“Straight Outta Compton” made beaucoup bucks, earned strong reviews, and was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Not everybody liked it, of course — including Marion “Suge” Knight, the former CEO of Death Row Records who was involved in a hit-and-run that left one man dead and allegedly began following an argument on the set of the N.W.A biopic. According to testimony that was just made public, he also threatened F. Gary Gray, the film’s director, both over the phone and via text message.
“I will see u in person … u have kids just like me so let’s play hardball,” Knight texted Gray, according to the Los Angeles Times; that message was followed by “a pair of expletives and a racial slur.” Knight had previously called Gray several times, apparently “furious” at the way he was being depicted in “Straight Outta Compton.”
LAT also notes that these messages “left Gray so shaken that he spent nearly two days dodging questions about the incident during a grand jury hearing earlier this year.”
“He’s so afraid he came in here and lied under oath,” Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes said of Gray. “He’s perjuring himself because he’s that afraid.” During his grand-jury hearing, the director said, “I can’t say I remember being threatened by him specifically.” Read the full story here.
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