The assets of the once very powerful Death Row Records, will once again be sold at auction later this week as part of a Chapter 11 proceeding.  Here’s a brief timeline.

April 2006
Death Row files for Chapter 11 protection.  A California Judge overseeing the filing ordered a bankruptcy trustee to take over the label.

February 2007
Warner Music Group the top bidder pulled out.  Koch Records replaced WMG, but it too backed out. Due to questionable record keeping and uncertainty that the label was worth the $25 Million both had bid.

June 2007
Investment group, Global Music agrees to buy Death Row.  The deal would later collapse due to fighting between investors and an inability to raise the necessary financing.

According to label co-founder Lydia Harris, Global Music Group “destroyed” the Death Row legacy and has turned it into “a joke.”  There has been some speculation that the reason why the Death Row purchase has been such a rollercoaster is because of fear from investors of ex-Death Row boss Marion “Suge” Knight.

Harris who started the label with Knight and incarcerated ex-husband Michael “Harry O” Harris in 1991, says “It isn’t about them being scared. It’s about money and greed.”

“Everybody wants to hide behind the fear of Suge Knight — the fear is something they are latching on to — but all them still do business with him,” Harris tells Billboard. “At the end of the day, he’s still living, he made people a lot of money and opened doors for a lot of them. It isn’t about them being scared. That’s what people need to realize. These people still deal with Suge everyday. It’s the money. It’s the greed.”

In 2005 Harris won a $107 million judgment for her portion of the company which kick started the labels credit problems sending it into bankruptcy.

Via: Billboard