How Did Snoop leave Death Row?

Death Row Records helped launch Snoop’s career with the release of his 1993 critically acclaimed debut album Doggystyle.

He left Death Row five years later following a feud over his contract and the alleged royalty payments that were being withheld from him.

In February 2022, Snoop Dog acquired Death Row Records’ brand from MNRK Music Group, which is controlled by a private equity fund managed by Blackstone.

Snoop Dogg found his springboard to success during the 1990s while on Death Row Records. The label was founded in 1992 by Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, the D.O.C. and Dick Griffey in the immediate aftermath of the breakup of N.W.A.

The label’s records, including Dre’s first solo album “The Chronic” and Snoop Dogg’s debut “Doggystyle,” are considered classics of the hip-hop genre that defined an era.

Tupac Shakur became the label’s star artist later in the ’90s before he was shot and killed in Las Vegas in 1996 while riding in a car driven by Knight. Shakur’s death brought on decline for the label, which led to decades of decline for Knight himself.

Knight lost Death Row after it went into bankruptcy in 2006. He served time in prison and had a knack for being near violence that eventually caught up with him.

“Snoop is clearly the executive to take Death Row into its next 30 years,” said Chris Taylor, president and CEO of MNRK Music Group.