LARA LAVI (September 2009) | Interview By: Chad Kiser & Jonathan Hay

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Interview was done in August 2009

Questions Asked By: Chad Kiser & Jonathan Hay

 

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Dubcnn Exclusive – Lara Lavi
By Chad Kiser & Jonathan Hay
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Dubcnn: WIDEawake/Death Row just released The Chronic Re-Lit to stores, what are your feelings upon the release?

Well, I’m excited because this is the first new title in the history of Death Row since before the Bankruptcy. We really wanted to make it a special tribute to Dr. Dre. John Payne, who was a part of the very early experience of Death Row, was responsible for all the production, song choice, and handling all the mixing and mastering. He only did that for this first release, it’s company policy that all future releases with go to “Big Bass” Brian and Bernie Grundman.

The Chronic has been re-released a bunch of times, but they never really did much. What we did was we took the original 16 songs, digitally re-mastered them, as well as packaged them with a DVD called From The Vault. The DVD is a collection of video, a never-before seen 30-minute interview with Dr. Dre in the studio, and 7 previously unreleased songs from the artists who had featured on The Chronic, as well as some very rare CPO stuff on there.

To celebrate this release even more, and I believe more is more, fans can go to Deathrowmusic to enter to win a free trip to Los Angeles, CA and have the opportunity to download 6 more songs that are rare and unreleased. And on top of all of that, for the producers out there, there’s a remix contest that we launched on Sept. 1. On the website, you click the spinning vinyl icon, enter & opt-in, download the acapella to Nuthin’ But A G Thang. From there, complete your remix and submit it to remix@deathrowmusic.com. We have a panel of judges from across North America consisting of DJ’s, producers and so on, led by Canada’s own Starting From Scratch and that panel will pick the top 5. Those top 5 will appear along with the original song on collector’s edition, promo only vinyl, distributed to all the top clubs in North America.


Dubcnn: Is there anything much different about the packaging and booklet for The Chronic Re-Lit?

We’ve added a lot of extra stuff in there. Chi Modu, who was doing a lot of photo-journalism back in the day with the original Death Row, has exclusively licensed some things from his private collection of photos. So there will be some new photos of Dre, Snoop & Dre in the studio both in the digipak and booklet; there’s liner notes from QDIII, who was there in the beginning of the NWA and Chronic days, and who worked on the 2Pac projects as well. It’s cool stuff!


Dubcnn: How much involvement, if any, has Dr. Dre had to the project?

Well, that the challenge. We bought the company out of bankruptcy because the original owner didn’t understand the concept of fully paying royalties and paying taxes. So, you have an army of artists, and Dre is one of the most, whose mental association with Death Row as a brand right now is ambivalent at best, and negative or hostile at worst. Dr. Dre is the type of person who only wants positivity in his life, so my guess it’s more about ambivalence and not exactly closure. We’ve reached out to him through his attorney, but we know it’s going to be a slow process. We think that once he starts to receive royalty checks and he sees that we’re keeping our promises that he’ll come around. I think in time, all the artists will come to understand that this is not business as usual with Death Row, we are intent on doing the right thing.


Dubcnn: Speaking of Dr. Dre, there’s been some question as to what Death Row, even under the previous owner, could actually release from Dr. Dre since his departure from the label, as far as unreleased music involved. Can you speak on that at all?

I think there is a clause in his settlement agreement that references that, but it’s unclear what the scope of that is. There’s some ambiguity about it because what defines unreleased? And what defines Dr. Dre? I think what it probably means is anything that is Dr. Dre as the artist. It can’t possibly mean Dr. Dre as the producer or anything like that. We’re trying to work through that issue. I know John Payne has hoped that we’d be able to put out some unreleased Dr. Dre, but everything takes time. As a lawyer, I know there’s no such thing as an agreement that can’t be re-negotiated or redefined, but it’s simply about trust. My mission is to get everybody to the level of trust, and once we get there and acknowledge mutual interest, then we have something to talk about.


Dubcnn: Has the original owner tried to contact you at all?

No. I think he’s moved on. Some of the people who have worked with him have contacted me, but himself has not. I don’t expect he will.


Dubcnn: Has anybody contacted you negatively since you received ownership of Death Row?

No, not at all. In fact, people are looking for work and wanting to offer insight on the history, contracts and I’d say people are being very, very patient and kind with me and the company. We have our hands full, and we’re not going to get it right, perfectly, until we get a system going, but we’re trying hard to honor this amazing collection of work.


Dubcnn: On all the previously released projects on Death Row, the executive producer was the original owner, will he still be credited as executive producer on these new Death Row releases?

No. Not on anything that’s unreleased. Anything that we’re issuing that he was executive producer, of course we will credit him. But we’re now moving on, and we’re putting out material from the vault that he was not participating in, so we won’t be referenced for that.


Dubcnn: Will he receive any compensation, royalties or publishing on those releases?

Nope, we bought the publishing and the masters. He didn’t pay his bills, so he lost the company and we bought it out of bankruptcy debt free and unencumbered. There is no tie to him any more with Death Row, it’s over.


Dubcnn: So, after The Chronic Re-Lit album, you’re following that up with Snoop Doggy Dogg – The Lost Sessions Vol. I. What can you tell us about that?

It includes the original Doggystyle that didn’t make it on the original album, as well as a bunch of other unreleased things. We took everything to Big Bass Brian Gardner and Bernie Grundman, and that’s our policy from now on. That project will sound great!

The artwork is incredible, too. We went back to his videos and pulled a bunch of really cool stills. The cover is a very, very film-oir portrait of Snoop, and in the shadow it’s a Doberman. There are also some really cool liner notes for the Snoop project that gives you some insight on the history of some of these songs. It’s a lot of fun!


Dubcnn: Do you plans to re-issue the Doggystyle album as you did with Re-Lit?

Yes, but not until after the first of the year. We’re still getting our bearings. We’re open to suggestions; in fact we love it when fans send us suggestions. We pay attention to everything.


Dubcnn: I know you said you’re still getting your bearings straight, but what about some of the other Death Row artists like Tha Dogg Pound, RBX, and Lady of Rage? Are there plans to bring out that music as well?

Absolutely! Only about 10% - 15% of this content ever went to market. We have thousands upon thousands of the Danny Boy’s, Crooked I’s, Daz, Left-Eye, MC Hammer, CPO, Snoop, Outlawz, and it goes on and on. We have projects and pieces that we’ll be making ring tones out of, exclusive Death Row mixtapes; we have a plethora of material. When you go to the vault, it looks like you’re walking through the end of the first Raiders of the Lost Ark movie. Don’t worry, we’ll be at this for a while.

Dubcnn: Do you have a legal mess on your hands to be able to put all this material out?

No, we own the publishing and the masters for everything but the publishing of 2Pac. We have the same administer as 2Pac, so clearance is literally done within 24 hours.


Dubcnn: So there’s no red tape, you’re going to be able to bring out everything?

No red tape. As long as on the 2Pac material that Afeni and I agree, we’re fine. So far, we agree!


Dubcnn: Can you speak on the recent developments about Daz and Neu-Ro?

Yes, I can. For the record, I probably have more of a beef with his attorney than I do Daz. As an attorney myself, I understand the way you translate what is said to you back to your client can make you either a deal maker or a deal breaker. I’ve always been a deal maker. I met Daz and everyone from Tha Dogg Pound; I went up to see their show with Snoop and Slightly Stupid in Vancouver about a month or so ago. I told them that I wanted to work with them and what I had in mind. Daz’s attorney, Brett Lewis, wasn’t communicating back with him that we were getting some where, so I get a frustrated e-mail from Daz, which his attorney tells me to ignore. I’m thinking to myself that before we do any huge deals, let’s get our feet wet. Let’s do something little together to get used to each other.

I suggested that we do a little project for about fifteen grand, as we’re discussing a bigger opportunity with Tha Dogg Pound. We were working on evaluating their stand-alone value, I was talking to people about doing a Death Row tour starring Tha Dogg Pound, and just looking for different ways to monetize with them. It’s not that easy and it’s a little bit work, which I’m not afraid of, but it takes a while. Somehow that got translated to Daz that I was only offering him $15,000 a record, which is not what I said. So, apparently that upset him and I saw him go into negotiations with Ron Winter to form Neu-Ro. The door is always open for Snoop, Daz, Lady of Rage; I love Lady of Rage! I think she’s a special person and a special talent. But with Daz, as with everyone else, it’s about the time it takes to build trust. It’s not happening over night, and it shouldn’t happen overnight.


Dubcnn: This acquisition is nothing but a good thing for these artists like Lady of Rage, RBX, Danny Boy, Crooked I and so on who never got to release their projects to be able to profit from this, right?

I think so, and I hope they do.


Dubcnn: So, there could be a Crooked I solo album finally out, right?

I saw Slaughter House the other night at B.B. King’s, and Crook was on fire! He was great! I love Crooked I and I’m planning on doing a lot of cool things with him. He has another project with King Tech, which Sway is supporting from MTV. Crook knows that I totally have his back.


Dubcnn: What other artists have you spoken to about their material?

Snoop, Daz, Kurupt, Lady of Rage, Soopafly, Kurt Kobain, 2Pac’s people, Left-Eye’s people, Danny Boy, Crooked I, and some of the Outlawz. We talked to a lot of the artists. I don’t want this to just be some legacy catalog that we just rehash and regurgitate. I want to take this brand and actually do something with it.


Dubcnn: Thanks For your time.