Since the original Hip-Hop powerhouse Death Row Records was acquired by WIDEawake Entertainment for $18 Million in January 2009, both fans and critics of the iconic label have speculated about its future. Questions have arisen about not only the marketability, but also the purity and relevancy of a ‘new’ Death Row brand. With managing partner Lara Lavi at the helm, steering Death Row into the digital age, should a renaissance be expected? Owing to a new warden focused on improving the relationship with former inmates and renovating the brand, the Second Coming of Death Row is imminent.
AllHipHop.com: So firstly, exactly how
does a self-proclaimed Jewish soccer mom become CEO of Death Row Records?
Lara Lavi: Well, it’s
a dubious honor being the managing partner of Death Row Records, which
I think is technically my title. I come from the music business (the
musician side and the legal side), I’m almost 50 now and I’ve done
almost every job in the industry, except yours! I’ve been at this
for years and finally some financers decided they wanted to put a new
company together and they recruited me to go up to Canada (I’m American
so I was a little skeptical). A year ago they decided they wanted to
buy something big, I suggested some things that I thought would suit
them and then they decided that, no, they really did want to buy Death
Row Records out of bankruptcy. So I negotiated a deal with my crack
team of lawyers and accountants and in January 2009, the judge said
‘young lady you do realize this has got to be paid in US dollars,’
so I said, ‘ok.’
AllHipHop.com: Many people have grown
up listening to Death Row music, so much so that it has gained an almost
iconic status in hip hop. What are your thoughts on the brand?
Lara Lavi: Yes we all love Death
Row Records. You know what? I’m actually a fan, I know it sounds
crazy! I love great music and authentic music and I believe that Death
Row embodies that.
AllHipHop.com: Death Row was home to
some of hip hop’s elite, including Dr Dre, whose album ‘The Chronic’
is the first to be reissued. What is the current relationship between
Dre and the new Death Row Records?
Lara Lavi: Dr Dre is a genius.
He is an American icon and he is probably the quintessential producer
for hip hop in the world – in my view. From that perspective,
Dre many years ago mentally moved on from the pain of having to deal
with the departure of him founding Death Row Records and his falling
out with Suge Knight. Now skip ahead and you’ll see he’s done quite
well for himself and the association of the name Death Row for him is
either one of ambivalence or mild hostility. I don’t think he has
anything against me. Our view is that it has to be a very gentle, slow
build to a great relationship. It’s going to take time, but we have
mutual friends like QDIII and lots of folks. The issue is that he wants
to see if we are going to honor our promises. Are we going to pay royalties
on time and be honorable with his music? As an artist, I totally get
it. He has the right to be a little nervous or skeptical, it’s reasonable
I think.
“We have such a great relationship with Amaru
Entertainment and Afeni, which was my first order of business when we
closed on the catalogue. My first thing was to say to those guys, ‘the
negativity ends now. This is day one. I’m going to keep my promises.” –Lara Lavi
AllHipHop.com: Let’s face it you can’t
do much worse than the last guy, right?
Lara Lavi: Well, I don’t think
anybody could do as bad as the last guy. Failure to provide royalties
and whatever craziness went on, that’s not my way. It’s ethically
wrong. I can’t do that, but I don’t know the half of it and I wasn’t
there. All I can say is how I do business and how my company will do
business, how my team will work and how my financers look at things.
We intend to be extremely honorable. Just so you know, we’re putting
together an elaborate system to make sure that all the artists and writers
get paid. We partnered with an international company, Evergreen Copyrights,
to handle the administration of the masters and the publishing. We will
be responsible for the royalties due and for the people whose content
we put out.
AllHipHop.com: That sounds a vast improvement,
considering the past reputation of Death Row. Speaking of which, have
you actually had any dealings with former CEO, Suge Knight?
Lara Lavi: No I haven’t, I
think my husband would be uncomfortable with that! But you know, I think
there are 2 Suge Knights. I think there is a gentle soul, focused on
business and I think that there’s another one that is a little frustrated
and that person gets in trouble. The gentler one is pretty brilliant
when it comes to business. He just didn’t factor in the whole thing
of making sure they paid third parties like the IRS and artists! But
in terms of building a brand, he was certainly a part of that.
AllHipHop.com: That’s quite an oversight;
surely eradicating such mistakes from Death Row must be a top priority
for you, following the acquisition of the brand?
Lara Lavi: I think that one
of the mistakes that gets made – that I don’t want my team to make
– is, a record label has to be about the artists, their music and
the fans, period. Your readers matter. The music matters. The artists
matter. What I think doesn’t matter. Who I am doesn’t matter. Only
these people matter because the artists are the geniuses creating this
and the fans are making sure that the artists can keep doing it; if
they buy it. That’s where I hope and pray that the fans, who have
been concerned and frustrated that hip hop has become so popular and
integrated in our culture that the beats have become homogenized and
the vocals have become auto-tuned, will come out in droves to buy this
authentic content and in doing so, tell the world that there still is
demand for the real deal, the authentic, original gangsta. That music
was lightning captured in a bottle and we are the only company in the
world that has thousands of unreleased [tracks] from these iconic artists.
AllHipHop.com: Speaking of unreleased
material, one artist in particular springs to mind. I seem to recall
Daz Dillinger claiming that Tupac Shakur had left behind a catalogue
of about 700 unreleased songs at the time of his death; is there any
truth in that claim?
Lara Lavi: I think that’s
an exaggeration. I think it’s more like what’s left is a couple
of hundred. Really in terms of unreleased songs, where 2pac is the actual
artist, Death Row is entitled – from a settlement that occurred before
I was around – to an album’s worth of material. Then Afeni Shakur
and Interscope, or whoever she wants to work with, get the balance.
I suspect they’re going to end up with a little less than 75 songs
when we’re all done. We have such a great relationship with Amaru
Entertainment and Afeni, which was my first order of business when we
closed on the catalogue. My first thing was to say to those guys, ‘the
negativity ends now. This is day one. I’m going to keep my promises
and you guys are going to learn to trust.’ We’re two moms talking
about the world; that’s where it’s pretty handy to be a soccer mom.
She gets me, so it’s all good. Ms. Lara Lavi (CEO/President – Wideawake Deathrow LLC) and John Payne (Senior Vice President – Wideawake Deathrow LLC)
AllHipHop.com: Will you be hoping to
continue that relationship with Amaru Entertainment and Afeni when that
album, which you are entitled to, is finished?
Lara Lavi: We’re always going
to be joined at the hip. You have to understand that they are in publishing
and we own a bunch of masters and whatever we do in terms of taking
songs for film, TV, advertising and gaming or whatever, we want to do
it together. We both have to approve stuff and frankly we’re watching
out for each other. If I get a request from a publisher – we have the
same company we’re working with – I look at it, if it relates to
2pac I’m checking to see if it is something Afeni would be ok with.
She’s doing the same and I’ve caught a few things that I’ve said,
‘I don’t think she’s going to like this.’ She appreciates that
I’m paying attention on that level. That’s what you do for your
business partners, plus I like her. These are all good people and they
deserve better than years of litigation.
AllHipHop.com: So now that the Amaru
Entertainment situation is looking much brighter, could you reveal a
little about the 2pac album in question?
Lara Lavi: I can. I have made
a promise to the fans before we did anything else that, if there was
any remix-type stuff, guest features or any type of manipulation, before
I would even consider anything like that, we are going to put out the
purest 2pac album we physically can. We’re going to focus on Johnny
“J” tracks, Daz tracks and we’re going to try to get this record
as close to how 2pac would’ve liked it as humanly possible.
AllHipHop.com: I’m sure our readers
will be very pleased to hear that. So when should they be able to expect
the release?
Lara Lavi: I think we’re looking
at June 2010, that’s our goal. We’re trying to put if out as part
of our birthday celebration of Tupac. It isn’t just the music, what’s
happened in the course of this whole exercise is so many people have
come out of the woodwork for video content that no-one’s ever seen
before and suggestions for playlists etc. The fans have been wonderful.
The release will include a huge DVD of unreleased, never before seen
video also.
“I don’t think
anybody could do as bad as the last guy. Failure to provide royalties
and whatever craziness went on, that’s not my way. It’s ethically
wrong. I can’t do that.” – Lara Lavi
AllHipHop.com: To move onto a slightly
smaller focus but nonetheless another very iconic artist, Lisa ‘Left-Eye’
Lopez was of course signed to Death Row at the time of her tragic death.
What is the situation with her material?
Lara Lavi: I’m a huge fan
of hers actually. As a woman, I’m personally very excited about Lisa.
We’re sitting on more than an album’s worth of stuff of hers and
I think that people are going to love this. We’re going to put a few
things out of hers, the box set to start teasing people, but when the
whole thing comes out I think it is going to be terrific.
AllHipHop.com: Could you give us an idea
of the dates for these projects?
Lara Lavi: It’ll come out
2010 probably. We’re also doing a ‘Women on Death Row’ compilation
and doing an album that’s just Left-Eye. We’re doing a Danny Boy
thing. We’ll get into something with Crooked I, but we’re also interested
in his new material so trying to balance that out. Right now I’m focused
on the deals that we’re doing right now to get ‘The Chronic Re-Lit’
out and getting our European and Rest of World distribution together.
‘The Chronic Re-Lit comes out in North America on September 1st
and then October 13th we have Snoop Doggy Dogg’s ‘The
Lost Sessions Vol. 1,’ which has some fantastic gems on it that nobody’s
ever heard. The box set will come out around American Thanksgiving and
then we just keep marching.
AllHipHop.com: You mentioned about Danny
Boy and Crooked I, the details about their status within the label have
always been rather sketchy. Is there currently anybody signed to Death
Row Records?
Lara Lavi: No with everybody
on the roster, those deals expired in the nineties. The only two really
are Crooked I and Danny Boy right now; they’re always really technically
on the roster. We’re negotiating with them right now to do a new contract
signing because they both have current projects. Danny has an R&B
album and a Gospel album and Crooked I has an amazing project with King
Tech, supported by Sway. We’re getting it together. I actually get
on very well with the artists because they know that I know what it
feels like to be them. The challenge is dealing with the bankers because
it’s a delicate balance of commerce and art!
AllHipHop.com: With a renewed focus primarily
on the artists, will you be looking to add any new additions to the
Death Row roster in the near future?
Lara Lavi: I think we will ultimately
but we have to get through digesting all of the music and contracts
that go with it and then from there take a look. I’m very excited
and I hope everyone will participate; we’re doing a contest. If people
go to deathrowmusic.com, they can enter to win a trip to Los Angeles
by naming the mystery artist from seventh of the free downloads or they
can enter the remix contest. Download the stems from ‘Nuthin’ But
A G Thang’ and the accapella, remix it and send it back to us. I think
that there’ll be tonnes of people doing the remix and we’ll have
a lot of fun with it. Crooked-I: Still Stranded On Death Row?
AllHipHop.com: Obviously these online
contests are helping to introduce the brand into the digital age. Will
the internet play a significant part in marketing the new Death Row?
Lara Lavi: It has to otherwise
you ignore the elephant in the room. We have to look also at different
ways to make money from this brand and the content, so the artists can
continue to get paid. Naturally we want the fans to buy the music and
not download it for free but we’re not naïve; the bigger we build
the brand, the more activity will occur on BitTorrent and Limewire,
we understand that. So we have to look at other things like placing
the music in films, building our own films, gaming, graphic novels and
anything we can possibly come up with.
AllHipHop.com: So would you say that
Death Row is still a viable and marketable brand?
Lara Lavi: Well the market is
telling us that. I wouldn’t matter what I think, it matters what the
market says. Distributors, retailers, marketers, merchandisers, publishers,
film companies, they tell us. I also think that the world is coming
back around to place of organic authenticity and more cathartic music,
as opposed to the canned stuff. I think everything in music comes around
in cycles and I think we’re coming back around to truth.
We’re also doing a ‘Women on Death Row’ compilation
and doing an album that’s just Left-Eye. We’re doing a Danny Boy
thing. We’ll get into something with Crooked I, but we’re also interested
in his new material so trying to balance that out.-Lara Lavi
AllHipHop.com: Do you think that the
changing demographic has played a part in that desire to return to authenticity
and truth?
Lara Lavi: First of all, there
are two classes of fans. There’s the people that grew up with this
music as the soundtrack to their lives and they are collectors. They
are people that physically want to hold the music and are not interested
in just populating their iPods with disposable music. Those people make
up a good chunk of the audience. The second fan group is the people
that don’t know yet and these are the young people, who didn’t grow
up with Death Row but like their counterparts in rock have a deep respect
for the classic elements and the iconic artists. So these are people
that understand about Dre (sort of) and 2pac (sort of). As they get
educated – we’re trying to do it socially-responsibly by placing the
music in ‘Boyz N the Hood’ type films so that we’re not glorifying
misogyny and gang violence – that’s when we think we’ll start
seeing a younger audience with an appetite for this. They will have
a collector’s mentality because they will look at this music as authentic,
classic and not disposable like a lot of the stuff they download free.
That’s our theory; we’re hoping your readers agree with us, because
we sure to want to give them this music.
AllHipHop.com: You mentioned about the
increasing social awareness; is building this new image a priority for
Death Row?
Lara Lavi: Well, you cannot
white-wash this music. It is a snapshot of a socio-economic time that
was very serious, especially in Southern California. You had a very
disenfranchised Black youth, you had the LA riots and all sorts of madness
going on. In the middle of this you had street poets, who had figured
out how to articulate what was around them, literally bringing what
they saw on the street to tape. So I would never be interested in homogenizing
that. What I would be interested in, is through film, telling the stories
against the backdrop of this authentic music but putting it in the context
of where this really sits and where you land if these songs play out.
I think ‘Boyz N the Hood’ was a perfect example; it would not have
been the same had they not have used hip hop music. I welcome your readers
to tell us what they think too.
AllHipHop.com: So, do you think that
the original Death Row fans will warm to this image?
Lara Lavi: Well, I think the
Death Row fans want what they want. I don’t really care whether they
give a rat’s a** about me. I didn’t write this music; my job is
to get it out there to them. My job is to read what they want and give
it to them and ask them to please buy it so we can pay the artists.
That’s it. My job is not to let this music get bastardized by the
wrong producers. My job is to protect this music, to watch out for the
artists, to respect the bankers who pulled it out of bankruptcy and
to listen to the fans; that’s my job.
AllHipHop.com: I think that the fans
will certainly respect that and personally, I think it’s great to
see a woman at the helm.
Lara Lavi: Well, it’s a dubious
honor. You wake up in the morning and you go, “hmm what should the
song be for today, ‘H* Hopping’ or ‘I’d Rather Pay For the P***y
Than Deal With This B***h,’ I don’t know, what do you think honey?”
There are days where it just seems crazy but artists are artists. I’ve
had one really good conversation with Snoop, where we really talked
deeply and I’ve had quite a few conversations with many of the other
artists. I really like Lady of Rage and I just think that Robin is on
to something with her acting career also. It’s about respect and when
people feel respected and honored for what they do, then they’re
going to be cool, and if they don’t, then they’re going to be p****d.
It’s that simple, I feel that way, so why shouldn’t the artist.
AllHipHop.com: You hit the nail on the
head there. So finally, do you think that even with all these changes,
Death Row can continue to have the same cultural impact on society?
Lara Lavi: I think it’s going
to be a different cultural impact because it’s going to be about applying
this music to human stories, as we talked about. It’s always going
to have some kind of rebellious element but it’s hard to tell. All
I know is that I want to be socially responsible in how we go about
this. I think there’s a balancing act between art and commerce and
I think by making sure we put proper things in place by paying the artists
and listening to the fans – and don’t f**k up this music – I think
we’ll have a good business. It will be a good model for others and
maybe inspire a whole line of more organic hip hop. Please tell the
fans that I am there for them, I just need them to be there for me,
so we can show the world that people really do want the authentic O.G.
Death Row’s
latest release ‘The Chronic Re-Lit & From the Vault’ will be
available in stores from September 1st 2009.
