Photo Credit: Death Row MusicSo who own Death Row Records in 2022? Snoop Dogg owns the record label and has grand NFT plans for it. Here’s a brief history of Death Row Records’ ownership.
Death Row Records was founded in 1991 by The D.O.C., Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, and Dick Griffey. The label became a mainstay of West Coast hip-hop albums in the United States, dropping some of the most commercially successful hip-hop albums. Death Row Records was raking in over $100 million a year at its peak. So what happened?
Here’s the origin of Death Row Records and how it got started.
In 1986, N.W.A.’s Dr. Dre signed to Ruthless Records. He was head of production at the label and produced a large number of Ruthless Records projects – many of them successful. Feeling underpaid for his role, Dr. Dre became frustrated with Ruthless. Following the departure of Ice Cube in 1989, Suge Knight and the D.O.C. began looking for a way away from Jerry Heller.
Dr. Dre and Suge Knight, along with the D.O.C. and Dick Griffey then started working on a new record label for themselves. The name of the new music venture was originally called Future Shock. The D.O.C. claims to have suggested the name ‘Def Row’ as a play on Def Jam.
The Unknown DJ already owned the naming rights to Def Row. He says he created the name for a potential record label under Morgan Creek. However, he later sold the rights to Dr. Dre and his partners in 1991. In 1992, the group decided on Death Row Records as their…
