By: Rahim Date: 03-18-2009
, 11:55 PM
In the interview published by HipHopDX.com today (March 18) with new Death Row Records CEO Lara Lavi and Senior VP John Payne, it is very clear that fans will finally get to see their favorite Death Row Records artists put out new albums once again.
The catalog containing over 7,000 unreleased tracks that were once recorded by top artists like the late Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Danny Boy, Jewell, The Lady of Rage and many others that were part of the notorious record label, will all be released in the near future.
“We have enough product to fully enhance content from every year Death Row was in existence,” John Payne explained. “We can include footage of how these albums were made and versions of the videos that you may not have seen. There are also videos from The Chronic and every other album that didn’t get released.”
For the record, Tupac’s music will not be heard playing in the background of a Trix cereal commercial.
“That’s not gonna happen,” Payne assured. “We don’t need that. We can give you a much broader stroke of Death Row without tarnishing the image with remixes and a Snoop Dogg and Barry Manilow compilation. Fortunately, there’s enough.”
“For the purists who liked the original material for what it was, we can guarantee that there’s a lot more. We’re also going to seek involvement from the artists. There will be artist participation with products and events we have planned.”
Die-hard Tupac fans will be ecstatic to hear that Lara Lavi has insisted that they will not “fuck it [Tupac’s music] up” this time around.
“We get funny e-mails every now and then from people who say, ‘Don’t fuck it up, especially the Tupac, stuff.’ And we don’t have any intention of fucking it up. We aren’t going to let the tail wag the dog, nor are we going to lose money,” said Lavi, when asked if one could ever underestimate someone who pulls the trigger on an $18 million acquisition in the middle of a recession.
As for issues with clearing Tupac’s music with his estate, the new Death Row Records will be in working terms with Amaru Entertainment – starting with Lavi visiting Afeni Shakur in North Carolina this April.
HipHopDX.com has also confirmed that not only is Tupac’s Don’t Go to Sleep album in Daz Dillinger’s possession, but there are also unreleased Tupac and Kurupt records as well as collaborations with N.I.N.A. that have been left untouched in the vaults.
“I think people should expect more multimedia packaging,” says Lavi. “That’s what resonates with the fans and consumers, and it allows us to enhance things. We’ve also got to make sure all this material is remastered and brightened up.”
While a specific release date for these albums have not yet been made, the first batch of album releases will be targeted for a spring-2010 release and will be focused on “box sets and complication packing” as well as enhanced album releases with CD and DVD combo packing.
And for the many avid Tupac fans that would like to hear a diss track as blunt as “Hit Em Up,” John Payne speaks directly to them when he says “Oh yeah, I’ve heard that [‘Hit Em Up 2’].”
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