Saturday, December 4, 2010

***Over The Counter & Time Warner***

                            
                              November 9th 2010:
 Time Warner and Snoop Doggy Dogg's Over The Counter


It's November 9th, 2010 and I am starting to think about Over The Counter again and wondering if there might be a chance that anybody has come forward about it by now.  And so just for the hell of it I do an internet search to find all this new information and leaked songs from the tape floating around.  I see a different version of the album cover posted on websites and a lot of demo'ed songs from the Deep Cover soundtrack.  However there is no official discography for the Over The Counter album and many are saying that the six tracks that were leaked were mere demo recordings and that the album was a bootleg.  No, those tracks were on the tape that I had but they were mastered versions.  A few of the late 1991 Snoop Dogg songs like Ain't Nuthin But a "G" Thang were released as said demo recordings with ultralow quality sound.  Ain't Nuthin' But a "G" Thang was released on "Tha Untitled EP" in 2010 as "The Next Episode" but was originally put on Over the Counter at the last minute as a bonus track to promote The Chronic.  That particular track was obviously not a demo, it was mastered in '91 and given a second-hand recording with a microphone in a room with speakers playing.   Some of the other Glaze songs were also re-recorded using different filters.  

So my theory goes like this: Warner manufactured two separate tapes.  One was a set of intended retail albums that were pressed and ready to be sold all in their original glossy wrappers - and another set that was a demo copy with some of the albums original artwork and the albums production and registration info on the back.  Future Shock Ent. managed a deal with Priority Records in '91 and the albums that were copyrighted in '91 were legitimate Future Shock releases.  The Over the Counter album did not come out on Death Row Records, it came out on Future Shock, but it was used as an album to promote Death Row as the future record label for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.  Promo copies were also made and these were reissued in '92 after Death Row was made official.  These tapes were Death Row copyrighted and the Future Shock logo was dropped and rep;aced by the new Death Row one.  Priority had nothing to do with the promo tapes and they may have been put together by Suge Knight for Time Warner to consolidate Death Row Records.  Sometime after the consolidation of Death Row Suge sold Future Shock Entertainment to a group of L.A. producers who now go under that name.  

Another possibility is that they had several prototypical concepts at work for the making of Doggystyle; one was an album the other was an album-promo that was sent to Time Warner with the six tracks recorded to tape and the additional eleven or twelve tracks in preparation were listed as works in progress.  The distribution signatures on both tape covers, my copy and the purported demo, both say Warner Music Canada Ltd. which is the Canadian syndicate of Time Warner.  Since such a small number of tape copies appear to be existent it is possible that Warner Canada sold some of their stock 'under the counter' without having to concur with the same distribution protocol as Time Warner Inc.  Remember this album was never pressed to CD and was never intended for mass production, the tapes were shelved at Time Warner for their own personal collection.  Considering the comics as well - Warner may have contracted their own concept designers to put together something to their own liking to be included in the promo tape.  The promo tape may even have been xeroxed or amateurishly botched up since the printed albums had to be got rid of.   

Fans will recall The Chronic (Intro) from '92 where Snoop expresses his early affiliation with Suge's Funky Enough label "Word to the D.O.C. still making it Funky Enough...and Death Row Records is in full mothafukkin' effizect".  We know that Dre was eager to get Snoop's music out because him and everyone at Solar knew his talent and destiny for fame.  So they quickly rondevu'ed a contract with Warner late in '91 with plans of possibly releasing the album.  But as things progressed over at Solar Studios that particular contract expired, which was perfect because Dre by that time had even bigger plans for Snoop and Suge had bigger plans for expanding his Funky Enough /Future Shock label into Death Row Records.  Just as the printing was being finished for the album Suge managed to receive funding to complete the studio as Death Row Studios.  It was around that time that they began working on the Deep Cover soundtrack as a commercial remake of the 187 (It's On) track and 187(um) that was already listed for the Over The Counter release.  At least two of the tracks on Snoop Dogg's Over The Counter album were produced by Death Row Studios while the rest were done with what Dre had to work with that Solar gave them.

One can compare the history of Snoops career to that of Bill Clinton's. When Clinton was invited to attend the Bilderberg conference in 1991 it was decided by many of the other colleagues at the meeting that this guy would be the next president and given the economic strategy between Europe and the U.S. so it came to pass; Clinton was appointed by Bilderberg and won the presidential electorate.  Now when the Deep Cover soundtrack get's released, and all it's New York listeners are shocked and astounded by Snoop Doggy Dogg, it becomes official - Snoop will become Death Rows #1 star.  And just like Bill Clinton, Snoop had his undisclosed papers worked out by 1991 with the 187um track on Over The Counter.

Snoop Dogg's Over The Counter album now a trophy of Time Warner

One must also consider this: artists rarely if ever go triple platinum or more on their first record release.  From Bobby Brown, to MC Hammer, to Vanilla Ice, all these artists had at least one or two or three record releases before they went multiplatinum.  So why would it be that Doggystyle would gain such an immediate fan response and multiplatinum status by 1993? if not for record business exec's pulling the strings behind the curtain i.e. Time Warner/Interscope.  That's because the prototypical concepts for the Doggystyle album had formerly been elicited on the Over The Counter album in 1991.  

Jimmy Iovine and Ted Fields had by that time already put-together their Interscope label.  Death Row initially sent the very first demo tape with all the early recordings directly to Interscope Records.  But Interscope could not accept a record deal with Death Row at that time partly because they had just begun to receive their own financial backing from Priority and Atlantic Records.  In those beginnings, Interscope prohibited any deal with Death Row.  Considering the explicit lyrics of the early demo, as well as the cartooning of violence, was still very taboo in our society at the time and that was a major cause for prohibition on the part of Interscope.  They could foresee problems of having their label stigmatized for profanity/unacceptable themes and how that would effect their developing relations with Atlantic and Priority.  But Death Row did, in effect, receive considerable funding from Interscope to establish their own label; the official Death Row label before it became capitalized under the name "The New And Untouchable Death Row Records".
   
Don't forget: Drugs sell, and so did The Chronic.  Sex sells even more, and so did Doggystyle.  Robbery does not sell (it robs you) and so Over The Counter did not sell Death Row to Interscope right away but deals were later arranged for Dre's album.  That in itself is similar to an over-the-counter contract.  We give you the money, you make your own label and you can put out your own shit but you gotta button down and portray it properly and make sure it's guaranteed to be saleable.  Wether or not Time Warner paid Death Row to sign them the rights to Over The Counter to keep their future contracts in check with the tape being an exaction security is questionable.  Interscope however gave Death Row all the funding they required to own the rights to their own shit.  So now they can demo whatever hardcore shit they want, with their own cash-flow, or even market the shit through Time Warner under any circumstance such as publishing criteria.
   
If I remember correctly, a couple of the tracks from Over The Counter became late Death Row releases i.e. 187um off the Death Row Singles Collection: B-Sides, Rarities and Remixes.  Many of the recordings on the tape were done in 1990 when Snoop was still an adherent of Above The Law and working with DJ Glaze and DJ Aladdin and at a time before Death Row had their own studio set up at the Solar building.  Dre was working for Suge and Future Shock while still being the main producer for NWA and Ruthless Records.  It was at some point in '91 when the beef started with Eazy-E, Jerry Heller and Dre because Dre was leaving Ruthless to work with Suge and his artists and Eazy-E and Jerry wern't paying Dre what he was worth.  So the recordings on Over The Counter ended up being sort of a mish-mash of Above The Law, DJ Aladdin, DJ Glaze and lot's of Dr. Dre and Warren G productions.  Dre and Suge planned on getting him to leave NWA and also recruited Above The Law and convince them to sign to Future Shock so that they wouldn't be tied to Ruthless anymore and Dre could still produce for Cold 187 outside Ruthless once Death Row was official.  It's not like Snoop wasn't making songs with Above The Law, he was, and with Dre even producing a few to bat.  Above The Law were the ones in fact who inspired the gangster element into Snoops lyrics as well as inspired the G-funk era.  But since their genre was at core a lot closer to the whole NWA theme they split with Dre.  After they did their recording sessions at Solar Studios under Funky Enough/Future Shock Ent. they then later asked Snoop to decide whether he wanted to join Above The Law or go with Dre's upcoming Death Row vision.  Snoop favored Dre's vision and chose to be a part of Death Row.  The story that Dr. Dre received a 213 demo tape in late '91 or early '92 and then called their group as a first introduction was not how it began.  It began much sooner and could even have gone as far back as 1990 when Funky Enough was the name Suge was working with for his artistic vision.


Dr. Dre at Solar (1991)

It is for this reason that many of the songs probably can't be re-released as Death Row recordings from the Death Row vault.  However there may still be a chance that the new Death Row company WIDE Awake Entertainment Canada could release them in some other form (if they were even given those recordings) and without any reference to Over The Counter because that album was more of a Future Shock/Above The Law deal and as far as Snoops discography is concerned it was suppose to of been started on Death Row once major stardom came to pass. That is when all the private Future Shock Entertainment records started getting buried under the history of true success.   But it is obvious that Death Row was already a brainchild of Suge when he made Future Shock Ent.  I can picture Suge holding up a tape reel and one end of his big cubans and setting fire to those recordings.  Well.  Maybe not. 



***Over The Counter & WIDE Awake Entertainment***


Did Warner Music Canada Intentionally Distribute a Few Copies Under The Counter as Part of a Corporate Agenda?

In January 2009 Death Row Records was pulled from it's 2006 filed bankruptcy claims for an 18-million dollar bid on behalf of a Toronto based media company called WIDE Awake Entertainment Group.  Their company apparently won the bankruptcy auction for most of the Death Row recordings and publishing rights which they are now distributing under a new programme to resurrect the legacy of the infamous hip-hop record label.  WIDE Awake, then a new and obscure entertainment development company, even outbidded Warner Music by several million dollars and now operate Death Row Records in a partnership with Suge Knight as curator.  The two in charge of the new Death Row franchise are WIDE Awake's founder Lara Lavi and former Death Row studio engineer John Payne.  Payne is the CEO/Vice President to the company which has it's shares in Death Row with Lavi being it's convex President. 

It is difficult to imagine Suge Knight bargaining off his archive of recordings to just anyone even for a larger sum of money.  He always protected those recordings at all cost from ever being released or leaked in any way.  If something was leaked without his authorization at say inexact moments or a day before it's official release he made sure the snitchers payed a price.  Even for himself to make a profit off of selling CD's of excess recordings was not on his agenda even though he could have made a shit load by exploiting late Tupac material.  And why?  Because
for one, Suge is a man with a big heart.  He treasured all of his artists works, not just the profit, but the respectability and sentimentality of Death Row Records and the Death Row family.  Ultimately he would have wanted Death Row to continue on as it had, signing new West Coast rappers and keeping with the regimen and gangster image he himself had helped establish. 

So why has the new Death Row franchise not come forward with all of the earliest master recordings from Over The Counter or bothered to catalog any of the original publishing data from Sony and Time Warner for that album?  There are two possibilities I can fathom one being that if the auction itself was not a business dealing or a set-up then Knight failed to curate his companies inaugural record material.  In the latter case it may be that WIDE Awake embezzled their acquisition of Death Row through a subtle form of blackmail.  If this is true one can imagine that the object of blackmail would be that they're company possessed a copy of the original Future Shock Snoop  recordings and then kindly informed Suge Knight asking him to sell them the rights to Death Row (with a very kind price-tag attached to it!).  Of course we are forgetting to mention that going public with these Over The Counter recordings could have placed an even heavier debt on Death Row as they would provide proof that Death Row was partly funded by O Harris drug money, misrepresentation of artists, and probably a host of other allegations and infringements would follow suite.  If this is true then Death Row Records/WIDE Awake would not catalog or go public with that material.  As has been mentioned in some of my previous blog entries the album version, with all of the mastered recordings, were never leaked in the US by Time Warner.  It is believed to have been a mishap of Warner Music Canada of not following the same protocol as Warner Inc.  This may be the reason why Death Row was bought out by a Canadian company.  

 

So that's a rap folks.  And don't forget to pick up some new Death Row merchandise while your at it, CD's, thongs, and hoodies. Yeah!


47 comments:

C-Nyle said...

Ok so to summarize all of what you sayin is dis. death row wasn't yet officially a label until very late in 91. Dre was running the game at Solar tho all throughout 90 and 91 and producing for Snoop, Foesum, and Above the Law and working closely with Tha D.O.C. and 213. Suge was runnin Future Shock and Godfather Entertainment with Dick Griffey's studio ova at Solar. When all da hommies were rapping there back in the early dayz they would do long sessions that went all night and all day. recording freestylin on da mic and doin they shit. Dr Dre was mixing down trax and gettin ever bodys raps on and recorded onto tapes. Dick Griffey didnt give much a rats ass so they homes had free range of the studio and hung out and fuckd around for months tokin'on da chronic daily. It was Dr Dre idea to create a record label call Death Row and Suge had to come up with the money for all their shit and a studio their own beffo Death Row could be their own thang. No owned studio no label. But they did had gear from other DJs like Glaze, Cold 187, Aladdin, Warren G and Dre and lots of shit that belonged to Solar. So Suge took all their good shit and hooked it up through Future Shock entertainment because Dre wanted to put this Snoop shit out to get recognize.So sometime in middle of 91 Suge managed a deal with Priority to make a bilateral contract with Godfather Ent that was Dick Griffey's studio half and Future Shock Ent that was Dre and Suges. Now with a record out they all could share with other established music rostas what they had it goin' on. But then at the last minute as the middle stage of the contract process and record publishing was on way some guy came through to finance a tight azz Studio that Dre. would own separate from what they had at the time. That guy's name was Michael Harris. This new studio alowed Dre more creative freedom to produce betta songs and give them the rights to his death row brand as a label as a stand alone record company.When that happen? close to the end of 91? Whenever then it was decided to add some new trax tha boyz was workin with,smokin chronic and just runnin' they game. They could quickly spit out killer rhymes in just one evening and Dre producing without given' a fukk about contract times and paper signing legal shit.They would flip the script and then add a few Death Row Studio trax on the new album. That Over The Counter album then became an intro album put out by Future Shock. to get the ball rollin for Death Row label. The Death Row label was just becoming official when dat shit got put out. But the plan didn't go down the way was suppose to and they had to change gears. The tapes Priority and Sony had made were shelved and stored in boxes and got no public exposure becuz they thought it betta to go full-scale with Death Row label and so left the album of Future Shock label as an intro for those afiliated to bonify tha Row.

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