On the evening of September 7, 1996, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas was the site of two big fights.
In the arena, WBA World Heavyweight Champion Bruce Seldon defended his title against former undisputed champ Mike Tyson. The much hyped fight ended up being about as competitive as a Globetrotters/Generals game as Tyson knocked out a terrified-looking Seldon a minute-and-a-half into the first round with a punch that looked so harmless many people immediately believed the match must have been fixed.
A much more competitive — and impactful— fight took place in the lobby of the casino that night. Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight and his top star, Tupac Shakur, attacked a gangbanger named Orlando Anderson, apparently in retaliation for an earlier assault during which Anderson snatched a Death Row medallion from one of Knight’s associates.
A few hours later, Shakur was gunned down on the Las Vegas strip and died less than a week later. Knight, meanwhile, went to prison for violating his probation by assaulting Anderson. 2Pac’s murder remains unsolved, although the late Anderson’s uncle, Duane “Keefe D” Davis, was indicted in September 2023.
With their leader in prison and their top star dead, Death Row Records, which had dominated hip hop and changed the music industry, went on life support. Over the next few years, a series of lawsuits and criminal probes put the label down for good— at least until an unlikely figure stepped in to resurrect it.
For a label as controversial as Death Row Records, it’s only fitting that its beginnings would be shrouded in infamy.
Following financial disputes with N.W.A. bandmate Eazy E and his record label, Ruthless Records, Dr. Dre decided to strike out on his own. He would go on to become one of the biggest moguls in music, releasing two landmark albums, discovering and producing for some of the biggest stars in the history of hip hop and becoming a billionaire off the strength of overpriced headphones.
But before he could do any of that, he had to get out of his deal with Ruthless. That’s where ex-NFL player and bodyguard Marion “Suge” Knight came into the picture.
Depending on whom you believe, Knight either engaged in respectful negotiations with Eazy to secure releases for Dre and The D.O.C., or he showed up with a bunch of baseball bat wielding thugs and, maybe even an HIV-infected needle and made Eazy an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Regardless of what happened, Knight had his man. And thanks to a deal with Vanilla Ice (again, depending on whom you believe, he either engaged in respectful negotiations for royalties owed to a client for cowriting the massive hit “Ice Ice Baby” or he dangled Ice over the balcony by his ankles until he agreed to sign on the dotted line), he had some capital to help start a record label.
So, in 1991, Knight founded Death Row Records alongside partners Dre and The D.O.C., producer Dick Griffey and, fatefully, incarcerated drug dealer Michael R. “Harry-O” Harris.
Over the next few years, the label became a bona fide phenomenon. Dre’s debut album, The Chronic (1992), went triple platinum and became hugely influential, establishing a template that would be followed by many others.
His protege, Snoop Dogg, became an even bigger star, as his debut album, Doggystyle (1993) went quadruple platinum. He also starred in the Death Row-produced short film Murder Was the Case and was prominently featured on the soundtrack, which went double platinum.
The label also produced the soundtrack to the film Above the Rim, which featured the #2 smash “Regulate,” performed by Warren G and Nate Dogg.
And, in 1995, the label gave us Tha Dogg Pound’s debut album, which went double platinum.
They even signed M.C. Hammer to a deal, although none of his songs were ever officially released.
So, when 2Pac joined Death Row in 1995, it was like Kevin Durant signing with the Golden State Warriors or Shohei Ohtani going to the L.A. Dodgers. Indeed, the rich got richer, as 2Pac’s 1996 double album, All Eyez On Me, became the label’s best selling album, going Diamond.
“Next year, Death Row going to start printing our own money because we’re making so much,” 2Pac joked while filming the video for “California Love,” a #1 smash for the label. “It’s going to be me and Suge on the $100 bill.”
2Pac’s tongue-in-cheek comment aside, the label was such a money maker it covered up some pretty big red flags. In 1994, Dre was sentenced to 8 months in prison for drunk driving. Snoop, meanwhile, went on trial for murder and would eventually be acquitted in 1996. As for 2Pac, he was only at the label because Knight posted his bail while Shakur appealed his 1995 prison sentence for sex assault in New York.
And, of course, there was Knight, who had a rap sheet nearly as long as Death Row’s payroll. He served time for multiple assaults, and at the time of the fateful trip to Vegas, was on probation — something which would have severe repercussions for him and his label. He was also known to have ties to the notorious Bloods street gang. He brought some of his associates with him, and soon, dangerous elements became a fixture at the Death Row headquarters.
“I have not been to one other studio to this day where you have to be searched before you get in,” a music industry veteran told The New Yorker. “They have a checklist of people who can go in with guns.”
Beat downs and assaults at the office were, allegedly, commonplace. Dre had been distancing himself from his label since shortly after 2Pac’s arrival and later claimed he decided to leave after he witnessed an engineer get beaten up after rewinding a tape too far.
But their real enmity seemed to be reserved for East Coast rappers — particularly Bad Boy Records CEO Sean Combs (then known as “Puffy”) and his top act, The Notorious B.I.G. There were some notable skirmishes between the two, with each side pointing the finger at the other.
Snoop also started gravitating away from the violence and chaos at Death Row. After helping stoke the bi-coastal feud, Snoop tried to defuse things — only to draw 2Pac’s and Suge’s ire.
Death Row had been straddling the line between business and gang banging, and it seemed like 2Pac and Knight were trying to drag it towards the latter. Perhaps Vegas was the logical culmination of everything.
It was certainly the end of Death Row’s heyday. Knight tried to keep running things from prison. Unfortunately for him, his roster of stars saw the writing on the wall and headed for the exits. Dogg Pound members Kurupt and Daz Dillinger both left, as did Nate Dogg and M.C. Hammer. Lesser known artists like The Lady of Rage, Danny Boy, J-Flexx and others also departed.
Most critically of all, in 1998, Master P bought out Snoop’s deal and signed him to No Limit Records, taking Death Row’s last remaining star. Even though Knight consented to the deal, it was clear that he harbored hard feelings towards his one-time star. The two engaged in a public war or words for several years before burying the hatchet in 2013 (for a little while, at least).
Without their recording artists, the label made due over the next few years by releasing stuff from their considerable archives. Death Row’s Greatest Hits (1996) went platinum and other compilations soon followed, including a Christmas album as well as previously unreleased recordings from Snoop, 2Pac and others. A lot of the recordings were aimed at Snoop, Dre and others — sometimes Death Row would try and beat their alums to the record store, in hopes of cannibalizing their sales or forcing them to change their plans.
After his release from prison in 2001, Knight tried to turn things around for his flagging label. He signed some new acts, most notably Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. He also rebranded, changing his label’s name to “Tha Row.” He even entered into a partnership to open a UK branch and signed British R&B singer Mark Morrison (of “Return of the Mack” fame).
But then more legal problems found their way to Death Row’s doorstep. The month after 2Pac’s death, the feds began a racketeering probe into the label. The investigation ended up yielding only a couple of misdemeanor charges, but the label had to expend resources to defend itself at a time when it had little going into the coffers.
Then the big blow came down in the form of a figure from Knight’s past. In 2002, Lydia Harris, wife of founding partner Michael R. “Harry-O” Harris, sued the label claiming she had been cheated out of hundreds of millions in profits. Allegedly, she had stepped in for her incarcerated husband to actually help Knight run things, and according to her, had been the one to discover Snoop.
Harris ended up winning a default judgment against Knight after a Los Angeles Superior Court judge found Knight, which essentially means the judge found one side’s conduct so egregious that they automatically found in favor of the other side.
In this case, the judge found that Knight and his attorneys committed violations during discovery by refusing to answer questions and provide information relevant to the lawsuit. It was the same thing that happened to Alex Jones when he was sued by Sandy Hook families.
Getting hit with a default judgment is a pretty serious remedy that judges don’t like to use if they don’t have to. Ordinarily, parties to litigation don’t like getting hit with it either, since it leaves them at the mercy of a pissed off court and makes them look suspicious as hell since people inevitably wonder what they were so determined to hide.
For Knight, he got hit with a pretty serious blow in the form of a $107 million judgment in favor of Harris. He couldn’t cover that, so he and Death Row filed for bankruptcy in 2006. WIDEawake Entertainment Group ended up buying the label for $18 million in 2009.
Harris, meanwhile, had to settle for pennies on the dollar (which is what typically happens in a bankruptcy proceeding — especially against unsecured claimants like Harris — secured claimants, whose claims are backed by collateral get priority, which is why banks always get their money first, leaving whatever’s left for the unsecured claimants). She wasn’t happy about that and had no intention of going away quietly, as we’ll see later on.
Anyway, the label has changed hands several times since then. At one point, it was owned by Hasbro (unfortunately, we never got Megatron and Cobra Commander doing a remake of “Natural Born Killaz”).
Then, an old friend stepped back into the breach and saved the day. In 2022, Snoop Dogg bought Death Row from The Blackstone Group. He promised to sign new talent and release new music, making Death Row a viable record label for the first time since 2Pac’s death. He even put his money where his mouth was, releasing his new album, BODR (Back on Death Row) on his new old label, marking the first time he had done that since 1996.
Of course, he also inherited some of his label’s problems. Chief among them, Lydia Harris, who sued the label, Knight, Snoop, and others earlier this year to try to collect on her $107 million judgment. Usually, once a bankruptcy case is settled, all claims are considered and claimants are stuck with whatever the trustee awards them. In her latest lawsuit, she alleges that the label used fraud and bad faith to hide its financial information, which allegedly tainted the bankruptcy settlement and wants the court to reinstate her $107 million judgment. It’s a high bar for her to clear, though, and Harris, who is representing herself (a bad sign — it means she probably couldn’t find a lawyer who thought enough of this case to bring it to court), could have a difficult, if not nearly impossible, task ahead of her.
For their part, Snoop’s lawyers called Harris a “bad faith litigant” and moved to dismiss the case, arguing Harris’ claims were precluded by her settlement with Death Row’s bankruptcy estate, as well as by the statute of limitations.
Harris’ latest complaint did have the effect of putting Snoop and Knight on the same side for the first time in a long time. That comity, however, did not extend beyond the courtroom. Knight had taken the news that Snoop bought Death Row personally and did his best to rain on the new CEO’s parade.
“You trying to create something that Suge Knight created, but instead of making something big, you disappointed the world by making everything flops,” Knight said to Billboard. “When I put out Tha Dogg Pound, they sold records. You put out Tha Dogg Pound, they sold nothing — it flopped.”
That brought a rejoinder from Snoop in the form of yet another diss track. “I can see why you mad/ I bought everything you own/ Now you in PC snitching on the phone,” Snoop rapped on “Shut Yo B—h A— Up.”
I guess the law can only do so much.
