Tupac Shakur

June
26
Death Row Records - Sold!

Story by Andrew Barker

Deathrow1 Purveyor of the most controversial pop music of the last two decades, and longtime property of the most frightening man in the music industry, Death Row Records has been sold. The little-known Global Music Group paid $24 million for the label's assets, beating out both Warner Bros. and Koch Records.

The label -- once home to Dr. Dre, Snoop and Tupac; currently the home of no one you've ever heard of -- wracked up $750 million in revenue during its heyday, only to see all of its key talent depart, with many of them leveling allegations of extreme malfeasance against frequently-incarcerated CEO Suge Knight.

Knight filed for bankruptcy in 2006.

He was knocked out by some guy outside of an LA club earlier this year:


As for the current owners, they inherit Death Row's lucrative back catalogue and a number of unreleased Tupac recordings, as well as a host of labyrinthine legal entanglements and unpaid bills .

On a related note, some good news about Death Row valedictorians: AllHipHop.com has found a primary source to confirm that material for Dr. Dre's long-gestating, possibly apocryphal "Detox" actually exists. Unfortunately, that source is Snoop.

July
24
No More 2Pac Albums?

Tupac While we're not quite sure what remains unreleased, Amaru Entertainment and Afeni Shakur, co-administrator of the Tupac Shakur Estate, have asked the court to block Death Row Records and R. Todd Neilson from including Tupac Shakur's unreleased tracks, compositions or sound recordings in the auction of Death Row Records.
  The complaint was filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles on July 20.
The injunction sought to restrain the sale of certain assets belonging to the Tupac Estate which are being touted as part of the Death Row Records bankruptcy assets.  With closed bidding ending July 24, lawyers for the Tupac Estate sought full disclosure by the Bankruptcy Trustee's counsel that the unreleased master recordings in question were not part of the sale. Lawyers for the estate say  recordings should have been turned over to the Tupac Shakur Estate in 1997, pursuant to a settlement agreement reached with Death Row Records.
At the time of his death, Tupac had recorded approximately 152 unreleased songs. Since his death in September 1996, Death Row has created nine albums, including "The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory," from the vaults. By our calculations that's about 125 songs, which means the last 30 or so must be true bottom of the barrel.


About

The Set List is written and compiled by Variety associate editor Phil Gallo. Gallo, based in Los Angeles, writes about the music business for Daily Variety and reviews concerts, television shows and theater.



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