Death Row, c'est repartit !

Music publisher EverGreen, which owns the catalogs of 2 Live Crew,
Third Eye Blind, MC Hammer, Tupac Shakur and others, has signed a deal
with WIDEawake, the Canada-based development company that acquired the
assets of Death Row Records earlier this year, to be the worldwide
administration company of the legendary rap label. As part of a
long-term arrangement, EverGreen will administer and handle licensing
for all of the compositions and master recordings in the Death Row
catalog, as well as the processing of all mechanical and performance
royalties in the catalog.

"After purchasing the Death Row catalog in January, WIDEawake began
looking for a partner to help monetize their rights," David Schulhof,
co-CEO of EverGreen, tells Billboard.com. "We already had a
relationship through the estate of Tupac Shakur; WIDEawake was looking
for an exclusive boutique company to help focus on licensing in the
film, television, video game and ad world; and because we own the
catalogs of Tupac and 2 Live Crew and Teddy Riley and others, they knew
we already had experience in the genre. So, it just felt like the
obvious choice for them to partner up with us for Death Row."

With the new joint venture, WIDEawake extends EverGreen's rights to
market, promote and collect royalties on all the copyrights and master
recordings in the Death Row catalog, including more than 10,000
released and unreleased songs by such artists as Tupac, Dr. Dre, Snoop
Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound, Kurupt, Daz Dillinger and Nate Dogg, to list a
few. It also includes never-before released albums by Crooked I, Lisa
"Left Eye" Lopes, RBX, The Lady of Rage, Warren G, K-Solo, Danny Boy
and DJ Quick, among others.

So far, EverGreen/WIDEawake has licensed tracks like "Nuttin' But A G
Thang," "California Love" and "Gin N Juice" for television shows and
movies. Evergreen also got new artists -- although he wouldn't reveal
who -- to record remixes of a number of songs from the catalogs for
several video games. "We are now a one-stop, which makes it easy to
clear," says Schulhof. "If anyone in the film, tv, ad or video game
world wanted to pick up any Death Row song, we control both sides of
the equation so It'd be easy."

In addition, Death Row is expected to generate a number of new releases
in the near future, like a new album of unreleased Tupac material to
commemorate the rapper's June 2010 birthday. The as-yet-untitled album
will be distributed by E-1 stateside and EMI overseas. Other
forthcoming releases include a collector's edition rerelease of "The
Chronic Re-Lit," slated for a September 1, 2009 street date. The album
will feature four bonus tracks - all unreleased master from Death Row -
plus a DVD with never before seen video footage of Dr. Dre and other
artists. WIDEawake/Death Row will also release several box sets this
holiday season, including a four CD collection of previously unreleased
Death Row master recordings, never before seen images and video footage.

As well, WIDEawake/Death Row will launch a new brand extension called
Hustle City, which will debut first as a graphic novel including a CD
insert of music related to the story line. "Our goal is to continually
breathe new life into Death Row," said Lavi, adding that aside from the
graphic novel series, they also plan on releasing comic books, animated
webisodes, a feature film and games under the Hustle City powered by
Death Row music brand.