One big question about Death Row thats never been answered....

[TraceOneInfinite]

Was Dre the owner of Death Row or not?   I mean, we all believed from the begining that Dre left Ruthless so that he could run his own ship, and be in charge.  He was supposed to be the man at Death Row.  Even Nate Dogg said something about if anything was wrong he thought Dre could take care of it, and that if he had a problem with Suge then Suge would be the one to go... then Nate says he came to work one day and Dre was gone, and that that was his way of finding out Dre didn't really own the company like he thought.

And when Dre first left Death Row everyone was expecting him to leave with 50%, but he left with nothing.

Now I know people will come on here and say Dre was 50/50 partners and that he just wanted to leave so bad he left empty handed.  But I don't believe that.  First of all dre should have never signed a 50/50 deal with suge back in the day because he had a lot of juice in the industry and suge was just a bodyguard.   Second of all if he did have 50/50

[.:Hercy Buggz:.]

Funny though , DeathRow aint shit compare to Aftermath

[heyyou]

From what I gather dre was a co owner with suge.
Yes dre was a name and had influence but not as much when he left ruthless. He really became big in the the music industry as a whole after death row was established and when the chronic and doggystyle dropped - just my opinion.

Dre May never have been bought out of death row and compensated financially because he knew what suge was like when handling business. There were stories about death row employees or even suge himself going to dre' s house to collect the masters etc.

Dre played the situation like a game of chess, didn't leave with much financially but walked away with his life and peace of mind, and also had a deal regarding his material to make it difficult for death row to remix, reuse individual tracks etc in the future.

Suge won the battle but imo dre won the war

[Black Excellence]

Funny though , DeathRow aint shit compare to Aftermath

death row from 92-96 shits on aftermath.

[Black Excellence]

it's crazy how death row was supposed to be dre and d.o.c.'s label but suge just bogarded and took over.

[heyyou]

Lol yeah dre and doc. I think dick Griffy (sp?) also had a role I think

[HighEyeCue]

yeah he left with just the masters but I think he has made up for it financially

[Jimmy H.]

Dre was a co-owner. It was originally supposed to be Dre, Suge, D.O.C., and Griffey but the latter two were fazed out in the early stages. There was a lot of stuff legally where Dre was protected in terms of publishing and rights to his music after he left that none of the other artists had and he only gained through being an owner of the company.  He was the only artist on Death Row at that time that left with their publishing.

[pixtr]

"You can't put a price on a peaceful state of mind"

[Russell Bell]

suge was a dick and dre didnt want to be a part of his bullshit anymore so he bounced

suge basically ran the company into the ground like a moron

if dre really ran it, it would probably still be around today

[krzieg]

peace of mind.

[TidyKris]

Funny though , DeathRow aint shit compare to Aftermath

Deathrow pisses all over Aftermath

[TraceOneInfinite]

Dre was a co-owner. It was originally supposed to be Dre, Suge, D.O.C., and Griffey but the latter two were fazed out in the early stages. There was a lot of stuff legally where Dre was protected in terms of publishing and rights to his music after he left that none of the other artists had and he only gained through being an owner of the company.  He was the only artist on Death Row at that time that left with their publishing.

Then why was death row still able to release remixes of dres production on greatest hits and other albums, and death row uncut they had most of his videos on there.   I mean I think you are right for the most part because I've heard that before.

I would think if Dre really owned all his work from the row he would of been able to say, "you can't put my songs on an album/video in which you are also dissin me"

[TraceOneInfinite]

Still one of my favorite collectors items and favorite interview of all time was the Source magazine when Dre left Death Row back in summer of 96.  I remember buying that issue when it came out, it was big story with Dre changing his life, and stepping out on his own.  He even said in the interview, "I'm looking forward to making albums as big or bigger than the ones from Death Row".

Then when "My Name Is" first came out a lot of haters wanted to say Em was a one hit wonder but Dre was in the rolling stone cover issue em was on, and Dre said, "Em will be bigger than Michael Jackson as long as he doesn't change."  

 Those were big statements saying Aftermath would have records bigger than death row and that Em would be bigger than Michael Jackson.  And for that dre was a true visionary.

[bouli77]

Dre was a co-owner. It was originally supposed to be Dre, Suge, D.O.C., and Griffey but the latter two were fazed out in the early stages. There was a lot of stuff legally where Dre was protected in terms of publishing and rights to his music after he left that none of the other artists had and he only gained through being an owner of the company.  He was the only artist on Death Row at that time that left with their publishing.

Then why was death row still able to release remixes of dres production on greatest hits and other albums, and death row uncut they had most of his videos on there.   I mean I think you are right for the most part because I've heard that before.

I would think if Dre really owned all his work from the row he would of been able to say, "you can't put my songs on an album/video in which you are also dissin me"

well after the greatest hits, they were never able to release any unheard Dre material, so he was able to say that. the only thing Death Row owned was his old catalogue, and the name "the chronic", and they did try to hinder dre's career with chronic 2000 but in the end chronic 2000 had no Dre material, and barely went gold, (even though it's a dope compilation) while 2001 is one of the most important albums ever. after that they tried to pass Just Doggin's remix for a Dre remix but Dre wasn't even involved in that.