When Snoop Dogg performs at the Super Bowl this Sunday, it won’t only be a reunion with his old Death Row Records collaborator Dr. Dre, it’ll also be his debut as the new owner of the legendary record label itself. This week, Snoop Dogg officially acquired Death Row Records in a sale from MNRK Music Group of the investment firm Blackstone.
“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,” Snoop Dogg said in a statement announcing the sale. “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. This is an extremely meaningful moment for me.”
The purchase is a full-circle moment of sorts for Snoop Dogg, who broke onto the rap scene as a core artist during Death Row’s golden era in hip-hop, serving as a major presence on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and his own highly successful debut album Doggystyle shortly thereafter. He’s had one of the most accomplished careers in hip-hop, and even took on a role as an executive creative consultant at the iconic Def Jam label in 2021. But he’s still maintained a longtime desire to return to Death Row Records (Snoop Dogg left the label in 1998) in an executive role and to potentially buy the label.
“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 Dogg said in an interview this past December. (According to Variety, this Death Row sale is just one part of a larger deal that will include the acquisition of some of the label’s music rights, including his own.) “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.”
It seems Snoop Dogg has finally returned to his original doghouse and can start healing.
