‘Suge’ Knight and Kanye West face off over ‘bullet’ lawsuit

NEW YORK – Battle-scarred rap mogul Marion ‘Suge’ Knight and volatile hip-hop star Kanye West faced off on Friday over a beef involving a bullet – with a conference table between them.

The two rap titans were there for West to answer questions about a celebrity-packed Miami Beach party where an unknown gunman shot Knight in the leg. West hosted the 2005 fete at the posh Shore Club before the MTV Video Music Awards, held that year in Miami.Knight – who promoted some of rap’s biggest acts in the 1990s but has been beset by legal and financial troubles – has sued the Grammy Award-winning West and the Shore Club’s owners, saying they didn’t provide enough security.Knight said on Friday he had hoped a face-to-face encounter with West – and their lawyers – could settle the matter, but he got few answers.West said he wasn’t involved in the security arrangements for the party, said Knight’s lawyer, Marc Brumer.West briskly left the building afterward; his lawyers didn’t immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages left on Friday evening. In court papers, West and the Shore Club ownership have denied Knight’s claims of negligence.No one has been arrested in the August 2005 shooting, which erupted in a club full of partygoers, including Jessica Alba, Eddie Murphy, the Black Eyed Peas and Paris Hilton. At least six shots were fired, police said.The shooting shattered Knight’s femur and left him with US$200 000 in medical bills, Brumer said.The burly Knight, nicknamed ‘Suge’ for Sugar Bear, founded Death Row Records and was one of the most powerful music figures of the 1990s. His stable of rappers included such superstars as Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre and Tupac Shakur, who was shot and killed in 1996 while riding in Knight’s car. – Nampa-AP