Several Death Row Records catalog albums have been missing from digital streaming platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify (with the exception of Tupac Shakur's albums).
A Reddit thread on the HipHopHeads forum on Sunday morning (March 13) pointed out that albums such as Dr. Dre's 1992 debut The Chronic (which Dre still owns), Snoop Dogg's 1993 solo album Doggystyle, and Tha Dogg Pound's 1995 project Dogg Food were not available for streaming.
Snoop Dogg acquired Death Row Records last month and has been considering making the label a (non-fungible token) NFT label. In a conversation with the Clubhouse less than a week after acquiring Death Row from MNRK Music Group, he revealed his plans to bring Death Row into the metaverse.
Via Clubhouse Snoop Dogg said “Death Row will be an NFT label,” he said. “We will be putting out artists through the metaverse. Just like we broke the industry when we was the first independent to be major, I want to be the first major in the metaverse.”
Many people speculated that the albums are simply going through licensing changes, while others were furious that Snoop was even considering the NFT option.
“This page is also completely blank lol,” one person wrote alongside a link to the label’s Apple Music page. “Guess Snoop’s purchase will be changing a few things before the albums go back up.”
Another added, “So, thanks to Snoop Dogg promoting NFT shit and making Death Row Records an NFT record label, all the releases except 2Pac’s, will be removed from Spotify and so on. This is actually bullshit, that means no more Dre’s Chronic on Spotify. NFTs need to die, fucking stupid movement.”
Snoop Dogg hasn't publicly gave a reason for the removal - at least not yet. However, he's already receiving backlash on social media for it. On Friday (March 11), Snoop was promoting a project called Death Row Mix: Vol. 1 when someone hopped in his mentions with, “Bruh I can’t listen to Gin and Juice on Spotify no more. What happen??”
Check out more of the reactions below.