This past week, Snoop Dogg acquired the famed record label Death Row Records that he initially was signed to at the beginning of his career. The acclaimed label housed the most notable rappers in the West Coast in the 1990s, but has a turbulent history.
As its co-founder Suge Knight is now behind bars for a 2015 hit-and-run, Snoop’s reclaiming of the label is major for its future. Days after this acquisition, Snoop dropped the label’s first album under his reign, and his second album in the last few months, with his Bacc On Death Row project.
After this big week, TMZ decided to ask Suge Knight Jr. his thoughts on Snoop taking control of the label his dad helped build, and he supported the move as a success for the West Coast: “It’s a victory for the West Coast. I’m happy just like everyone else. I kind of knew beforehand that this was going to happen. This, to me, is like a silent victory because I spoke to all of these executives myself and pitched the ideas for merchandising for rebranding. Now to see it fall in the hands of Snoop, I’m happy it’s coming back to the West Coast.”
Instead of dwelling on its up-and-down past, Knight Jr. is focused on brighter futures for Death Row: “Hopefully now we can start winning. We lost Nipsey, we lost Kobe, we lost a lot of things. Even after my dad went to jail, we started losing. Hopefully we start winning with the Rams (in the Super Bowl), and start winning now. I’ve seen the comments that think, ‘Suge Knight Jr.’s punching the air,’ but nah we cool. We just gotta do business right and start winning. Hip-hop is like the WWE, it’s the fans that create narratives, it’s what it is. Eazy E and my pops were cool, Snoop and my pops were cool, a lot of people are cool in the industry. People just don’t understand that. I hope people understand we’re not punching the air, we’re working. Hopefully we’re all on the same page.”
Check out what Suge Knight Jr. had to say about Snoop below.