Even though he may now be best known as a quarter of Shady’s Voltron crew Slaughterhouse, there was once a time when rapper Crooked I was considered one of Death Row Records’ hottest up-and-coming commodities. Now, in a recent interview with AllHipHop, Crook revists his Death Row days and discusses his future with the recent reformed label.
Crooked I explained that despite not being affiliated with the label for some time now, the WIDEawake Entertainment incarnation of Death Row has been using much of his past discography on more recent projects. He added that the label even asked him to sanction a release of some of his old music, but he told them that he’d need $1 million before they received any kind of support.
“I know that the people that bought Death Row Records put out some shit called Hoodstar, and they used a few [of my] songs off of that album. I’ve seen a few songs pop up on pirate websites…I was watching [Eddie Griffin’s] Dysfunktional Family the other day, and I had nine songs on that soundtrack,” he said. “[Death Row] called me and they wanted me to support it. I told them, ‘If you want me to do some shit, cut me a check for $1 million, and I’ll come over there for some solo shit.’ I told them if they weren’t going to do anything like that, then I wasn’t going to support anything. It’s reminding people of a past that no longer exists. There is no real Death Row Records anymore. Once Suge was removed from the picture, there was no Death Row. You can’t be Death Row without Suge. My terms were to have me do a brand new album for a $1 million. They gave me the run around, and I told them I was cool.”
He continued, “They are trying to put out old shit, and they don’t know how to market it. They just think that the catalog is going to sit around and sell itself – and it will – but not the part of the catalog that people haven’t heard. You have to market that. You can sell All Eyes On Me forever and a day. What about the unheard music, though? That has to be marketed to the people. They don’t know how to do that in my opinion. So when they read this, all I have to say is $1 million [laughter]. As a matter of fact, it was $1 million back then. I want $1.5 now.”
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Check out the full interview over at AllHipHop.
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