Snoop Dogg is undoubtedly a legend in the culture of hip hop. With his name synonymous with West Coast hip hop, Snoop Dogg began his career as part of the Long Beach hip hop crew 213 alongside Warren G and Nate Dogg. However, things changed when he was introduced to Dr Dre as he became his protégé.
As part of Death Row Records, Snoop Dogg first became mainstream when he was featured on Dr Dre’s 1992 track ‘Deep Cover’. His first and second albums would lay the foundation for a career that would accelerate at lightning speed leading the rapper to work with the likes of Ice Cube, Jay-Z and more.
Snoop Dogg’s early years began during the 1990s G-Funk era, where, alongside Dr Dre, Nate Dogg, Warren G, 2pac and others, he would help take West Coast hip hop to heights it had never seen before. 30 years on from the release of ‘Deep Cover’, which was released on Death Row, Snoop is now the sole owner of the Record Label.
Earlier this year, the rapper bought the label and quickly decided to remove the label’s entire catalogue from streaming services, and in an interview with rapper Noreaga on the Drink Champs podcast, Snoop let it be known why that music is no longer available.
Snoop Dogg revealed, “I was working for Def Jam, Executive Creative Consultant…so I was doing my little work over there, and I really wanted Death Row first, but eOne sh*tted on me, they tried to treat me like a h*e, they wanted me to come and work for them.”
He continued, “They had the label, and for a year and a half two years I was trying to get my masters. All I wanted was Doggystyle. I was originally trying to say, ‘eOne, how can we work a deal where I can get my masters?’ Then Hasbro bought eOne so I was dealing with Hasbro and eOne.” Talking about what a mess it was the rapper disclosed, “I was talking to eOne they were giving me the runaround so I said ‘Why don’t you let me come work for y’all so I can get my masters? I can blow your sh*t up make it go you can give me the Death Row Catalogue and let me get my masters’.”
He even detailed how eOne tried to rope him into a dodgy contract revealing, “they said come work for us for 12 years, you’ll get your masters back in 15. They sold Death Row to some trillionaires and I know some people who knew them, so I made a call, so I manoeuvred and said let me just get Death Row. Don’t even want the masters right now”
Then he closed the deal, stating, “Then I hollered at them said how much for the masters and I said not just mine I want all of them! Then there’s one piece missing. What about the publishing I need all of them. Then I snatched everything Death Row off traditional, iTunes, Apple, and Spotify. So I took the Death Row catalogue to Gala Games the company I f*ck with in the Metaverse, then build a Death Row app, so we can be like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and we have an app for all of our content!”
He then went on to speak about finances and why he did it, “I wanna get paid all of the people that never got paid. Nate Dogg, Rage, RBX, Daz, Kurupt then I wanna make sure the founder Harry-O can get paid. Give him a position in the company to be an executive ’cause he’s a brilliant mind, then I’ll take care of Warren G take his stuff from Def Jam put it in the metaverse so he’s set for the rest of his life.”
Snoop Dogg bought Death Row so he could not only get his masters, but generate money to pay all of the names he mentioned who were integral to the success of West Coast hip hop in the 1990s but never got paid. The names he mentioned were seminal artists who collaborated with Death Row in various ways but never received any money for their contributions. Now Snoop Dogg plans to take control. You can watch the full interview in the video below.
