A few days before he and a bunch of his friends are set to perform at the Super Bowl Halftime show, Snoop Dogg has decided to buy the rights to the Death Row Records brand, the label that carried his early career and released the iconic Doggystyle album, among others for Tupac Shakur and label co-founder Dr. Dre. Snoop is buying Death Row from an organization called MNRK Music Group, which is owned by a not-at-all ominous-sounding private equity firm called Blackstone, and Variety says Snoop’s next move will likely be to reacquire some of Death Row’s music rights as well (both his and “unspecific other artists”).
In a statement, Snoop said, “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,” adding, “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.”
Death Row has passed through a few different owners over the years, landing at mega-corporation Entertainment One/eOne a few years ago, long after co-founder Suge Knight’s—ahem—legal troubles forced him to declare bankruptcy for the iconic label. Hasbro bought eOne in 2019, briefly opening the door for Dr. Dre to become friends with Blaster the Autobot (a collaboration that, sadly, never happened), but it offloaded the company’s music division shortly after that to MNRK and Blackstone.
As for Blackstone, it seems to be a rare private equity firm that is totally on the up-and-up and doesn’t value its insatiable lust for money over everything else. Just kidding, there’s no such thing. In case you were curious, the Blackstone-owned hotel chain Motel 6 got sued for handing over lists of guests to ICE agents without a warrant, Blackstone is funding companies that are destroying the Amazon rainforest, and the freakin’ United Nations had to step in and say that Blackstone’s aggressive acquisition of real estate is contributing to a global housing crisis.
But now Snoop Dogg is taking over Death Row, and Blackstone will no longer be able to use CD copies of All Eyez On Me or whatever as chainsaws when they’re chopping down the rainforest… once Snoop actually gets the rights to the music. Right now he just seems to own the name, and that’s also assuming that Snoop Dogg doesn’t have is own anti-rainforest interests, which is possible.
