Key facts
- Founded
- 1991 ; 35 years ago ( 1991 ) (original), February 9, 2022 ; 4 years ago ( 2022-02-09 ) (revival)
- Founder
- The D.O.C. Suge Knight Dr. Dre Dick Griffey
- Status
- Active
- Distributors
- Interscope (1992–1997) Priority (1992–2003) Koch (2003–2007) AMPED Distribution (physical, 2021–2022) gamma. (2023–present) Create (digital)
- Genre
- Hip-hop R&B
- Country of origin
- United States
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Official website
- deathrowrecords .com
via Wikipedia infobox
~29 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Death Row Records is an American record label that was founded in 1991 by The D.O.C., Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, and Dick Griffey. The label became a sensation by releasing multi-platinum hip-hop albums by West Coast-based artists such as Dr. Dre (The Chronic), Snoop Dogg (Doggystyle, Tha Doggfather) and 2Pac (All Eyez on Me, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory) during the 1990s. At its peak, Death Row made over US $100 million annually.
By the late 1990s, the label began to decline after the death of its star artist, 2Pac, imprisonment of Suge Knight, and the departures of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. It was embroiled in controversies, lawsuits, and extreme violence by its artists and associates, despite enjoying financial success.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Death Row Records” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.