Suge Knight Joking About Killing Eazy-E With AIDS Blood Back In 2003 Goes Viral After ‘Straight Outta Compton’ Success

A video of rap mogul Suge Knight joking about the death of N.W.A. co-founder Eazy-E back in 2003 during his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show has started to do the rounds because of the success of Straight Outta Compton.

Knight, who is currently in jail on murder and attempted murder charges that hark back to January, feuded with Eazy-E over Dr. Dre’s desire to leave N.W.A. and form Death Row records.

It’s been alleged that Knight even sent over some thugs to physically abuse Eazy-E to get Dre out of his contract. But over a decade after this incident, it was clear that Knight still had an issue with Eazy-E as he made the outrageous joke to Kimmel, whose talk show had only started on ABC earlier that year. You can check out a clip of the exchange below.

In the clip, Knight notices that Kimmel is wearing a bulletproof vest and then explains that shooting someone with a gun is now a stupid way to commit murder.

“They got this new thing out,” Knight then explained. “They get blood from somebody with AIDS and they shoot you with it. That’s a slow death. The Eazy-E thing, you know what I mean?”

The crowd in attendance at the show couldn’t help but let out a large groan following Knight’s remarks, while Kimmel himself was clearly taken aback by them, too.

Straight Outta Compton, which tells the story of how the stupendously successful hip-hop group came together and changed the landscape of music, has made a record-breaking start to its tenure at the box office. In fact, its $56 million sum is the highest for an R-rated film in American cinema history.

Unfortunately, Eazy-E was not around to see the impact of the film, as he died from complications due to AIDS on March 26, 1995, just one month after he was originally diagnosed. Before he died, he managed to reconcile with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, who he had feuded with in the years after the disintegration of N.W.A.

However, Eazy-E’s legacy in the world of music and hip-hop was already confirmed prior to his death for his sterling work as both a solo artist and with N.W.A. This saw him contribute to the albums N.W.A and the Posse, Straight Outta Compton, 100 Miles and Runnin’, and N***az4life, with the latter. In fact, he’s even been referred to as the godfather of gangster rap.

[Photo by Mark Mainz / Getty Images]