Row at the start of 1997, Snoop Dogg became the label’s most vocal critic, slamming Suge Knight specifically in interviews as a bad business owner. He accused the label head of utilizing intimidation practices to get his way, and of ripping off artists on his roster.

Snoop once told VIBE in 1997, “…who wants to be living that life where we gotta be looking over our shoulders? We makin’ money. We s’posed to be up here enjoying the s—t and giving back to the community, going places and not worrying about s—t. That’s what I’m trying to put back in the game.”

After signing with No Limit records in 1998, Suge Knight instigated a smear campaign against Snoop from behind bars that included alleged death threats. “The n—a threatened my life when
he was in jail,” Snoop told Rolling Stone in a 2006 interview. “N—s tried to get at me at concerts; they put my address on a tape. He was gonna give a n—a a Benz if a nigga cut my hair. All kinda f—kin’ with me.”

After Suge got out of jail in 1991, Snoop and Knight exchanged dozens of insults before the former fired back in an official capacity with “Pimp Slapp’d.” The song appeared on his 2002 album Paid Tha Cost To Be Tha Bo$$. On the track, he addressed Suge Knight by name, and called out other artists including Xzibit, Kurupt and more.

“Suge Knight’s a b—h and that’s on my life,” Snoop rapped at one point.

While the beef almost reached nuclear levels, it came to a screeching halt when Knight was sent back to jail in 2003 for 10 months after reportedly punching a nightclub valet. His legal troubles then continued into 2005 and 2006, respectively, as a result of numerous fights and other altercations.

After Snoop dissed Suge on “Pimp Slapp’d,” Knight started his own campaign against Snoop from behind bars. Members of the new Death Row — Eastwood, Spider Loc and Ganxsta Ridd — released the song “Tha Row (Y’all Hoes)” on the 2003 Dysfunktional Family soudtrack. The diss track included a barrage of insults aimed at Snoop, and resulted in a lawsuit filed by Snoop’s mom and others.

While it’s unclear exactly what happened after Knight’s diss, Snoop Dogg said in 2013 that he was cool with Suge after a “meeting of the minds” transpired.

“Two great minds who realized that going at each would do nothing but leave two dead minds,” Snoop said in an interview with VladTV at the time. The DoggFather chalked up the tense feud as “miscommunication.”

“We were man enough to have that conversation behind closed doors,” he said of the conversation they had at the time.

Snoop distanced himself from Knight once again at the start of 2015 after the former Death Row leader was arrested and charged with the hit-and-run murder of Terry Carter. Knight was eventually sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter.

In 2022, Snoop Dogg surprised everyone when he announced he had acquired Death Row Records from MNRK Music Group. “It feels good to have ownership of the label I was part of at the beginning of my career and as one of the founding members. This is an extremely meaningful moment for me,” Snoop said in a statement at the time of the transaction. “I’m looking forward to building the next chapter of Death Row Records.”

After news spread of Snoop’s purchase of Death Row, Suge Knight finally made his feelings known in a 2025 jail interview with The Art of Dialogue. Snoop had previously said Knight was “mad” at the former’s purchase, but Suge Knight slammed Snoop heavily in the interview, and questioned whether he even actually owned it.

“You trying to create something that Suge Knight created, but instead of making something big, you disappointed the world by making everything flops,” Knight said at he time. “When I put out Tha Dogg Pound, they sold records. You put out Tha Dogg Pound, they sold nothing — it flopped.”

He went on to criticize Snoop for killing the West Coast sound.

“You don’t got to talk tough,” Suge Knight added. “We don’t got to talk about each other that gets [us] nowhere. One person or three or four people is not bigger than hip-hop. We should be trying to figure out how to make hip-hop better. Everybody destroying hip-hop — you guys are making it worse. If you have Death Row, you destroyed it. You messed up the name…Snoop, you said I’m mad because you bought Death Row. What you buy? Shut me up. Show me where y’all paid the money to buy it. Show me the paperwork — show me what you own.”

The following May, Snoop Dogg responded to Suge Knight’s accusations on his song “Shut Yo B—h A— Up.” Snoop flexed about taking ownership of Death Row from Knight, and then went on to label the former music executive a snitch.

“I can see why you mad/ I bought everything you own/ Now you in PC snitching on the phone/ But I can slap the taste out your muthaf–kin’ mouth/ Pull up on your n—a, make you wanna reroute/ And if he hit the main line, he gon’ see what we bout/ Oh b—h-a—s n—a, I’m a rich-a—s n—a,” he raps.