Death Row Records

Let's Raise a Glass for the Underrated Warren G

This weekend Warren G turns 41, celebrating with a show at the Key Club on Friday. But while everyone knows him for "Regulate," his signature duet with Nate Dogg, he's actually had important roles in hip-hop history, many of which have gone under-discussed. Warren Griffin III started his career as ... More >>

Life After Death

Biggie Smalls' Mom Wants Grand Jury on Murder

Death Row Records Photographer 
Simone Green Has the Last Laugh

By Jesse Serwer At the height of Death Row Records' notoriety, Simone Green's job was to document daily activity at the label. Naturally, then, she was able to fill a book with the details. "The last time I'd seen bullying that went on like it did at Death Row, I was in elementary school," says Gr ... More >>

World Famous V.I.P. Records To Close

Long Beach shop helped foster the G-Funk era

LA Weekly's Top 11 News Stories of 2011

And here we thought 2010 was a sexy one for Los Angeles. Our most popular news stories in 2011 make last year's fare -- alleged John Travolta sightings at a gay spa, Vegas broads who sell sex to make rent -- look wholesome by comparison. Los Angeles was a blur of nude pics and racy murders these la ... More >>

Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List

​Editor's note: In conjunction with our music issue we rolled out the top 20 L.A. rap albums of all time this week, as picked by Ian Cohen, Rebecca Haithcoat, Jeff Weiss and Ben Westhoff. But the list was broken up into four posts, which can get a bit unwieldy, so we've compiled the full list ... More >>

Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: 5-1

​See also Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums of All Time: 20-16 Editor's note: For our music issue, out on Thursday, Ian Cohen, Rebecca Haithcoat, Jeff Weiss and Ben Westhoff run down the top 20 L.A. rap albums of all time. We're unveiling the list all this week on West Coast Sound. 5. The Phar ... More >>

Cop's Book Says Sean Combs, Suge Knight Ordered Tupac and Biggie Killings

Top detective on rap murders says LAPD pulled the plug despite confessions

VIDEO: Greg Kading's Book Says Sean Combs, Suge Knight Ordered Tupac and Biggie Killings

In the pages of his potentially game-changing self-published book Murder Rap, set for release Oct. 4, former Los Angeles Police Department Detective Greg Kading reveals that LAPD has been sitting on extensive tapes and documents containing confessions from key players behind the alleged assassinatio ... More >>

Tupac and Biggie Murders: An Up-to-Date List of Characters, Given New Evidence From Ex-LAPD Detective Greg Kading

Update: "The 'Keffe D' Tapes: 10 Highlights of Confession From Gangster Who Says Sean Combs Hired Him to Kill Tupac." Of the many theories that have emerged over the last 15 years as to who was behind the drive-by killings of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, the closest thing we've seen to an invest ... More >>

The 'Keffe D' Tapes: 10 Highlights of Confession From Gangster Who Says Sean Combs Hired Him to Kill Tupac

Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson (pictured) shot Tupac to death, according to his uncle, Keffe D.​"A barrel-chested black man with a front tooth missing, relaxed yet instinctively cautious, is seated across from four spellbound cops in a glass-walled conference room at 8200 Wilshire Blvd." So beg ... More >>

Legendary Ghostwriter D.O.C. Is Back, But Can He Save Detox?

Chuck Philips Demands L.A. Times Apology on Tupac Shakur

Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G. Murders and ex-LA Times Reporter Chuck Philips: A Timeline

Chuck Philips, award-winning LA Times journalist, is out of a job.​Chuck Philips, once a top reporter for the Los Angeles Times, spent over a decade investigating the murders of West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur and his East Coast rival, the Notorious B.I.G. But in 2008, when it was revealed tha ... More >>

R.I.P Nate Dogg

​Nathaniel D. Hale, the artist better known as Nate Dogg, passed away Tuesday. As reported by Long Beach's Press-Telegram, the cause of death is not known. He was 41 years old. The singer had suffered two strokes, in 2007 and 2008, and had been undergoing physical therapy. Soon after the n ... More >>

Music Picks: Goldfrapp, Concrete Blonde, Sally Seltmann, Black Francis

Also, Electric Daisy Carnival, the Adicts, Lou Barlow and others

Suge Knight Arrested On Suspicion Of Assault With A Deadly Weapon

​Rap mogul Marion "Suge'' Knight was arrested early Thursday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and for a warrant for driving on a suspended license, Los Angeles police said. The 45-year-old founder of Death Row Records was pulled over in a white Cadillac Escalade pickup on Crenshaw ... More >>

Tupac's 'All Eyez on Me': The LA Weekly Word Cloud [NSFW]

West Coast Sound has been analyzing classic Los Angeles albums for the past six months by creating word clouds from the lyrics. We've tackled Black Flag's Damaged, the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton, Guns 'n Roses' Appetite for Destruction and, most recently, just for kicks, ... More >>

Death Row Records, Post-Suge Knight, Returns with Petey Pablo to Say What's Up from Canada

It's hard to even write this: Toronto-based Death Row Records announced today that the company will be issuing a sampler in conjunction with National Record Store Day, which takes place around the country on April 18. The label, founded in LA by Dr. Dre and Suge Knight, released some of the most i ... More >>

Is Mayoral Candidate Walter Moore a Billboard Enabler? Or Just In Love With Neon?

As the March primary election nears, L.A. mayoral candidate Walter Moore is taking some heat from bloggers who are questioning his day job. Moore, who is running for the big spot for the second time, is an attorney with Richard Hamlin Attorneys. The problem? The Los Angeles-based law firm, which spe ... More >>

Death Row's G-Funk Fire Sale

Death Row Records Auctions Off Its History in Fullerton

(All photos by Brandon Perkins. For full gallery, check out the Death Row Auction slideshow.) It was perfect. The portrait of Nate Dogg in itself was tacky, but Suge Knight's alleged tweaks to the painting -- black eye and multiple bullet holes -- were priceless. The frameless artifact wasn't th ... More >>

Coroner: Dr. Dre's Son OD'ed on Heroin and Morphine

The Los Angeles County Coroner reported today that the son of hip hop record producer and rapper Dr. Dre died from an overdose of heroin and morphine. The drug tests had been pending for more than four months. The coroner's office wouldn't explain why it took so long for the report to be released -- ... More >>

Rapper Dr. Dre's Son Dead at 20

The Los Angeles County Coroner reported today that the son of hip hop record producer and rapper Dr. Dre has died. Andre Young Jr. was found dead at his home in Woodland Hills on Saturday morning. Young was out the previous night and returned home around 5:30 A.M., according to Assistant Chief Ed W ... More >>

Snoop Goes Country! Snoop Dogg Live at Fox Studios, March 6

photos by Timothy Norris Snoop Dogg gigged with an 18-piece backing band in a Fox Studio sound room last night for the Nissan Live series shown on Yahoo! Music, and now that I’ve pimped the corporate affiliates that made this evening of taping possible, let’s just say right off the bat: I have ... More >>

Moment of Truce

After a five-year war, Snoop and Tha Dogg Pound reunite for love, profits and West Coast pride. Ben Quiñones catches the buzz.

Rampart Forgiven

Steve Cooley fails to get to the bottom of things — again

Singled Out: Everybody has a Mother

The Undeath of West Coast Flow

Biggie & Tupac (remix)

Nick Broomfield imitates life imitating art

The Rampart Verdict

The deeper meaning of LAPD’s biggest scandal may never be known

Lost in a Maze

More puzzles than clues in new Rampart book

Letters

Rampart East

Media from the other coast bungle the story of LAPD’s scandal

Another Lost Rampart Case

Officers get benefit of doubt when Perez is the accuser

Hard Times for Net News

Still D.R.E.

Cubanismo, L.A.-Style