Pit5 Music News Cache

Josh Grossberg Tue Jul 24, 9:36 AM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by as he rode in Suge Knight's car more than a decade ago. Now the late rapper's family is taking aim at Knight in court over some unreleased albums.

The late rapper's estate, overseen by his mother Afeni Shakur and lawyers for Amaru Entertainment, is seeking a court order that would block rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight's Death Row Records from selling the rare recordings at auction as part of a bankruptcy settlement.

The injunction request was filed Friday in federal bankruptcy court in Los Angeles and alleged Knight's label violated a previous agreement to fork over approximately 152 unreleased songs to Shakur's heirs following his 1996 murder in Las Vegas.

"The estate was under the assumption that it was in possession of all master recordings containing Tupac as a featured artist or side artist, as represented by Death Row," says Donald David, the attorney representing the family.

"However, upon assessing the debtor's bankruptcy assets, it was revealed that an album's worth of unreleased Tupac material was being advertised to potential buyers as the jewel in the crown of the Death Row assets, which is in direct violation of the terms of the 1997 settlement with Death Row."

The Shakur estate also wants the bankruptcy court to determine whether Death Row should be allowed to issue an album of the rare material to satisfy its creditors.

Following the "Old School" rapper's death, Afeni Shakur sought custody of her son's tracks that were sitting in Death Row's vaults. After receiving resistance from Knight and company, the family eventually sued to recover them and the two sides reached a written agreement in June 1997 requiring Death Row to surrender all the master tapes.

But, according to David, several of the never-before-heard master recordings were listed as part of the rap label's assets after it filed for bankruptcy in April 2006, claiming debts in excess of $100 million.

Shakur was the number one act on Death Row and was instrumental, along with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, in helping Knight's empire become the driving force behind gangsta rap music in the mid-'90s.

However Death Row's fortunes began to dwindle as its founder's legal woes mounted.

Knight served more than four years in prison after he was caught on videotape beating up a Crips gang member at a Las Vegas casino, violating his probation.

The rap kingpin was released in 2001 and attempted to rebrand his label with the kinder, gentler moniker Tha Row. But he wound up behind bars a year later for again violating the terms of his probation by hanging out with known gang members.

After his release in 2004, Knight tried to jumpstart Tha Row, but the company never regained its dominance on the charts.

Lackluster sales coupled with a $107 million judgment against him in a civil lawsuit forced Knight to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. To help pay off the massive verdict—to the woman who claimed he tricked her out of a 50 percent stake of Death Row—Knight even put his seven-bedroom mansion up for sale.

Ronald Leibow, a bankruptcy attorney for Death Row, could not be reached for comment. The court is expected to take up the matter later this month.