Rodney King

Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965 – June 17, 2012) was an American construction worker turned writer and activist after surviving an act of police brutality by the Los Angeles Police Department. The city of Los Angeles awarded King $3.8 million in damages. He used some of that money to start a Hip-hop record label Straight Al-Ta-Pazz Records in 1997. The name "Al-Ta-Pazz" is a reference to King's Altadena-Pasadena, California neighborhood.