Death Row Records
Snoop Dogg Explains Why He Removed Several Death Row Albums From Streaming Services
Earlier this year, just days before he took the stage for the Super Bowl Halftime Show with Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and more, Snoop Dogg announced that he acquired the rights to Death Row Records. The label, which was infamously founded by The D.O.C., Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, and Dick Griffey, was the home of Tupac’s All Eyez on Me as well as Snoop’s first two solo albums: Doggystyle and Tha Doggfather. However, shortly after acquiring Death Row, Snoop decided to remove several albums in the label’s catalog from streaming services. During a recent appearance on Drink Champs, Dogg explained why.
“First thing I did was snatch all the music off those platforms traditionally known to people, because those platforms don’t pay,” he said around the 1:51:00 mark of the episode. “And those platforms get millions of millions of streams, and nobody gets paid other than the record labels.” He added, “So what I wanted to do is snatch my music off, create a platform similar to Amazon, Netflix, Hulu. It’ll be a Death Row app, and the music, in the meantime, will live in the metaverse.”
Snoop’s explanation comes after he apparently secured the rights to Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, which was released on Death Row back in 1992.
You can watch the full Drink Champs episode in the video above.
[WATCH] Warren G Speaks On Being Pressed By Suge Knight For Telling Snoop Not To Sign Death Row Contract
West Coast/G-Funk legend Warren G sat down with Talib Kweli for his ‘Peoples Party’ podcast, where the production pioneer talked about being affiliated with Death Row Records, but not actually signing to the label.
Warren explained how things got heated when Suge found out that Warren warned the label’s premiere artist Snoop Dogg not to sign the Death Row contract without getting it reviewed by an attorney.
He said, “I told Snoop ‘No, don’t sign that. You don’t know what you’re signing. You gotta get a lawyer to look at that stuff.’ And I was a young buck saying this!”
Warren said when Suge came for him, “He was like, ‘Aye, blood! Where Warren G at?!’ And I was like, ‘Sh*t, what’s up?’ He said, ‘Aye, blood. You told them not to sign that contract?!’ I took off! But the only way you could get down was the elevator, so I’m at the elevator like [hurriedly pressing the button]. He grabbed me and pushed me up against the wall and was like, ‘You told them not to sign that contract, blood?!’”
See the video below.
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[WATCH] Warren G Speaks On Being Pressed By Suge Knight For Telling Snoop Not To Sign Death Row Contract
West Coast/G-Funk legend Warren G sat down with Talib Kweli for his ‘Peoples Party’ podcast, where the production pioneer talked about being affiliated with Death Row Records, but not actually signing to the label.
Warren explained how things got heated when Suge found out that Warren warned the label’s premiere artist Snoop Dogg not to sign the Death Row contract without getting it reviewed by an attorney.
He said, “I told Snoop ‘No, don’t sign that. You don’t know what you’re signing. You gotta get a lawyer to look at that stuff.’ And I was a young buck saying this!”
Warren said when Suge came for him, “He was like, ‘Aye, blood! Where Warren G at?!’ And I was like, ‘Sh*t, what’s up?’ He said, ‘Aye, blood. You told them not to sign that contract?!’ I took off! But the only way you could get down was the elevator, so I’m at the elevator like [hurriedly pressing the button]. He grabbed me and pushed me up against the wall and was like, ‘You told them not to sign that contract, blood?!’”
See the video below.
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Snoop Dogg Says Dr. Dre’s ‘The Chronic’ Is Back at Death Row Records
After much talk about the future of Death Row Records in the hands of West Coast legend and former label signee Snoop Dogg, the talk of the imprint being the first NFT label continues, but one of the label’s biggest album’s is back home.
According to Snoop, “As far as 2Pac’s masters, 2Pac’s masters came back to him last year. But I got a great relationship with his estate, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to be able to work something out … to continue some Death Row 2Pac business now that Snoop Dogg is in control of Death Row. Same with Dr. Dre and The Chronic. I got The Chronic album. I got Doggystyle, Tha Doggfather, Murder Was the Case, Dogg Food, Above the Rim. I got all those records.”
Dr .Dre’s attorney released a statement saying that the Hip Hop mogul owns the rights to his biggest album to date. “There are false reports out regarding ownership by Death Row of Dr. Dre’s The Chronic. Dr. Dre owns 100 percent of The Chronic,” said Howard King.
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Snoop Dogg Has Apparently Secured The Rights To A Death Row Classic: ‘The Chronic Is Bac Home’
Over the past few weeks, Snoop Dogg, who recently bought back the Death Row Records brand and much of its catalog, has been working to complete the collection, which was missing certain pivotal records including Snoop’s own debut Doggystyle and Dr. Dre’s debut The Chronic. Both albums were removed from streaming as negotiations continued. After some confusion over the ownership of the latter, it now appears that as of this week, The Chronic will once again appear under the Death Row banner, according to an Instagram post Snoop shared.
While no real details were revealed, that didn’t stop fans and peers in the comments from expressing their excitement, with 50 Cent predicting “something good coming from this.” Snoop previously shared plans to have Death Row become the first “major in the metaverse,” with designs on re-releasing the label’s collection of seminal hip-hop hits as NFTs. In the meantime, it looks like he’s still working out publishing profit shares for the label’s Tupac releases.
Meanwhile, Snoop remains pretty busy outside of Death Row; in addition to lending his likeness to the Call Of Duty video game franchise, he’s appearing in an NFT comic book, working with fellow California legends E-40, Ice Cube, and Too Short as Mount Westmore, and even plotting a collaboration with Korean pop band BTS.
Today in Hip-Hop History: Death Row Records’ ‘Above The Rim’ Soundtrack Dropped 28 Years Ago
On this day in Hip-Hop history, Death Row Records in conglomeration with Interscope Records released the soundtrack to the popular film, Above the Rim. Winning the 1995 Source Award for Soundtrack of the Year, this album featured so many hits that it could have stood alone from the movie as a compilation album.
Acting as executive producers of the project, Suge Knight and Dr. Dre curated one of the most popular movie soundtracks of all time. This album featured work from artists 2Pac, Warren G, SWV, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, The Lady of Rage, and more. Due to the popularity of the artists and the success of the movie, the soundtrack sold 2,000,000 copies in the year of its release and peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart. Although it fell short on the mainstream chart, the album was able to grab hold of that #1 spot on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart. Here are some videos from the famed soundtrack to help jog your memory of its greatness.
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Some Death Row Albums Including ‘Doggystyle’ And ‘The Chronic’ Were Removed From Streaming Services
Following his purchase of Death Row Records last month, it appears Snoop Dogg has removed several of the label’s albums from digital streaming platforms. Upon purchasing the label, Snoop revealed plans to transform Death Row into an “NFT label” which will operate within the Metaverse.
Among the albums missing from streaming services are Snoop Dogg’s debut album Doggystyle, Dr. Dre’s debut album The Chronic, and Tha Dogg Pound’s Dogg Food. Still available from streaming are Tupac’s All Eyez On Me and The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, as Death Row no longer owns the rights to Tupac’s master recordings.
While Snoop has not confirmed that he ordered these albums’ removal from streaming services, Dr. Dre’s attorney Howard King issued a statement to Complex earlier this month, following Snoop’s acquisition of Death Row. “There are false reports out regarding ownership by Death Row of Dr. Dre’s The Chronic,” King said. “Dr. Dre owns 100% of The Chronic.”
Over the past year, Snoop has built a large collection of NFTs, and even revealed himself as the owner of popular NFT Twitter account @CozomoMedici. Singer and prolific songwriter Sia also revealed herself as Cozomo de’ Medici’s “granddaughter” and the owner of the @BiancaMedici69 NFT Twitter account.
In addition to his venture into the NFT space, Snoop also joined FaZe Clan earlier this month as a member of the esports company’s board of directors and talent. He plans to launch a community outreach program through FaZe Clan.
The Source Magazine Remembers Nate Dogg 11 Years Later
Sending a 21 gun soldier salute Rest In Peace one of Hip Hop’s favorite crooners
There were many who tried, but nobody put R&B into Hip Hop the way it was supposed to sound better than the late, great Nate Dogg of the legendary Dogg Pound. The Source Magazine would like to send him a posthumous shout in recognition of his contributions to the game.
Besides his obvious links to Snoop Dogg and the original Death Row Family, Nathaniel Hale, born on this date in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1969, Nate appeared alongside several iconic artists in the game including 2Pac, 50 Cent, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z. The world lost a talented singer, actor and musician when Nate succumbed to multiple strokes on March 15, 2011. He was 41 years old.
Condolences go out to Warren G, Dr. Dre, Snoop and the entire 213 on the day an entire community lost a Hip Hop legend.
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Snoop Dogg Removes Most Of Death Row’s Catalogue From DSPs
Last month, things began to take a futuristic turn for Death ROw Records, with former label signee Snoop Dogg taking ownership of the label and soon after said that the “world’s most dangerous recordlabel” would be made into an NFT. To further solidify that, the Dogg has now removed all of Death Row’s previous recordings from all streaming platforms.
Even though the report stems from a Wikipedia page, upon close examination of Death Row recordings on all DSPs including those from Snoop Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound, all of access to these songs and albums on public streaming platforms have been removed. Death Row labeled classic albums like Doggystyle, Dogg Food, the Above The Rim soundtrack, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and more are no longer available.
Snoop discussed the idea of bringing the Death Row label into the metaverse in a Clubhouse conversation, saying, “Death Row will be an NFT label,” he said.“We will be putting out artists through the metaverse. Just like we broke the industry when we was the first independent to be major, I want to be the first major in the metaverse.”
Even though Snoop hasn’t publicly addressed the disappearance of the Death Row projects, but fans have certainly expressed their displeasure in the absence of some of Hip Hop’s most revered classics.
One Clubhouse participant said, “So, thanks to Snoop Dogg promoting NFT shit and making Death Row Records an NFT record label, all the releases except 2Pac’s, will be removed from Spotify and so on. This is actually bullshit, that means no more Dre’s Chronic on Spotify. NFTs need to die, fucking stupid movement.”
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