By Jonathan Landrum Jr., Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Snoop Dogg has taken over a popular record label that launched his stellar career.
The rapper-mogul acquired Death Row Records' brand from MNRK Music Group, which is controlled by a private equity fund managed by Blackstone, the i nvestment firm announced Wednesday. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Snoop Dogg said he's excited about acquiring the label's brand.
"I am thrilled and appreciative of the opportunity to acquire the iconic and culturally significant Death Row Records brand, which has immense untapped future value," the 50-year-old Snoop Dogg said in a statement. "It feels good to have ownership of the label I was part of at the beginning of my career and as one of the founding members. This is an extremely meaningful moment for me."
Snoop Dogg found his springboard to success during the 1990s while on Death Row Records. The label was founded in 1992 by Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, the D.O.C. and Dick Griffey in the immediate aftermath of the breakup of N.W.A.
David Kestnbaum, a senior managing director at Blackstone, said he's looking forward to seeing Snoop Dogg at the helm of Death Row.
"We are excited to put the Death Row Records brand back in the hands of a legend like Snoop Dogg," Kestnbaum said. "We wish him success in the years ahead as the brand moves forward under his leadership and vision."
The label's records, including Dre's first solo album "The Chronic" and Snoop Dogg's debut "Doggystyle," are considered classics of the hip-hop genre that defined an era.
Tupac Shakur became the label's star artist later in the '90s before he was shot and killed in Las Vegas in 1996 while riding in a car driven by Knight. Shakur's death brought on decline for the label, which led to decades of decline for Knight himself.
Knight lost Death Row after it went into bankruptcy in 2006. He served time in prison and had a knack for being near violence that eventually caught up with him.
"Snoop is clearly the executive to take Death Row into its next 30 years," said Chris Taylor, president and CEO of MNRK Music Group.
Forsman & Bodenfors Shifts Its Singapore Group Creative Director Ivan Guerra to Its NYC Hub
Forsman & Bodenfors (F&B) has expanded its creative leadership in New York by relocating longtime group creative director Ivan Guerra from the Singapore office to the Big Apple to support a quickly growing list of new client wins.
As a group creative director in Singapore, Guerra racked up numerous accolades and participated in a myriad of new business wins that fueled the agency’s growth year over year. He explained why now was the right time to come back to the states, adding more nuance in the process. ”Singapore is the business hub of Asia, New York is the business hub of the world,” he said. “Our office in Singapore was small when I arrived. Since then, we’ve more than tripled in size, and became the [number one] most creative agency in the country, and work with more and bigger clients than ever before. There’s always more to be done, but the agency I’m leaving behind is in fantastic shape and ready to take on the world, as I know they will.”
For Guerra, there’s an opportunity to replicate in New York the success he had in Singapore. During his career, he repositioned and promoted businesses and products across a wide variety of markets and industries including P&G, Coca-Cola and Booking.com. Some of his well-known work includes a campaign that increased Samsung’s sales in the Middle East by almost 200%, one of the most iconic films in the history of Converse, Verizon’s most successful sports partnership program “Data Dunk” with the NBA, and a “Proud Whopper” campaign in 2014 that reignited Burger King and garnered 13 Cannes Lions and a Grand Clio.
Coming back to New York after 15 years in the business, including a stint where he spent time at the likes of top-shelf agencies like R/GA,... Read More