Snoop Dogg has brought Death Row Records’ catalog over to TikTok after removing it from streaming services upon acquiring the rights last year.
According to a Billboard report on Tuesday (February 14), the exclusive partnership is the first of its kind with TikTok’s SoundOn distribution and marketing service. They’ll only have the catalog – which includes 2Pac’s All Eyez On Me and Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle, among others – exclusively for one week, however.
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In a statement, Snoop said that the timing was based around the Super Bowl.
“Since I took Death Row off streaming almost a year ago, not a day goes by without people asking me to put it back up,” Snoop said. “As the Super Bowl rolled around, I knew fans would be looking for the music from our iconic performance in 2022, so I wanted to reintroduce the most historic catalog to the people.”
He added that Death Row releases “will be back on streaming services real soon.”
Snoop Dogg acquired the Death Row catalog in early 2022 and pulled it from streaming services shortly thereafter. In an April appearance on Drink Champs, the legendary rapper explained his reasoning.
“First thing I did was snatch all the music off those platforms traditionally known to people, because those platforms don’t pay,” he said. “And those platforms get millions of millions of streams, and nobody gets paid other than the record labels. So what I wanted to do is snatch my music off, create a platform similar to Amazon, Netflix, Hulu. It’ll be a Death Row app, and the music, in the meantime, will live in the metaverse.”
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In honor of the 30th anniversary of Dr. Dre’s 1992 effort The Chronic this year, Snoop licensed the album’s rights to its original distributor, Interscope Records, and allowed the classic LP to return to streaming services. Dre did not mention Snoop in his announcement about the album’s return, however.
“I am thrilled to bring The Chronic home to its original distribution partner, Interscope Records,” Dre said. “Working alongside my longtime colleagues, Steve Berman and John Janick, to re-release the album and make it available to fans all over the world is a full circle moment for me.”
