Knight says his company has no links with the case

The family of the victim has started a wrongful death lawsuit, which names rapper Big Lurch, as well as Knight's Death Row Records, now called Tha Row.

Big Lurch - real name Antron Singleton - is also awaiting a criminal trial over the death of 21-year-old Tynisha Ysais.

The victim's mother, Carolyn Stinson, is suing Mr Singleton, Death Row Records and another label called Stress Free, as well as two employees.

Knight said he had never met Mr Singleton and has not heard of Stress Free, named in the lawsuit as a division of Tha Row.

He said: "I don't know this guy... Nobody from our company knows this guy. I never even heard the guy rap."

The lawsuit alleges that the labels provided Mr Singleton with drugs and encouraged him to "act out in an extreme violent manner to make him more marketable as a 'gangsta rap' artist".

They're just looking to get paid. It's not only just slander. It's fraud. Marion "Suge" Knight

The Texas-born artist faces the death penalty if convicted of killing his roommate.

Ms Ysais was found in her LA apartment with teeth marks on her face and on pieces of her lung, which had been torn from her chest.

Mr Singleton was arrested on a nearby street after police found him staggering naked, apparently dazed and covered in blood.

Knight said the lawsuit had been filed in an attempt to cash in on his brand of rap.

"They're just looking to get paid," he said. "It's not only just slander. It's fraud."

Ms Stinson's lawyer, Winston McKesson, said that Mr Singleton could have been linked to Knight's label by mistake.

He said: "If it turns out that Death Row is right - that there is no connection - we will drop them (from the lawsuit) immediately."