Death Row Records — which made West Coast gangsta rap a mainstay of pop culture with the debuts of Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, and, of course, Snoop Dogg — has officially jumped into the licensed weed game with a new brand, Death Row Cannabis.
Death Row made the announcement over the holidays.
As expected, Snoop is ensuring the brand only offers the cream-of-the-crop. According to a press release sent to MERRY JANE, Death Row’s weed curator AK was “hand-selected by Snoop himself.” AK is the legendary cannabis insider known for turning strains such as Studio 54, Rainbow Sherbet #11, and Shirazi into household names.
Death Row Cannabis will initially distribute its weed at Cookies’ locations in Brentwood, San Bernardino, and San Diego, California.
Snoop Dogg bought Death Row Records last year from the Blackstone affiliate MNRK Records. Which means, yes, he’s now in charge of the label where he first came up.
As a musical artist, Snoop got his start at Death Row as Dr. Dre’s protege. The two first collaborated on the titular track for the Deep Cover soundtrack. Then Dr. Dre featured Snoop in the iconic 1992 hip-hop album The Chronic. A year later, Snoop gained worldwide fame with his first solo album, Doggystyle.
The dynamic duo’s chart-topping successes in the early ‘90s contributed heavily to the slow but inevitable mainstreaming of cannabis, too. Snoop and Dre flipped the old gangsta rap cliche of glorifying crack cocaine. Their brand of gangsta glorified weed instead, and the rest is history.
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