Snoop Dogg revealed in an extensive new interview that “the man in me was hurt” when he was not given the chance to purchase Death Row Records.
Speaking to TIDAL‘s Elliot Wilson via GQ, the hip-hop veteran explained that he was led to his current executive position at Def Jam Recordings after failing to acquire Suge Knight’s Death Row. “I went looking for this job because I wanted to be the CEO of Death Row Records and basically take over the merchandise and rerelease their music, do documentaries, and possibly do my life story,” Snoop shared. “But then eOne Music [which owned Death Row Music until April 2021] didn’t want to give me action at it. So then I asked could I buy it? And they acted like they didn’t want to sell it. Then they sold it [to the Blackstone Group], and the man in me was hurt, but the businessman in me said, Okay, I got to find something else to do to take this energy of mine that I’m holding on to.”
He added that he considered Def Jam, Death Row and Biggie Smalls’ Bad Boy as the original three hip-hop record labels. “That’s the epitome of street n****s becoming corporate. So you want to protect the legacy of those three, because they inspired all this independent shit that’s happening now,” he said. “If you don’t have Def Jam, Death Row and Bad Boy, you don’t have none of these independent labels that’s blowing the f*ck up, being in control, having their shit. That’s from Master P’s No Limit to Cash Money to Quality Control. And you got to give respect to Uncle Luke, to J Prince, you got to give respect to people like that who forged their own lanes. They stood on respect. And that’s just the passion we got for hip-hop.”
“Def Jam means that much. And when I get done, somebody’s going to be right behind me that’s going to be like, ‘Man, Def Jam is the world to me in this era. In the way Def Jam meant the most to me when it started. Not in the ‘90s, but in the ’80s! That aura, that essence,” Snoop said.
Elsewhere in music, a Houston-based law firm is seeking $10 billion USD in Astroworld damages from Travis Scott.
