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The Lady Of Rage’s long-awaited debut flopped. Their once-captive audience had moved on to Pac and Biggie’s successors such as Master P, DMX, and Jay Z. Death Row hadn’t produced a new star since the mass exodus a few years prior, and interest in their current roster was all but gone. The soundtracks for two movies starring Tupac that no one ever actually saw also performed well - mainly because they included unreleased Tupac songs, which were at a premium when the world didn’t have immediate access to every Tupac song.īut the novelty projects were starting to wear thin on the public, and consumers saw through their cash-out schemes. The label was actually doing pretty well thanks to the Death Row Greatest Hits double album (which went multi-platinum), as well as a Tupac Greatest Hits double album that would eventually go diamond (10 million sold units shifted). One half of Tha Dogg Pound, Daz Dillinger, was christened the “Executive Over C’er” - or the music director of the label - who oversaw each and every release.
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Suge had passed the Death Row reins to Reggie Wright Jr., a childhood friend from Compton, who was running the label in his absence.
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The life Suge had been accustomed to in the free world - the thousand-dollar tabs at Monty’s Steakhouse, the fleet of luxury cars, endless women and million-dollar album and video budgets - was temporarily on hold. Knight sat and watched his former artists and business partners flourish from behind bars. Dre Presents The Aftermath, but was back atop the charts thanks to his fresh-faced protégé, Eminem. Dre, who’d left the label three years prior, had stumbled a bit with his first post-Death Row release, Dr. Their other biggest star, Snoop Dogg, had gone AWOL and was riding high on Master P’s tank, thanks to a $3 million cash bailout from the Colonel (No Limit had effectively replaced Death Row’s spot as the hottest label in rap). The biggest star on his label, Tupac Shakur, was dead his murder still unsolved. Suge was still feared on the streets, but his respect was waning. His Death Row Records empire was crumbling, and there was little he could do about it from behind the walls. The music industry executive, who just a few years prior had the world in his hands, was quickly losing his grip. The charge stemmed from a beating he and his goons handed out on the night 2Pac was tragically murdered in Las Vegas in 1996. In 1999, Suge Knight sat in a California prison serving out a nine-year sentence on a parole violation. It’s a weird piece of history that hasn’t been celebrated … until now.
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But there are parts of this story that have long been forgotten - left on the cutting room floor, so to speak - weird twists, turns, and anecdotes, whose folklore didn’t survive the internet age (other than obscure 2Pac bulletin boards on now-defunct Geocities pages). Yes, we love a great rags-to-riches-back-to-rags tale. It even found its way into the blockbuster film Straight Outta Compton. There have been countless books, DVDs, and documentaries chronicling this great American tragedy. The story of Death Row Records’ rise and fall has been told ad nauseam. All week long we’re looking at the strangest musical moments and trends of the decade.