DEATH ROW GETS SUED

Less than a week out of the pokey and already Suge Knight finds himself in the midst of a lawsuit. According to the Los Angeles Times, hip-hop producer Delmar "Daz Dillinger" Arnaud is suing Knight’s Death Row Records, alleging the record label and Knight, cheated Arnaud out of more than $1 million.

"Death Row and Suge Knight exploited Daz shamelessly," says the lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court. "They collected tens of millions of dollars in record sales and royalties. They violated agreement after agreement…Greed knew no bounds at Death Row."

Which are harsh words from one of Death Row's original artists. Arnaud signed with the Los Angeles record label in 1993, and the label has high hopes for a newly released collection from Arnaud's group, Tha Dogg Pound.

According to the Times, Arnaud’s songs for artists such as MC Hammer, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, generated more than $15 million in record sales during his more than seven-year association with Suge and his label.

The suit also contends that Arnaud was bullied into signing renegotiated contracts with Death Row in 1997 and 1998 without the benefit of an outside audit and that negotiations "were accompanied by the deliberate withholding of funds owed and threats of physical violence."

According to the Times, Arnaud received $75,000 as an initial payment under the 1998 agreement, which was supposed to supersede earlier agreements. The two sides disagree over whether Arnaud is owed royalties under those previous agreements.

Arnaud says will not know exactly how much he is owed until Death Row's financial records are audited, the suit said.