Call it a Knight's tale — a New York publisher has bought the world rights to the sure-to-be-controversial memoir of Marion "Suge" Knight, in which the hip-hop mogul plans to not only tell all about himself, but also to dish on Dr. Dre, J. Lo and Snoop Dogg.

Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin Putnam, hopes to put out the still-untitled book by next spring.

"I see this book as another opportunity to give back to the community," Knight said in a statement Tuesday (July 23). "I want young people to know how terrible prison is. I want them to understand the importance of education, that there are more ways to get out of the ghetto than by being an athlete or a rapper. I want them to dream about success and then make it happen."

Knight first shopped his autobiography to publishers in late June, according to one New York publisher who took a meeting with him (see "Suge Knight To Pen His Life Story").

Without a written proposal, Knight instead took meetings with different publishing houses and relayed the sorts of stories he could tell in his book, from growing up in Compton to the rise of Death Row (now Tha Row) to his incarceration for violating probation on assault charges (see ).

Most of Knight's life story, the publisher said, was straightforward, but it got salacious when Knight turned to his run-ins with artists and music industry notables. In those pitch meetings, Knight told what the publisher called "outrageous" tales of sexual rendezvous between stars and execs.

"This was bizarre as any meeting I've seen," the publisher said. "No proposal, nothing on paper, just Suge telling tales that can never be published. It was fascinating, but is it legal? Is it true? Who knows?"

After the meetings, Knight's agent sent out a memo about which of those stories would make the book. According to the memo, the book will examine Knight's relationships with Snoop Dogg, Vanilla Ice, P. Diddy and John F. Kennedy Jr. Riverhead reps also said the memoir will be the first time Knight publicly addresses the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.

"What he knows, he'll discuss in the book," his agent, Frank Weimann, said.

"Knight's story is a classic American rags-to-riches saga that also illuminates the most significant revolution in popular music of the past several decades," Riverhead's Julie Grau, the project's editor, said in a statement. "He is the most singular combination of showman, businessman and gangster, and a natural born storyteller. Suge intends to write the most candid, unflinching and thoughtful account of his many lives, and it promises to be the definitive story of the life and times of hip-hop."

Riverhead Books has previously published authors such as Nick Hornby ("High Fidelity"), Alex Garland ("The Beach") and the Dalai Lama and recently bought the Kurt Cobain diaries (see ).