Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight has been paroled five days earlier than expected.

Knight left Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Calif., on Friday morning after serving half of a nine-year term for violating probation on assault charges. In an interview with a television station in nearby Sacramento shortly before his parole, Knight said that prison has been a good experience for him and that he hopes to persuade young people not to follow in his path. "I had everything. I still do," Knight told KXTV. "But I had everything I could possibly have and I had six of the best lawyers and I still got nine years."

Death Row's latest release, 2Pac's Until the End of Time, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and still sits in the top spot of the R&B/Hip-hop albums chart after three weeks in release. Knight was sentenced to nine years in prison in 1997 for violating probation on the same night in September 1996 that gunmen pulled alongside his car and shot 2Pac, who died a few days later. Knight was on probation for assaulting two MCs at a Hollywood recording studio in 1992.