In 1991, The D.O.C., Dr Dre, Suge Knight, and Dick Griffey established Death Row Records.
The label released some of the most financially successful hip-hop albums, becoming a cornerstone of West Coast hip-hop recordings in the US. At its height, Death Row Records was bringing in more than $100 million annually.
Who owns Death Row Records now?
The record company is owned by Snoop Dogg, who has big NFT aspirations for it.
Dr Dre of N.W.A. signed with Ruthless Records in 1986. He was the label’s head of production and was responsible for a significant number of successful Ruthless Records productions. Ruthless irritated Dr Dre since he felt underpaid for his part. Suge Knight and the D.O.C. started looking for a way out of Jerry Heller when Ice Cube left in 1989.
The D.O.C., Dick Griffey, Suge Knight, Dr Dre, and others then began developing their own record company. The new musical project’s initial moniker was Future Shock. The D.O.C. asserts that it was their idea to use the moniker “Def Row” as a play on “Def Jam.”
