Closing A Chapter of Hip Hop History

The end of a hip hop dynasty seems to be on the horizon. The infamous hip hop and rap label, Death Row Records, founded by Marion ‘Suge’ Knight; wants to sell its music-related assets, including the rights to recordings from hip hop icon, rap artist Tupac Shakur(2Pac), and fellow hip hop notables Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, for $25 million to Warner Music Group Corp., subject to higher bids at an auction. (Warner Music Group also has Bad Boy Entertainment. So imagine Pac and Big housed together: amazing).

The court-appointed administrators running the bankruptcy estates of the legendary hip hop and rap label Death Row Records and owner and hip hop entrepreneur Marion ‘Suge’ Knight have asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles to approve the bidding procedures and leading bid at a Feb. 26 hearing.

The offer from Warner Music Group Corp to purchase all music-related assets that belong to Death Row Records and Marion ‘Suge’ Knight "will result in the highest or best collective recovery for the estates," said R. Todd Neilson, the Chapter 11 trustee of Death Row Records' estate, in court documents filed Friday.

An adversary complaint was filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles on July 20, 2007 by lawyers for Amaru Entertainment and Afeni Shakur, co-administrator of the Tupac Shakur Estate. They had filed for an injunction against Death Row Records, Inc. and R. Todd Neilson, as Chapter 11 Trustee, to prohibit the inclusion of hip hop icon Tupac Shakur's (2Pac) unreleased tracks, compositions or sound recordings in the auction of bankrupted hip hop and rap label Death Row Records.

The injunction sought to restrain the sale of certain assets belonging to the Estate of the murdered hip hop icon Tupac Shakur (2Pac), which are being touted as part of the Death Row Records bankruptcy assets.

Lawyers for the Tupac Estate sought full disclosure by the Bankruptcy Trustee's counsel that the unreleased master recordings in question of the late hip hop icon were not part of the sale. In actuality, the recordings should have been turned over to the Tupac Shakur (2Pac) Estate in 1997, pursuant to a settlement agreement reached with Death Row Records.

Amaru could not be contacted to see how this possible offer from Warner Music Group Corp will effect that complaint, or if that complaint filed in July was ever answered.