The story hip-hop's most notorious record label is coming to your TV screen. The rise, fall, and redemption Death Row Records will be told in stunning detail on Death Row Chronicles, a new three-part docu-series on BET.
In 1991, Marion "Suge" Knight, a former NFL player and bodyguard for Bobby Brown, teamed up with the already-legendary Dr. Dre and The D.O.C. to form Death Row Records, and the music industry was never the same.
Hip-hop fans are guaranteed to enjoy this story whose journey spans the rebirth Dr. Dre and the G-Funk era, the introduction Snoop Dogg and the meteoric rise and untimely fall the influential Tupac Shakur. The series features gripping sit-downs with former Death Row signees like Kurupt, Daz Dillinger, Michel’le and Danny Boy. Death Row Chronicles is a raw, inside look at the record label that pushed West Coast hip-hop to outright dominance.
Beginning with Dr. Dre's seminal 1992 effort, The Chronic, The Row propelled itself to the center the rap world's attention and into massive mainstream success. A little over a year later, the label released Snoop's Doggystyle, a similarly legendary effort that truly introduced the world to the charismatic, laid-back rapper fans still know and love today.
In an epic move, Suge looked to gain even more star power when he bailed Tupac out Clinton Correctional Facility in October 1995, then signing the rapper to his label. Setting the stage for one the most storied years in rap history.
There were also plenty controversies that followed The Row. In fact, paranoia, court cases and outright violence were simply par for course with a record label ’Pac himself claimed saw its members walk around with guns in their belts.
Death Row Chronicles will fer insight into that atmosphere, and even the culmination it. Included in the new series, which is produced by Entertainment One and Creature Films and executive-produced by Mark Ford, Kevin Lopez and Mario Diaz, is never-before-seen archival footage and a firsthand eye-witness account Tupac's murder.
This three-night event premieres Tues., Feb. 20 at 10 p.m. EST, on BET.