DUBCNN EXCLUSIVE: The Lara Lavi Interview! (Dr. Dre/Snoop/Death Row)

[Dre-Day]

well done Chad & Jonathan

when i first heard about Wideawake i was very skeptical, but it turned out that the company kept it's word
sure, there are no Chronic leftovers on Re-lit, but that's not their fault.

i know that some people on here thought that it was a stupid move to put out another Chronic version as the first release of the "new" death row,
but from a marketing point of view it's quite smart. if Wideawake came with a "smaller" release, such as a Crooked I album, Danny Boy album etc. they would have had a worse start.
to have a Snoop Dogg release as a followup only makes sense, as he really blew up after The Chronic.

Agreed....i just hope they don't get discouraged if some of their smaller releases don't move major units.  As much as we all would hate to admit it, death row albums from Crooked I, Lady of Rage, Jewell, CPO, etc. are not going to move big units.  I hope after their first small release doesn't sell real well that they don't just give up on everything.  As much as I love to hear the unreleased Snoop and eventually 2Pac, i hope they don't continue to fall back on those two after the other releases don't sell real well like the original death row recrods used to do.

yeah that would be quite weak

[Blasphemy]

well done Chad & Jonathan

when i first heard about Wideawake i was very skeptical, but it turned out that the company kept it's word
sure, there are no Chronic leftovers on Re-lit, but that's not their fault.

i know that some people on here thought that it was a stupid move to put out another Chronic version as the first release of the "new" death row,
but from a marketing point of view it's quite smart. if Wideawake came with a "smaller" release, such as a Crooked I album, Danny Boy album etc. they would have had a worse start.
to have a Snoop Dogg release as a followup only makes sense, as he really blew up after The Chronic.

Agreed....i just hope they don't get discouraged if some of their smaller releases don't move major units.  As much as we all would hate to admit it, death row albums from Crooked I, Lady of Rage, Jewell, CPO, etc. are not going to move big units.  I hope after their first small release doesn't sell real well that they don't just give up on everything.  As much as I love to hear the unreleased Snoop and eventually 2Pac, i hope they don't continue to fall back on those two after the other releases don't sell real well like the original death row recrods used to do.

yeah that would be quite weak

Given the fact they have a ENTIRE vault full of albums and stuff, They wouldn't just automatically going back into submission. Chances are they'll just whore out the tracks to every game,movie and cell phone ring tone. You know like now lol except no real releases. Maybe Digital....but yeah be a bad business decision to let the name and all the prerecorded tracks go to waste.

[notrax]

well done Chad & Jonathan

when i first heard about Wideawake i was very skeptical, but it turned out that the company kept it's word
sure, there are no Chronic leftovers on Re-lit, but that's not their fault.

i know that some people on here thought that it was a stupid move to put out another Chronic version as the first release of the "new" death row,
but from a marketing point of view it's quite smart. if Wideawake came with a "smaller" release, such as a Crooked I album, Danny Boy album etc. they would have had a worse start.
to have a Snoop Dogg release as a followup only makes sense, as he really blew up after The Chronic.

Agreed....i just hope they don't get discouraged if some of their smaller releases don't move major units.  As much as we all would hate to admit it, death row albums from Crooked I, Lady of Rage, Jewell, CPO, etc. are not going to move big units.  I hope after their first small release doesn't sell real well that they don't just give up on everything. 

Do you really think that they could do that? I think they were aware of every detail of this business when they were to buy Death Row. They spent so much money to do that therefore they will try to get as much as possible from releasing The Vault. No reason to panic  

[ironmike]

if anybody was going to stop those releases from happening, it would be disgruntled artists.

so much shyt fans miss out on because of inhouse business politics

[Dre-Day]

well done Chad & Jonathan

when i first heard about Wideawake i was very skeptical, but it turned out that the company kept it's word
sure, there are no Chronic leftovers on Re-lit, but that's not their fault.

i know that some people on here thought that it was a stupid move to put out another Chronic version as the first release of the "new" death row,
but from a marketing point of view it's quite smart. if Wideawake came with a "smaller" release, such as a Crooked I album, Danny Boy album etc. they would have had a worse start.
to have a Snoop Dogg release as a followup only makes sense, as he really blew up after The Chronic.

Agreed....i just hope they don't get discouraged if some of their smaller releases don't move major units.  As much as we all would hate to admit it, death row albums from Crooked I, Lady of Rage, Jewell, CPO, etc. are not going to move big units.  I hope after their first small release doesn't sell real well that they don't just give up on everything. 

Do you really think that they could do that? I think they were aware of every detail of this business when they were to buy Death Row. They spent so much money to do that therefore they will try to get as much as possible from releasing The Vault. No reason to panic  

good point

[Soopafly DPGC]

well done Chad & Jonathan

when i first heard about Wideawake i was very skeptical, but it turned out that the company kept it's word
sure, there are no Chronic leftovers on Re-lit, but that's not their fault.

i know that some people on here thought that it was a stupid move to put out another Chronic version as the first release of the "new" death row,
but from a marketing point of view it's quite smart. if Wideawake came with a "smaller" release, such as a Crooked I album, Danny Boy album etc. they would have had a worse start.
to have a Snoop Dogg release as a followup only makes sense, as he really blew up after The Chronic.

Agreed....i just hope they don't get discouraged if some of their smaller releases don't move major units.  As much as we all would hate to admit it, death row albums from Crooked I, Lady of Rage, Jewell, CPO, etc. are not going to move big units.  I hope after their first small release doesn't sell real well that they don't just give up on everything. 

Do you really think that they could do that? I think they were aware of every detail of this business when they were to buy Death Row. They spent so much money to do that therefore they will try to get as much as possible from releasing The Vault. No reason to panic  

good point

Yeah, i'm not too worried....i just hope they didn't overestimate how much some of these releases will sell.  Most of the kids i know nowadays have no interest in this old death row stuff.  I personally think it's a great...i bought the clean and dirty version of the new Chronic, so i hope they don't give up....BTW, their new movie they are working on Death Row: Saigon does not look very good.  The preview looked weak IMO.

[StevenQBosell]

You know, with all this talk of ALL THIS UNRELEASED MATERIAL, that Wideawake is free and open to use, as long as it's under Suges publishing, there's one question that I've been asking myself the past few days;

Why didn't Suge put out any of this stuff himself?

If Wideawake can put out all these planned projects, with the original music, why then when Suge put out those Snoop DMW albums, and DPG 2002 crap, why did he remix them? Why wasn't Suge putting out his own version of "Deathrow: Shit You Never Heard" as opposed to "Deathrows Greatest Hits vol. 8?"

[Blasphemy]

You know, with all this talk of ALL THIS UNRELEASED MATERIAL, that Wideawake is free and open to use, as long as it's under Suges publishing, there's one question that I've been asking myself the past few days;

Why didn't Suge put out any of this stuff himself?

If Wideawake can put out all these planned projects, with the original music, why then when Suge put out those Snoop DMW albums, and DPG 2002 crap, why did he remix them? Why wasn't Suge putting out his own version of "Deathrow: Shit You Never Heard" as opposed to "Deathrows Greatest Hits vol. 8?"

Cause suge was a retard, but lets look at it like this.


2pac OGs were all given to Amaru aside from a few under contract.

Dr. Dre stop Suge from releasing any of his stuff.

Nearly every other artist threaten lawsuits when it came to suge. He didn't give anyone royalties, only ones were he DIDN'T need to was stuff already released.

You also have to remember Suge was in jail at lot after he came back and Renamed it Tha Row. He also had problems find distributers for albums, and people just refused to work with the label. IMO he never captlized off a lot of stuff, and he drove the label into debt. When he filed for Chapter 11 he wouldn't lose masterers, but the company was so broken down by then it didn't matter.

He went to jail right after 2pac died, dre was gone the label just went to shit nearly instant. He couldn't recover and the legal battles really took a toll on the label. He Remixed tracks supposedly to update them and to compare and leech of The rappers Current Releases. Dead Man walkin - No limit Top Dog, 2002 album to DPs current release.

The last REAL release was Kurupts album Against THe grain, but Kurupt removed tracks off the album, and Knoch didn't give it proper promotion and DEATH ROW actually told people to not buy it cause the track list was altered..

The mismanagement was just extremely bad. If that night in vegas would of never happened, The entire labels situation would be different. It still get fucked up cause Suges Rackateering charges, but it wouldn't of died out the way it did. IMO releasing everything now, is a good way to bring the label back and hopefully along the line actually sign new west coast acts and maybe try and bring back the West coast sound.

IMO he just really wasn't a good business man when the problems started to arise. People were constantly suing over Masters and royatlies, also he did stupid shit. Like Leak snoop's album and stuff. Plus former artist and employees were stealing masters and leaking them.  

[Efrain]

so the re-lit bonus tracks were mastered? wow

Nope. They were NOT mastered... or mixed. It's absolutely mortifying, and completely unacceptable.   


John Payne was in charge of track selection and post-production for Re Lit, same with the free Vault downloadable tracks from deathrowmusic.com. He failed on both counts. When it came time for him to submit the bonus music to WIDEawake he stalled, then waited until the absolute last minute. At that point they reviewed what he submitted and to their horror the audio quality was terrible and the track selection was mediocre. But it was too late and the music had to go to press. When asked who [the fuck!] prepared these records, John Jayne informed WIDEawake he mixed them and mastered them ..............(speechless).

That hack isn't a mixing engineer, he isn't a mastering engineer, he's an incompetent over-the-hill recording engineer who has no business in senior management at WIDEawake and people should probably write letters telling them so.     

It's so sick and sad it's almost funny. Funny in that insanely hysterical, can't-fucking-believe-that-happened kind of way. 

[Soopafly DPGC]

You know, with all this talk of ALL THIS UNRELEASED MATERIAL, that Wideawake is free and open to use, as long as it's under Suges publishing, there's one question that I've been asking myself the past few days;

Why didn't Suge put out any of this stuff himself?

If Wideawake can put out all these planned projects, with the original music, why then when Suge put out those Snoop DMW albums, and DPG 2002 crap, why did he remix them? Why wasn't Suge putting out his own version of "Deathrow: Shit You Never Heard" as opposed to "Deathrows Greatest Hits vol. 8?"

A few reasons...Suge was obsessed with making sure anything that was released on the row went at least platinum.  Eventually he took a chance with Rage, Michelle, and Daz, but once he saw they weren't selling well, he went back to what sold (2Pac, Dre Snoop) in the form of weak compilations.  Secondly, Suge became obsessed with dissing people, namely Dre and Snoop/DPG.  So he only wanted to put artists out that would diss them, which many wouldn't do.  He couldn't release Dre's stuff, and he wasn't interested in old Snoop stuff.  The only reason DMW got released was to try and hurt is record sales of Tha Last Meal, which came out at the same time.  And DMW was obviously a diss with the pictures of snoop in a coffin on the back and the liner notes, and the title of the album.  Suge got to the point where he didn't care about sales or anything, all he wanted to do was hurt Snoop/Dre.  Then once all his other artists starting leaving, he didn't want to release any of their stuff either, since he was pouting about that.  Only reason kurupt's Against The Grain got released was because he was going to diss the hell out of DPG, but at the last minute, Kurupt pulled all the dis tracks behind Suge's back, and it was too late.

[EFFeX]

so the re-lit bonus tracks were mastered? wow

Nope. They were NOT mastered... or mixed. It's absolutely mortifying, and completely unacceptable.   


John Payne was in charge of track selection and post-production for Re Lit, same with the free Vault downloadable tracks from deathrowmusic.com. He failed on both counts. When it came time for him to submit the bonus music to WIDEawake he stalled, then waited until the absolute last minute. At that point they reviewed what he submitted and to their horror the audio quality was terrible and the track selection was mediocre. But it was too late and the music had to go to press. When asked who [the fuck!] prepared these records, John Jayne informed WIDEawake he mixed them and mastered them ..............(speechless).

That hack isn't a mixing engineer, he isn't a mastering engineer, he's an incompetent over-the-hill recording engineer who has no business in senior management at WIDEawake and people should probably write letters telling them so.     

It's so sick and sad it's almost funny. Funny in that insanely hysterical, can't-fucking-believe-that-happened kind of way. 

That's deep...

Although, I've heard the same story from a couple sources now. Really unfortunate. It's just little things like that which get me worried about the future of this company.

[woof]

Nope. They were NOT mastered... or mixed. It's absolutely mortifying, and completely unacceptable.   


John Payne was in charge of track selection and post-production for Re Lit, same with the free Vault downloadable tracks from deathrowmusic.com. He failed on both counts. When it came time for him to submit the bonus music to WIDEawake he stalled, then waited until the absolute last minute. At that point they reviewed what he submitted and to their horror the audio quality was terrible and the track selection was mediocre. But it was too late and the music had to go to press. When asked who [the fuck!] prepared these records, John Jayne informed WIDEawake he mixed them and mastered them ..............(speechless).

That hack isn't a mixing engineer, he isn't a mastering engineer, he's an incompetent over-the-hill recording engineer who has no business in senior management at WIDEawake and people should probably write letters telling them so.     

It's so sick and sad it's almost funny. Funny in that insanely hysterical, can't-fucking-believe-that-happened kind of way. 

sad if what u said is true

John Payne is not a mastering engineer but i know he mixed Deep Cover

[Zeus]

She said Brian Big Bass Gardner would be mixing and mastering all future releases

[Efrain]

That's deep...

Although, I've heard the same story from a couple sources now. Really unfortunate. It's just little things like that which get me worried about the future of this company.

Yes, it's very disconcerting. WIDEawake is fully aware of the problem with John and the quality control which is why you're seeing Lara mention the new policy about using Bernie Grundman's facilities in post-production on all future releases. It isn't Lara's fault though, she was appalled when she heard the bonus material and since then she's been stymied by WIDEawake's Chairman in any attempt to "restructure" the current management.

She's the CEO and founder of that company. They have their hands in a lot not just Death Row, which is why they appointed John to oversee Death Row directly as Vice President. It's a real problem, he's fucking incompetent.

She said Brian Big Bass Gardner would be mixing and mastering all future releases

Which is a step in the right direction to be sure, but it's only a part of the equation. Brian is a mastering engineer, albeit the best Rap/Hip-Hop mastering engineer, but a mastering engineer none the less.  These records also need to be professionally mixed down by industry leading mixing engineers like Tommy D.

Brian Gardner is so talented and experienced that hopefully if he notices problems with the audio upon receiving it he'll say something to Lara who can in turn implement a new "company policy" with respect to mixing.


God help us if John is insisting on mixing this Snoop record. If he fucks up "Doggystyle" the same way he fucked up "Poor Young Dave" I'll fly to Toronto and beat him to death myself. I'll also loose all faith in this company's ability to manage a record.
   
 

[Matty]

all the bonus material on chronic relit sounded absolutely terrible, like it'd been recorded off an ancient dat tape in low quality.

that 'smoke on' track from the clean edition was pretty much unlistenable.