Why didnt Dre or Snoop buy their own masters?

[Black Gloves]

Alot of you cats probably already heard about this and seen the lady that bought the masters (a fucking CEO of some country music label or something).

My question is, why didnt Snoop or Dre by their own masters? That would've been a hella good investment and handled in the right way and then we would
finally get a chance to hear shit from the vault.

Now we probably gonna hear those songs with wack ass rappers on it like TI, Lil Wayne and shit.


"By Tai Saint Louis

The majority of Death Row Records’ publishing and recorded music assets became the property of the Global Music Group on Tuesday (June 24).

 

Global Music Group acquired Suge Knight's former empire for $25 million during an estate auction, which took place in Los Angeles.

 

With the traditional 10-day waiting period waived, the Tennessee based-indie took immediate ownership of the label’s entire catalogue, including 20 unreleased records by the late Tupac Shakur.

 

The sale took place despite Marion “Suge” Knight’s reported efforts challenge federal bankruptcy Judge Vincent Zurzolo’s order to liquidate Death Row's assets to alleviate the debt that forced both the label and Knight into bankruptcy in 2006.

 

With its new acquisition, GMG, headed by president Susan Berg, is making its first foray into the world of urban music, adding the genre defining music of Snoop Dogg Dr. Dre and Tupac to it’s current roster of two country singers, a studio musician and an alternative band.

 

If all terms of the sale were left untouched, GMG now owns all of Death Row’s masters, videos, compositions and recording, as well as all digital recording rights, merchandising rights licenses, and publishing agreements.

 

Excluded from the exchange are cash and bank accounts, real estate, and personal property held by Suge Knight and Death Row Records.

 

In addition, the label gets to retain any outstanding accounts receivable payments and prorated publishing income that may still be due.

 

GMG is also released from all standing distribution deals for the music, including one with Koch Records, which had become one of Death Row’s primary distributors."



Source:
http://allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2008/06/26/20235139.aspx

[Sickaluffa]

shug was punking them

[smegma]

thank god Dre didn't buy them. Then we'd really have been sure we'd never hear any of that

[Black Gloves]

thank god Dre didn't buy them. Then we'd really have been sure we'd never hear any of that

LOL

but ay on the real the bitch who bought look like she fucking sleeps with a bottle at night. She look dumb ass fuck and like she drinks alot.

Trust me, she'll put cats like Lil' Wayne, TI on some of the songs just like how Afeni or whoeva it was did with songs like Pac's Life and shit.

[Black Excellence]

because they were stupid. that's some shit their kids could eat off.

[freewayricky]

the reason Dre & Snoop didnt buy their music back is the reason the west is in the shape its in... no business sense!!! 

why let someone else buy your music and degrade it when you can purchase it and control your rights???

But naw, we cant get together on business like that... if it was anyone else (pUFF, J Prince, etc.) they would bought they shit and repackaged it and re-released it and made a killin -

just what that white lady is gonna do.... she can be drunk and look stoopid but watch her make a fortune on the back of the west coast like everybody else always does

[Jimmy H.]

I'm pretty sure that Snoop tried to buy back his shit. I think Dre is protected regardless. Death Row owed him money and he had some deal that they couldn't release his old material back when "Chronic 2000" was coming out. Dre got Jimmy and Interscope watching over his interests.

[Native American]

yeah i remember Dre was tryn to get his Masters when he left Deathrow.

i doubt their is anything left over from Dre or Snoop, otherwise dont you think suge would have released it to help get them out of debt ??
as for those Pac trac's i also doubt their salvageable, vocals probly rough and out range or mainly ad-libs of some freestyle sessions.

the only money that company will reallly thrive off of is merchandise and/or if someone wants to sample Dre's/Snoop's/Pac's....etc Vocals or beats. Also if someone wants to go and actually buy that Chronic, Doggy Style Albums.....(most likely in this digital internet-era people will download or borrow it for the weekend)....

whats really fuq'd up is that if they ever make a documentary about the life and times of Snoop or Dre, to use the video footage or music from that time period would be an exspense beyond imaginable.

[Jimmy H.]

yeah i remember Dre was tryn to get his Masters when he left Deathrow.

i doubt their is anything left over from Dre or Snoop, otherwise dont you think suge would have released it to help get them out of debt ??
as for those Pac trac's i also doubt their salvageable, vocals probly rough and out range or mainly ad-libs of some freestyle sessions.

the only money that company will reallly thrive off of is merchandise and/or if someone wants to sample Dre's/Snoop's/Pac's....etc Vocals or beats. Also if someone wants to go and actually buy that Chronic, Doggy Style Albums.....(most likely in this digital internet-era people will download or borrow it for the weekend)....

whats really fuq'd up is that if they ever make a documentary about the life and times of Snoop or Dre, to use the video footage or music from that time period would be an exspense beyond imaginable.

From what was said in interviews, Dre made back-ups of all the material he recorded on Death Row before he handed it over to Suge.

As for the company that bought it, they will make lots of money. They own the entire music catalog for arguably the biggest hip-hop label in the 90's. Every time anyone uses the music or plays the music video, they will get paid. Even if they never touch any of the unreleased stuff, they will make millions off of licensing those songs for commercial release. Think of how many radio stations play those songs and how many movies use them. That's Dr. Dre, Snoop, Tupac, and loads of other shit. 

[wardy]

i wonder if this company knows about FTP lol

[Suga Foot]

Dre still gets paid off his old stuff.  Read the Chronic booklet, it says all songs published by Ain't Nuthin' Goin On But Fu_kin' (ASCAP).  He's publishing credit on Doggystyle too.  So he still makes money off these songs...

Snoop on the other hand....

Artists don't exactly make a killing off royalties anyway.  Snoop probably made more money off West Fest than he would off a year of publishing.

[Sir Petey]

thank god Dre didn't buy them. Then we'd really have been sure we'd never hear any of that

real talk

[Larrabee]

Something tells me Dre already has his masters, or copies of his masters in his possession. I remember an article in Vibe back in '06, with Busta talking about reels of unreleased Doggystyle recordings in the studio and how protective Dre is over them. If Dre felt he needed to aquire whatever Death Row had that belonged to him, he would have made the move to get them.

[Soopafly DPGC]

Dre and Snoop appear to have no interest in songs recorded in the past.  Every interview i've seen, when people ask about old songs, they get all uptight and say "i'm on this new shit now, bla bla".  If either of them bought their masters, we'd never see any unreleased songs.  The only advantage would be that they could use their DR songs on "greatest hits" compilations or could sample the songs more freely.  I doubt either would ever release "Chronic or Doggystyle Lost Recording Sessions".

[Lord Funk]

The new owners aren't gong to release any of that old material. They've paid the money not for the unreleased music, but for the money they can make off the released stuff.  If you think GMG went into this deal planning how it could pump money into putting out unheard tracks that would be of little interest to anyone but die-hard fans during a time of plummeting music sales, you're as foolish as the folks at FTP.

Given that, why would Dre bother buying it? I'm sure he's not interested in releasing the unheard music commercially and almost certainly has his own copies. Why bother spending money to stop someone buying it who 99% isn't interested either? As someone said, he's still paid off the publishing on the hit records, so he's not crying out for it financially.