Death Row Records (Official Update)

[jonathandubcnn]

Check it out here:

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.22110/title.wideawake-death-row-records-reportedly-being-sold-in-wake-of-parent-companys-bankruptcy

Exclusive: A new company is slated to take over WIDEawake Death Row.

WIDEawake Death Row and its catalog is reportedly being sold to a publicly held company, HipHopDX has exclusively learned.

According to former Hoopla president and former Death Row publicist Jonathan Hay, New Solutions Financial Corp., a Canadian company that owns WIDEawake Death Row, has gone bankrupt and is selling both the label and catalog to a publicly held company. The deal is set to be closed on December 10th.

Hay explains that the label tried to release remastered and remixed versions of albums from the catalog over the pst four years but were not satisfied with the end results. He said that many of their ideas were shot down and was unhappy with the decisions of the staff at WIDEawake Death Row "across the board," blaming it on "inexperience."

The future of the label's distribution deal with eOne will be addressed in the forthcoming weeks. Read the full statement below.

New Solutions Financial Corp., the Canadian umbrella company that currently owns WIDEawake Death Row, is bankrupt. The historical record label and catalog is being sold to a publicly held company. Being on the inside, we are hearing that the deal will be closed on December 10th.  Honestly, we are not surprised by the bankruptcy as we have been actively involved with eight of the Death Row Records' releases over the last four years and have seen the problems firsthand.  Time and time again we tried to use our influence to get new mixing and mastering for these re-releases because we knew the albums sounded piss-poor from a sonic standpoint. Even though we helped put together a lot of the artwork over the years, we were never happy with the end result and how it looked, as most of our visual ideas weren't executed as we requested.  We wanted every Death Row release to look and feel like a box set with the highest quality of work because we felt that every project deserved that kind of treatment. Most of our ideas for publicity and marketing were shot down, even though we were paid to do the job.  Over the years, we have argued, fussed, kicked and screamed with the staff of WIDEawake Death Row over the decisions being made, all across the board. In my opinion, the fatal problem of the company was the inexperience of the people involved, who at times seemed to prideful to accept direction. It was around this time last year that we had Snoop Dogg, with the help of Big Holis, willing to sit down with WIDEawake to discuss the possibility of becoming the face of Death Row Records again. As exciting as this could have been, WIDEawake rejected the idea. With this new company taking over Death Row, hopefully some of our ideas will finally be implemented to help preserve the Death Row Records catalog and legacy.  As far as our own distribution deal through WIDEawake Death Row and eOne, we will speaking with everyone about this transition after the holidays.

[WalterOhDim]

I don't understand... so you've been hired as an outside source to give direction and focus to the albums?  You are not employees of WideAwake I take it, and hope to work with whoever purchases DeathRow shortly?

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Part of their failure was not getting the original artists onboard (regardless of who was being stubborn) and also not releasing them as retail CDs through retail outlets.

[MarshColin]

This is not surprising at all. There was an article about them looking to sell the company in 2010 because they couldn't get back the 25 million. Looks like bankruptcy had to come first. John Payne did a fucking terrible job running the company and to this day I have no idea what credentials even got him that job. Being an assistant studio engineer in the first 1-2 years Death Row was around doesn't mean shit when it comes to running a business. Hell, his studio engineer skills are even questionable if you listen to some of the shit he's released.

[djbeto]

thank you WideAwake...for completing my collection.you will b missed.

[DatThrowBaccMuzic]

thank you WideAwake...for completing my collection.you will b missed.

[D-TalkX]

Yo Dre do us all a favour and just buy this thing

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Yo Dre do us all a favour and just buy this thing

He could probably pick it up at a discounted rate, considering how they're going bankrupt and likely will have to get rid of those assets for bottom dollar.  Dre is obviously capable of mixing and releasing/promoting music and is on good enough terms with most of the old Death Row artists, or at least the ones whose music people would actually buy.  Plus with all the money he's making off of Beats By Dre, he easily could do this on his own.

What better way to get back at Death Row and whoever else who dissed him by taking over control of all of the recordings and making money off of it, while burying whatever shit there is dissing him?  I can live without Fuck Dre Part 38 by Realest and whoever else.  Though he'd be able to release all of his old recordings.  Maybe Dre was slow, but I bet he has a lot of Death Row stuff still in the vaults, whether his own stuff or just beats he did for other people like Snoop and Rage.  But luckily Watch Ya Mouth already leaked, so it's not like there are any other Pac songs that diss him that he wouldn't want to put out.

[Hack Wilson - real]

Yo Dre do us all a favour and just buy this thing

He could probably pick it up at a discounted rate, considering how they're going bankrupt and likely will have to get rid of those assets for bottom dollar.  Dre is obviously capable of mixing and releasing/promoting music and is on good enough terms with most of the old Death Row artists, or at least the ones whose music people would actually buy.  Plus with all the money he's making off of Beats By Dre, he easily could do this on his own.

What better way to get back at Death Row and whoever else who dissed him by taking over control of all of the recordings and making money off of it, while burying whatever shit there is dissing him?  I can live without Fuck Dre Part 38 by Realest and whoever else.  Though he'd be able to release all of his old recordings.  Maybe Dre was slow, but I bet he has a lot of Death Row stuff still in the vaults, whether his own stuff or just beats he did for other people like Snoop and Rage.  But luckily Watch Ya Mouth already leaked, so it's not like there are any other Pac songs that diss him that he wouldn't want to put out.

man i'd LOVE to see Dre take over this label and actually put out songs


buttttt i bet if he bought the label he'd sit on it like he does with ALL of Aftermath's albums

[Young Dan Iza]

def dont want dre to buy it or we will get nothing more in the vaults at all!  they should just drop all the songs the have left individually on itunes so you could buy the ones you wanted, but that wont happen either

[MarshColin]

def dont want dre to buy it or we will get nothing more in the vaults at all!  they should just drop all the songs the have left individually on itunes so you could buy the ones you wanted, but that wont happen either

Ya we'd be better off with WideAwake than Dre. The only reason Dre would want anything to do with this is to purchase the rights to the Chronic and the other stuff of his released while on Death Row. He doesn't care about what's in the vault, and his material that is in the vault he'd rather leave there because it was not finished or not up to his standards.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

def dont want dre to buy it or we will get nothing more in the vaults at all!  they should just drop all the songs the have left individually on itunes so you could buy the ones you wanted, but that wont happen either

Ya we'd be better off with WideAwake than Dre. The only reason Dre would want anything to do with this is to purchase the rights to the Chronic and the other stuff of his released while on Death Row. He doesn't care about what's in the vault, and his material that is in the vault he'd rather leave there because it was not finished or not up to his standards.

That obviously wasn't the case, considering how terrible WIDEawake ran Death Row.  If Dre were to do it, I think he knows that the releases are essentially going to be B-sides and album scraps, but there is clearly a market for them, so it's not as if he needs to be consumed with re-doing the beats until they're perfect at that point.

[D-TalkX]

Yo Dre do us all a favour and just buy this thing

He could probably pick it up at a discounted rate, considering how they're going bankrupt and likely will have to get rid of those assets for bottom dollar.  Dre is obviously capable of mixing and releasing/promoting music and is on good enough terms with most of the old Death Row artists, or at least the ones whose music people would actually buy.  Plus with all the money he's making off of Beats By Dre, he easily could do this on his own.

What better way to get back at Death Row and whoever else who dissed him by taking over control of all of the recordings and making money off of it, while burying whatever shit there is dissing him?  I can live without Fuck Dre Part 38 by Realest and whoever else.  Though he'd be able to release all of his old recordings.  Maybe Dre was slow, but I bet he has a lot of Death Row stuff still in the vaults, whether his own stuff or just beats he did for other people like Snoop and Rage.  But luckily Watch Ya Mouth already leaked, so it's not like there are any other Pac songs that diss him that he wouldn't want to put out.



Agree for sure but I guess Smash has a point as well....Fuck it we should all buy it...I've got $1000, how much you guys have?

[MarshColin]

def dont want dre to buy it or we will get nothing more in the vaults at all!  they should just drop all the songs the have left individually on itunes so you could buy the ones you wanted, but that wont happen either

Ya we'd be better off with WideAwake than Dre. The only reason Dre would want anything to do with this is to purchase the rights to the Chronic and the other stuff of his released while on Death Row. He doesn't care about what's in the vault, and his material that is in the vault he'd rather leave there because it was not finished or not up to his standards.

That obviously wasn't the case, considering how terrible WIDEawake ran Death Row.  If Dre were to do it, I think he knows that the releases are essentially going to be B-sides and album scraps, but there is clearly a market for them, so it's not as if he needs to be consumed with re-doing the beats until they're perfect at that point.

You misunderstood what I meant by that. Of course WideAwake ran that company terribly. Dre would've just sat on the catalog if he owned it, and he wouldn't have released shit, whereas WideAwake actually did put out some good stuff. They just executed everything very poorly. 

Dre has no interest in Death Row though so let's stop dreaming about it.

[Dre-Day]

there's not really a future for death row, besides reissuing their best selling albums