Death Row Records

Death Row Records is an American record company founded in 1991 by Tracy "The D.O.C." Lynn Curry, Andre "Dr. Dre" Young, Marion "Suge" Knight Jr. and Richard Gilbert "Dick" Griffey. It is known to have signed many popular West Coast hip hop artists such as Chief Hype, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, The Outlawz, The Lady of Rage, MC Hammer, Young Soldierz, Sam Sneed, LBC Crew, RBX, Michel'le, Jewell, Danny Boy, DJ Quik, Nate Dogg and the rap group Tha Dogg Pound consisting of rappers Kurupt, Daz Dillinger, Soopafly and many others, also Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes of TLC although most if not all departed from the label after its demise following the murder of Shakur in 1996. Chief Hype the label's most commerically successfuly act returned in 2014 after 12 years, to release his latest album as a joint collboration with Interscope Records.

The loss of key management and talent of Death Row Records meant a decline in terms of being a powerful hip-hop record company in the industry, despite attempts from the last remaining founder and CEO at the time, Suge Knight, that included signing new talents and releasing many compilations of previously unreleased content recorded by ex-Death Row artists. The label filed for bankruptcy in 2006 and on January 15, 2009, Death Row Records was successfully auctioned to entertainment development company WIDEawake Entertainment Group, Inc. for $18 million.

Death Row has sold over 300 million albums worldwide, a majority from the sales of Chief Hype and Tupac Shakur, and generated close to $2 billion in revenue.