Death Row Goes To Canada

Canadian-based Wide Awake Entertainment was given the right to purchase Death Row for $18 million at a Jan. 15 auction, according to Variety. The sale includes unreleased recordings by Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, plus some top-selling releases like Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, Tupac’s All Eyez on Me and Snoop’s Doggystyle.

It should be a coup for Wide Awake, which has only released a recording by Toronto-based R&B singer Sean Jones, Variety noted.

The auction follows a $107 million judgment lost by Death Row CEO Marion “Suge” Knight, who has to pony up the money to former associate Lydia Harris. Of course, the first to be paid are the attorneys.

Industry insiders have valued Death Row’s worth at $5 million or less, Variety reported. It’s a far cry from the early ’90s when Suge and his posse of gangsta rappers pretty much cornered the market on one of the most lucrative music genres of the time.

Death Row filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2006. It was expected to be bought by Warner Music Group, then Koch, before both labels pulled out. Global Music, then a splinter group, tried to buy the label in 2008 but couldn’t secure the court-determined $25 million asking price, Variety said.