Dr Dre launches royalties lawsuit against WIDEawake Death Row

[JohnnyL]

I'm a little confused by the timing of the lawsuit filing.  Why do it now? Does anyone know how many copies Re-Lit sold physically and digitally? Obviously, if he's suing for $75,000 minimum he probably knows it made less than that. I would also think that The Chronic generates royalties anytime a song from it gets played on free radio and satellite radio.  Something tells me there wouldn't be a lawsuit if Lara Lavi was still involved with WideAwake/Death Row because her main priority was getting the artists paid.  John Payne or whoever is running (into the ground) the label must not be sending out those checks.

Could be that Dre is just using this as yet another way to keep his name in the media.  Let's face it, we have no Detox but over the past year we have probably heard Dre's name mentioned more often than usual, from Dr. Pepper to Beats by Dre to the partnership with HP, and now this.  This lawsuit is free advertising of Dre's name, it's all over the internet mainstream at places like TMZ.  Maybe we will se Detox by the end of the year, because Dre sure is doing a lot to make himself visible again.  Back to the lawsuit, what are the chances he can put a number on the lost royalties, like in the multi-millions, and say "hey just give me the vault and we'll call it even"?

One last thought on Dre: seeing as how he gets his name out there more and more, I predict the 1st single from Detox dropping by August/September as long as there are now leaks between now and then.

 I don't know how accurate it is, but I saw a figure posted on another board, stating that "Chronic: Re-Lit" sold approx. 20,000 units, first week sales. Not sure how many it's sold up to this point. And assuming that 20,000 figure is accurate, I don't know how that would break down between physical copies sold and digital.  Suffice to say, it didn't sell enough.

[Sofa_King_Awesome]

dre's been around iovine so long the jewness is rubbing off on him

lmao 

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

lol

dre's been around iovine so long the jewness is rubbing off on him

lmao 

[Jimmy H.]

Lol at waiting til Suge is long gone to sue for 14 years of royalties, what a fucking coward.

that's what i'm thinking. Suge probably owed this nigga millions and now that a Canadian socker mom is in charge he's asking for 75g's? Hilarious

Uh, Lara Lavi, I don't think is in charge anymore and as was previously discussed, Dre sued Death Row many times when Suge was over there. People can say "Dre is greedy" or whatever but money is money. It has very little to do with finances and more to do with just how business is done. Granted, Wideawake are coming from a less negative angle than say, Death Row with the "Dead Man Walking" project, but the fact is they are still using his name and likeness to sell projects he hasn't authorized. In the case, of that Crooked I song, I anticipated that being a problem since they are advertising it like it's a Dr. Dre track when he had nothing to do with it. I mean, it's funny for someone who's not a multi-millionaire to think "Well, Dre has enough money, he doesn't have to sue". But that's not the world and it sure ain't just Dre. I mean, who do you think in their right mind is going to just take an "L" on owed royalties like that?

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

thats what im sayin it aint bout the money but moreso shady bidness...
but speak on the dead man walkin album...what happened wit that and dre?

Lol at waiting til Suge is long gone to sue for 14 years of royalties, what a fucking coward.

that's what i'm thinking. Suge probably owed this nigga millions and now that a Canadian socker mom is in charge he's asking for 75g's? Hilarious

Uh, Lara Lavi, I don't think is in charge anymore and as was previously discussed, Dre sued Death Row many times when Suge was over there. People can say "Dre is greedy" or whatever but money is money. It has very little to do with finances and more to do with just how business is done. Granted, Wideawake are coming from a less negative angle than say, Death Row with the "Dead Man Walking" project, but the fact is they are still using his name and likeness to sell projects he hasn't authorized. In the case, of that Crooked I song, I anticipated that being a problem since they are advertising it like it's a Dr. Dre track when he had nothing to do with it. I mean, it's funny for someone who's not a multi-millionaire to think "Well, Dre has enough money, he doesn't have to sue". But that's not the world and it sure ain't just Dre. I mean, who do you think in their right mind is going to just take an "L" on owed royalties like that?

[Jimmy H.]

thats what im sayin it aint bout the money but moreso shady bidness...
but speak on the dead man walkin album...what happened wit that and dre?

It was more about Death Row and Priority. I'm not sure about the whole specifics of contracts and what have you but the labels want the line to be very clear that if you're releasing material that is not authorized by their artist that you don't try to confuse the consumer into believing that it is the brand new album that they are putting together. I mean, for instance, if a casual fan isn't up on the whole specifics of that new Kurupt album and they buy it, they might be lead to believe that Kurupt put it out and is trying to make money by selling songs from older albums again. A lot of consumers don't understand how everything breaks down. For instance, if I was take an old demo of some hot artist that is making millions and tried to put it out under the illusion that it's a new album, that artist's label would probably send "cease and desist" letters and find a way to have it legally blocked from being released. A lot of these albums with old material while not directly endorsed by the labels have probably at least gone through the right legal channels to happen. With "Dead Man Walkin", Priority was really unhappy with Death Row doing it. Their decision to also leak "Tha Last Meal" before it hit store shelves also made matters worse. I believe Dre might have been involved in that suit as well as he was a major contributing producer and also released a public statement saying that for Death Row to leak the album was like "the ultimate act of hating on an artist". I know that for a brief period, Dre wasn't allowed to seek legal action against Death Row as some term in his agreement when he left the company but I think that clause became null and void when he didn't receive proper royalties from them for his work.

[Dre-Day]

Lol. Good luck even getting $75,000 out of Wideawake.  They've never made any money with any of their releases.  You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip.  If they didn't pay Dre his royalties, that is shady on their part.  But having said that, let me just say that Dre is such a cry-baby.  Why does an artist of his stature even care if some little operation which tried to do something positive with Death Row, re-released his first album with bonus material.  They actually honored his "cry-baby clause" and didn't put any new Dre material on there.  It's actually his fault that that cd ended up being released as an inferior product.  Maybe if he'd allowed them to include his unreleased tracks on there the album would have sold, and consequently, Wideawake might actually have some money for which Dre could try to sue them.  As it stands, $75,000 is just a drop in the bucket, compared to what Dre is actually worth.  And all he's doing now is kicking a company while they're down.

i'm sure you wouldn't say that if it was about your work

 I'm not saying that Dre is wrong.  Technically, Dre is in the right.  But the whole thing seems very petty to me.  This is a company that Dre helped build. He could take some interest in helping it succeed. It's not as though Suge is still at the helm, over there.  There's no point in further perpetuating the animosity.
 Now, I agree that when they used his material, Dre should have been compensated.  All I'm saying is, I don't feel sorry for Dre.  Not only did he block them from putting his unreleased tracks on the album as the bonus material (as was originally announced), he did nothing to help promote this release.  I'm not saying he needed to go on an elaborate tour or anything too over-the-top.  But he probably could have released a statement endorsing the release.  By doing nothing, he passively contributed to the project's failure.  
 Even if he wins this lawsuit, I'm not sure he'll get much out of them.  I don't think they have much.  They certainly didn't make much money off "The Chronic: Re-Lit."  The company is obviously failing.

perhaps Wideawake should have negotiated with Dre, in stead of just talking about it.

sure Dre can do more for his fans, i won't deny that

 Wideawake clearly could have handled this situation better.  They promised that the former artists would get payed, and evidently that didn't happen.  So they obviously dropped the ball.  I just feel like this situation was handled poorly by everyone, and now everyone loses.  When Wideawake/Death Row started, it had the potential of being a positive for both the fans and the artists.  I think Wideawake had good intentions in the beginning. But it seems like no matter what they did, it never turned out like they had planned.  And they should take responsibility for that.  But I think it's a shame that some of the former artists that were in a position to help them out, didn't.

true, it all look nice in the beginning.
but it turned out that lara levi was just talking shit when she was a CEO, i mean if she really had great contact with some of the former artists, it would have turned out differently, no?

[Jimmy H.]

I think Lara's heart was in the right place but it sounds like there is/was a lot of internal turmoil over there.

[MistaNova]

I think Lara's heart was in the right place but it sounds like there is/was a lot of internal turmoil over there.

I don't think I've ever seen you post in a single thread this much. No complaints though, your posts are interesting to read.

But I'm guessing the Danny Boy, Ladies On DR and the 2Pac albums won't be happening.

[MarshColin]

I'm a little confused by the timing of the lawsuit filing.  Why do it now?  Does anyone know how many copies Re-Lit sold physically and digitally? Obviously, if he's suing for $75,000 minimum he probably knows it made less than that. I would also think that The Chronic generates royalties anytime a song from it gets played on free radio and satellite radio.  Something tells me there wouldn't be a lawsuit if Lara Lavi was still involved with WideAwake/Death Row because her main priority was getting the artists paid.  John Payne or whoever is running (into the ground) the label must not be sending out those checks.

Could be that Dre is just using this as yet another way to keep his name in the media.  Let's face it, we have no Detox but over the past year we have probably heard Dre's name mentioned more often than usual, from Dr. Pepper to Beats by Dre to the partnership with HP, and now this.  This lawsuit is free advertising of Dre's name, it's all over the internet mainstream at places like TMZ.  Maybe we will se Detox by the end of the year, because Dre sure is doing a lot to make himself visible again.  Back to the lawsuit, what are the chances he can put a number on the lost royalties, like in the multi-millions, and say "hey just give me the vault and we'll call it even"?

One last thought on Dre: seeing as how he gets his name out there more and more, I predict the 1st single from Detox dropping by August/September as long as there are now leaks between now and then.

The lawsuit isn't as new as it seems. Pretty soon after Re-Lit was dropped this was filed. I had heard about it then but wasn't aware that the public didn't know about it yet until this news report. Sites can be slow to pick up on shit.

[Detox Iz Not Active]

LMAO @ She Thang exposing herself as a bitch


she never opened her mouth when Suge when in charge, now some paki women running shit she finally opens her mouth

[Muhfukka]

LMAO @ She Thang exposing herself as a bitch


she never opened her mouth when Suge when in charge, now some paki women running shit she finally opens her mouth

a bitch is a bitch

[Mietek23]

Does dre really need 75 000 dollars?.......................

He won't win - The only lawsuit he won against Death Row was about those unreleased tracks that were supposed to drop on Chronic 2000.

[Quadruple OG]

How did he settle on $75,000 when it's been released multiple times and has sold millions of copies in the 18 years its been out?

If it takes 18 years to sue for royalties for your first album and a minimum of 7-8 years to drop an album, does it take him 4 years to throw out a X-Mas Tree? Three years before getting an oil change in his car?

[Blasphemy]

How did he settle on $75,000 when it's been released multiple times and has sold millions of copies in the 18 years its been out?

If it takes 18 years to sue for royalties for your first album and a minimum of 7-8 years to drop an album, does it take him 4 years to throw out a X-Mas Tree? Three years before getting an oil change in his car?

I hear he's already working on his next son, He'll be in the bed by june, on top by 2011 and then finish up in 12, he'll get her to take the test in Jan of 2014. Dre always wants perfect, he needs to come into the room and have it be like a movie.