Snoop Dogg & Death Row Strikes Deal With Same Company That Rescued De La Soul’s Catalog
Snoop Dogg and Death Row Records has struck a new partnership with Reservoir Media, the same company that was instrumental in getting De La Soul’s first six albums on DSPs.
According to Music Business Worldwide, the agreement covers domestic publishing for Snoop Dogg’s entire catalog, future works and the publishing catalog of Snoop’s Death Row Records. Other singles included are 2Pac’s “Hail Mary,” “I Ain’t Mad At Cha” and “Picture Me Rollin” in addition to albums like Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle.
Reservoir celebrated the announcement with an Instagram post. The caption read: “It’s the D-O-Double G. Welcome the legendary @snoopdogg and the @deathrowrecords catalog to the Reservoir family.”
De La Soul’s Maseo, who was among the commenters, chimed in with a few fire emojis in support of the move.
“Legendary artists only need one name,” Reservoir EVP, Global Creative Director Donna Caseine said. “Snoop is part of that echelon. From music, to brands, television, and film, his acumen represents excellence. For the last three decades he has been a pillar of hip-hop music and popular culture. He helped write Death Row Records into music’s history books. It is an honor to support Snoop’s vision and work with the Death Row family alongside Jaslin Levy, Sabriya Dublin, Sara Ramaker and their entire team.”
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Reservoir Media acquired the Tommy Boy catalog in June 2021, which included De La Soul’s first six albums, including 1989’s 3 Feet High & Rising, 1991’s De La Soul is Dead, 1993’s Buhloone Mindstate and 1996’s Stakes Is High. The acquisition put an end to De La’s decades-long war with Tommy Boy founder Tom Silverman and the albums finally arrived on DSPs in March 2023.
It was a bittersweet victory, considering Dave AKA Trugoy the Dove had died unexpectedly just weeks earlier. But in an interview with AllHipHop, Pos and Maseo insisted that doesn’t spell the end for De La Soul.
“The plan is definitely to step out and put my best foot forward to make AOI 3 a reality,” Mase said. “We are definitely looking to complete that mission. Pos has other ideas that he’s trying to bring to fruition. We got the blessing of friends and family—and Dave’s family in particular— for us to keep moving forward. We were actually kind of summoned to it.
“We went to Dave’s memorial at his house, and everybody that we grew up with was like, ‘Y’all know y’all gotta keep going.’ And on so many levels I feel like we have to and, at the same time, we want to. We still got a lot in the tank.”