Snoop Dogg is now the owner of the Death Row Records brand, the label which launched his career. Blackstone, the global investment firm which manages private equity funds that control the group he bought the brand from made the announcement on Wednesday.
Snoop Dogg bought the Death Row Records brand from MNRK Music Group just before his latest album called B.O.D.R. is set to be released on Feb. 11, Blackstone said in a statement.
“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. 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," Snoop Dogg said. "This is an extremely meaningful moment for me. I would like to personally thank the teams at Blackstone, MNRK and especially David Kestnbaum, who worked collaboratively with me over several months to make this exciting homecoming a reality. I’m looking forward to building the next chapter of Death Row Records,” he said.
As the Guardian reported in a profile of his career, then known as Snoop Doggy Dogg, he released his first debut single in October of 1993. Hits like "Gin & Juice," and "Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang" followed leading the artist to enormous success which lasts until this day with various ventures in the entertainment world, even outside of music.
Snoop Dogg has released 20 studio albums and sold over 40-million copies of those albums globally, garnering multiple number one spots on the Billboard charts and he has received 20 Grammy nominations.
As NPR reported, Tupac Shakur was Death Row Record's star artist for a period in the late 1990s before he was shot and killed in Las Vegas in 1996. Another hit artist and producer on the label, Dr. Dre, released his first solo album with the brand called "The Chronic," and Snoop Dogg's own debut album "Doggystyle" was also released by Death Row.
