Music Group is offering $25 million to buy the catalog of bankrupt Death Row Records, the infamous rap label run by Marion “Suge” Knight Jr.
The music major, headed by CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. and recorded music boss Lyor Cohen, has been named the lead, or “stalking-horse bidder,” in Death Row’s Los Angeles-based bankruptcy proceedings, according to a Feb. 1 filing in US Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California.
Death Row is home to important early 1990s West Coast hip-hop works by superstars Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and the late Tupac Shakur – including Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” and Snoop’s “Doggy Style” – which have sold over 50 million albums. Knight, who has been in and out of prison over the years, including a stint for attempted murder, founded the label in 1991.
However a sale of the catalog, estimated to include 10,000 tracks, has long been held up because prospective buyers are unclear which assets the now defunct label still controls.
Outstanding claims by rapper Dr. Dre over royalty payments related to his album “The Chronic,” and by Afeni Shakur, Tupac’s mother, over who owns rights to unreleased works by the slain rapper, are looming over the auction.
Warner’s bid is contingent on those assets being included in the sale.
A deal is anything but assured, even if Death Row can prove it controls those works.
A non-bidding agreement between Warner and Death Row – which includes a $500,000 break-up fee provision for Warner if a deal doesn’t go through – is still subject to court approval.
And competing bidders have until April to trump Warner’s offer, at which point control of the assets will be subject to a court-run auction.
The Death Row catalog has strategic value to Warner because its Warner Chappell music publishing unit manages some of Death Row’s songs.
However the catalog has attracted looks from 18 different parties, including unnamed labels, banks, and film-finance companies, according to court documents.
Other potential bidders include Lehman Brothers- backed Evergreen Copyrights, which owns the writer’s share of Tupac’s song catalog, and Koch Records, which has distributed Death Row in the past, sources said.
Knight and Death Row filed for bankruptcy in April 2006, listing $137 million in debt and just $4.4 million in assets.
Shares in Warner Music fell 4 cents yesterday to $7.99. brian.garrity@nypost.com