… Since I didn't have a lot of experience in rap or hip-hop, I kind of let them do their own thing. The greatest expense in making a record is the studio time. And Dre bought the name Def Row and changed the name.ĭICK GRIFFEY: They were housed in my building, so they didn't have a lot of expenses. Initially it was supposed to be Def Row, as in Def Jam. Dre his start.ĪLONZO WILLIAMS: The name Death Row came from my partner, Unknown. (Griffey died in 2010.) Alonzo Williams, who kicks things off below, helmed electro-rap group World Class Wreckin' Cru, which gave Dr. Dre was then working closely with veteran record producer Dick Griffey, the founder of Solar Records, a successful R&B and soul imprint. Our story begins with the 1991 inception of Death Row Records. With the company's blessing, we've excerpted some of that material below, focusing on The Chronic and its immediate aftermath. Xenon gathered far more material than it could use for the film, and plans to publish much of the rest in a 2013 book: Welcome to Death Row: An Oral History of Death Row Records. They also spoke with some 100 other figures associated with the label, from publicists and drug dealers to Chronic performers. Its producers - Jeff Scheftel, Leigh Savidge and Steve Housden - gained unprecedented access to Harris while he was behind bars. It took the shepherding of renegade upstart Interscope Records, the financing of convicted drug kingpin Michael Harris and the steady hand of Suge Knight, an intimidating former defensive end, to give it life.Ī 2001 documentary from Santa Monica-based production company Xenon Pictures, Welcome to Death Row: The Rise and Fall of Death Row Records, tells the story of Knight's infamous imprint, as well as the rise of Snoop and Tupac Shakur. For that reason, as well as Death Row's dodgy reputation, The Chronic had a hard time finding release. Despite the success Dre had experienced with N.W.A, he was entangled in contractual problems with his former crewmate Eazy-E's label. * The Chronic: The Greatest Album In Rap Historyīut it almost never happened. It has become the most influential rap work ever made, and perhaps even the greatest, as Jeff Weiss argues. Though a sensation upon its release, the raw-but-melodic work's legend has only grown in the ensuing decades, and today seemingly every MC-producer duo fancies itself the next Dre and Snoop Dogg. Dre's seminal 1992 album, The Chronic, turns 20 next month.