Snoop Dogg has opened up about why he chose to remove the Death Row catalogue from various streaming platforms in a new interview.
Back in February, Snoop announced that he was the new owner of Death Row Records, the iconic record label where he started his career 30 years ago.
Death Row Records was founded in 1991 by Suge Knight, Dr. Dre and Michael “Harry O” Harris. Snoop was one of the three key artists responsible for the success of the legendary west coast rap label alongside Dre and 2Pac.
Speaking on the latest episode of Drink Champs with co-hosts DJ EFN and N.O.R.E., Snoop discussed his decision to remove he Death Row catalogue from digital streaming platforms.
“First thing I did was snatch all the music off those platforms traditionally known to people, because those platforms don’t pay,” Snoop said.
“And those platforms get millions of millions of streams, and nobody gets paid other than the record labels. 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.”
You can listen to his comments here at the 1:51:00 mark.
Death Row has had a number of owners over the past two decades including toy company Hasbro, which forked out a whopping $3.8billion to buy Canadian studio Entertainment One Ltd. (eOne) in December 2019. Part of the studio’s assets included Death Row which it purchased in 2013 after the rap label’s previous parent company went bankrupt.
Snoop agreed to a deal with MNRK Music Group on February 9, which is owned by private equity fund Blackstone, to become the new owner of Death Row.
The exact terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but according to Spin, the deal is expected to include the label’s catalogue.
“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,” Snoop said in a press release.
“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. I would like to personally thank the teams at Blackstone, MNRK and especially David Kestnbaum, who worked collaboratively with me over several months to make this exciting homecoming a reality.”
Snoop signed off his statement by adding: “I’m looking forward to building the next chapter of Death Row Records.”
Snoop recently shared plans for his newly acquired label, including the potential release of the track ‘Nuthin’ But A G Thang’ as an NFT.
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