A partnership-minded leader would try to land the next big-name artists to match Snoop and Dre.But the upside is tremendous if those artists pop. There are high variable costs with landing each artist. The label would have more control in grooming that talent. An ownership-minded leader can build a roster of young artists who can eventually take the mantle from Snoop and Dre. ![]() Death Row came out the gate with two classics and a memorable movie soundtrack.Īt this point, most labels have a choice to make: Most record labels are lucky to drop one classic rap album in its life span. By Spring 1994, the label had already dropped The Chronic, Doggystyle, and the Above the Rim soundtrack. Here’s DaBaby in his Suge Knight attire (YouTube) Partnership disguised as ownershipĭeath Row had a lot of success early on. Most rappers would have stopped there, but Suge took it further, which is where he messed up. That quote sounds like something a 2019 rapper would say prophetically on an episode of The Breakfast Club. We not gonna be the ones doing all the work and you get all the money and own it.’ Modern-day slavery. We gotta own the masters.’ They said, ‘How do you know about that?’ I said, ‘I know the business. “Interscope was a couple weeks from going bankrupt before they met me. When they eventually found Interscope, Knight was upfront about his desires. Death Row sat on Dre’s classic album The Chronic for an entire year until they found the right distribution partner. Neither wanted to lose out on owning their masters, recording rights, and publishing. Suge and Dre jointly invested $250,000 to build Death Row on their terms. As expected, Dre soon became an unrestricted free agent. Dre, with Suge’s help, hired goons to tear up Heller’s office. Dre felt cheated by his former label Ruthless Records and manager Jerry Heller who wouldn’t let Dre out of his N.W.A. Knight used that money to launch Death Row. Suge stalked and intimidated Ice into signing over the rights to the song. (Which isn’t surprising at all since the “Ice Ice Baby” beat was stolen from Queen’s “Under Pressure”). The “Ice, Ice, Baby” artists did not give credit to one of Suge’s client who wrote several songs on Ice’s debut album. In the early 90s, Suge jammed up Vanilla Ice. Both experienced the cold world of the music industry and used brute force to combat it. Unfortunately for Knight, business doesn’t work like that. ![]() Suge Knight wanted the power that came with big names, the control that came with total ownership, and none of the tradeoffs from either approach. That was surely a factor, but the root cause stems deeper. The demise of Death Row is often characterized as a premonition of its crime-ridden persona. Dre left the label, Tupac passed away, Snoop Dogg released an album that flopped, and Knight was behind bars. Even the megastars.ĭeath Row rose to unreachable heights then crashed and burned like a Shakesperean tragedy. Knight wanted to own each part of his artist’s wealth. Those tactics were rooted in Death Row’s foundation. In the 90s, Suge infamously earned money on the backs of everyone he crossed paths with. It’s the type of tongue-in-cheek irony that you both love and hate to see. DaBaby pokes fun at Knight’s bullying and coercion tactics, all while living his own life full of ridiculous antics and altercations. The 27-year-old donned a buffed-up suit to impersonate the former Death Row CEO in the song’s music video, where DaBaby literally slaps “the shit” out of somebody. He profited off of Suge Knight without Suge Knight earning a dime. Hip-hop often blames Death Row’s demise on the crime-ridden life it portrayed, but Suge Knight’s management theory was doomed from the start.Ĭharlotte rapper DaBaby has accomplished something that’s never happened before in hip-hop.
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