Feb. 28 [19:30 EST] -- On Friday afternoon in the Los Angeles criminal courts building, Marion "Suge" Knight, the chief of America's most successful rap label Death Row Records, was sentenced to just under eight years behind bars for violating probation on a prior assault conviction.

Judge J. Stephen Czuleger ruled that Knight appeared to be involved in a hotel-lobby brawl, which took place in Las Vegas only hours before Tupac Shakur was shot to death last September. At the time, Knight was on probation stemming from a prior assault conviction.

Judge Czuleger also told Knight he'll still be on probation once he gets out, in seven years and 355 days.

On Friday, Knight's lawyer David Kenner tried a variety of pleas, to which the judge replied, "You're on quite a fishing expedition here, Mr. Kenner."