Snoop Dogg and Suge Knight accused of defrauding Death Row executive of $107million
A woman has sued Snoop Dogg and Suge Knight over claims she was defrauded. Lydia Harris, a former Death Row Records executive and ex-wife of the label’s co-founder, Michael ‘Harry-O’ Harris, alleges she wasn’t paid a $107million judgment from a 2005 court order.
Harris says she invested $1.5million to launch Death Row in 1989 but wasn’t compensated when the label started profiting. She claims all parties in the lawsuit conspired to keep her from her rightful earnings, naming Interscope Records, Time Warner and Universal Music Group in the documents.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Harris seeks punitive damages, asset recovery, and a full accounting of the label’s finances. She originally sued Death Row in 2002.
Earlier this month, Knight attacked Snoop for acquiring Death Row, the label that kicked off his career with Doggystyle, claiming he was “destroying” it.
“Snoop, you said I’m mad because you bought Death Row? What’d you buy? Show me the paperwork. Show me what you own,” he told The Art of Dialogue. “And you was running Def Jam. Did you do anything good for Def Jam? Absolutely not. Now you wanna start something that has nothing to do with you.”
He continued, “You going backwards. You tryna create something that Suge Knight created. But instead of going big, you disappointing the world by making everything flops. We should be trying to figure out how to make hip hop better. Everybody destroying hip-hop — you guys are making it worse. If you have Death Row, you destroyed it. You messed up the name.”
Snoop became the new owner of Death Row in 2022 and has released his last two albums, Bacc on Death Row and Missionary, through the label.
“I am thrilled and appreciative of the opportunity to acquire the iconic and culturally significant Death Row Records brand, which has immense untapped future value,” he said after purchasing the legendary label. “It feels good to have ownership of the label I was part of at the beginning of my career and as one of the founding members. This is an extremely meaningful moment for me.”