Death Row Records

Game over for Suge Knight

Having seen the company's image plagued by rumors of bad business deals [click to read] and allegations of violence, Death Row Records' new owner has a few simple plans for her new investment.

"Our goal is to make sure that fans’ first taste of the new Death Row is stuff that’s fresh," WIDEawake CEO Lara Lavi tells the Wall Street Journal. "There’s so much video and artwork and music that’s never been seen by fans...We’re going to put a Death Row online destination store site together."

Lavi's company purchased the remaining Death Row catalogue at an auction on January 15 for $18 million [click to read]. As she goes about the task of remaking the company's image, her statements about its former owner sound decidedly different from Death Row's previous suitors.

"Suge doesn’t own this thing anymore" adds Lavi." As long as we keep pulling it back to that, it makes it very hard to go forward, and it’s painful for the artists. I really want these artists to feel good. Mr. Knight is a business man. And I think he comes from a community with these artists, and they know each other and they’re going to continue to know each other. It’s not about what he influences but how we go forward as a team to create a new day for Death Row."

The two-week-old purchase makes Lavi the owner of a cadre of unreleased recordings from the likes of Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound. She likely also inherits material from artists such as Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez, Crooked I and Petey Pablo, who were signed when Knight rechristened the label as Tha Row. Lavi asserts that she's aware of how much of a drastic change her image is from her predecessor's.

"There is an irony to a singer/songwriter/entertainment lawyer/soccer mom now being the chief of this thing," says Lavi, who also co-founded Very Juicy Records with her husband, producer Maurice Jones Jr. "I’ve been married for many, many years to an African-American man. I’ve had the blessing of being exposed to music that perhaps my upbringing would not have suggested would be possible."

Former Death Row artists Daz, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre have attempted to either sue Death Row, or outright buy back their catalogues in the past. Lavi expressed hopes of re-establishing a relationship with them and former artists.

"[We need] to have a healing process with the Death Row artists, and that is probably one of my first priorities...to systematically talk to the artists that have quality catalogs in the Death Row asset purchase and get things on a better level," Lavi says. "They deserve better than this. Their product has been sitting in a bankruptcy proceeding for the past three years. Much of it hasn’t seen the light of day."

By Rashad Phillips
[SOURCE]

Biggie Smalls spits alongside Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Tha DPG, Warren G and even The DOC from the Death Row camp together on one stage, performing. Peep the waay-waay back BK swagger on Biggie.

Infamous music mogul Marion "Suge" Knight has officially lost ownership of Death Row Records, as he lost his appeal against a ruling forcing him to sell off all assets from the defunct label.

Knight, who first filed for bankruptcy in 2006 following the company's downfall, was ordered by a California judge in May to liquidate the label at an auction this month. He was in court Tuesday arguing against the order, but his motion was denied and the sale pressed on. The auction included the rights to the label’s back catalogue, which contains such classics as Dr. Dre's The Chronic, and various tracks from Snoop Dogg and the late Hip-Hop legend Tupac Shakur.

The highest bid in the auction came from Global Music Group owner Susan Berg, who bid $24 million for the lot, according to TMZ.

Court documents obtained by TMZ.com show that infamous former Death Row Records owner Suge Knight is finally being forced to auction the label off to the highest bidder.

The documents state that "all of the recorded music business assets of the estate, along with substantially all of the music publishing business assets of ... Marion 'Suge' Knight" will be up for grabs on June 24.

With a minimum starting bid of $24 million, the auction winner will walk away with works by the likes of Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and the Dogg Pound. Bids must be received by June 10.

Knight's control over the label slipped in a 2006 court ruling that awarded $107 million to a couple that claimed to have fronted the start-up money for Death Row.

The sale of Death Row records might have taken place already, but has been stalled by lawsuits from Dr. Dre and Afeni Shakur, who questioned rights to Dre's solo début, The Chronic, and several of Tupac's recordings.

Article by [Livesteez.com]