After years of turbulence, Death Row Records is again being put on the auction block due to a Chapter 11 proceeding.
Founded by Suge Knight and Dr. Dre in 1991, Death Row Records filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2006, and only months later a bankruptcy trustee was ordered to take over the label. After being taken over by the bankruptcy trustee, Death Row Records received several bids but all of them fell through [click to read].
With the upcoming auction set for January 15 [click to read], co-founder of Death Row Records, Lydia Harris spoke with Billboard regarding the label’s recent misfortunes and why bidders have shied away from purchasing the label.
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“Everybody wants to hide behind the fear of Suge Knight–the fear is something they are latching on to–but all them still do business with him,” Harris told Billboard. “At the end of the day, he’s still living, he made people a lot of money and opened doors for a lot of them. It isn’t about them being scared. That’s what people need to realize. These people still deal with Suge everyday. It’s the money. It’s the greed.”
In 2005, Harris received a $105 million settlement after battling Knight for a share of the label she says she and her now incarcerated husband Michael “Harry-O” Harris helped launch.
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Bidders have also expressed concern over the monetary value of the label as well; Koch Records backed out of a bid for Death Row two years ago, because it did not believe that the company was worth the $25 million bid they placed.
The auction on January 15 will include a large number of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg recordings that were not included in the previous auction.
