In an appearance on the Full Send podcast, Snoop Dogg opened up about how he plans to incorporate NFTs and other technologies into Death Row Records.
At the 12:30 mark of the podcast Snoop was asked how NFTs of any Death Row-related content, be it music or otherwise, would work, and how it could also benefit the fans. “So for example, in the Web3 space when you buy and trade art, whatever it is that you trade… The consumer has the ability to own it, to trade it, to make money off of it,” he explained. “And then you’re able to get percentages off of the secondary and the third market, right, so picture doing that with music.”
Snoop said that by incorporating NFTs into the business of the label, which he became the owner of back in February, fans can own something more significant than another CD or vinyl copy.
“Picture me taking one of my classic records that you love to death, and you’ve always cherished it and it means so much to you. Now you have the right to buy it and own it, and to trade it and to make money off of it,” he continued. “Now you actually own a piece of Snoop Dogg’s legacy as opposed to, I have a copy of his CD that I lost. … Now you actually own something that’s actually yours that you can profit off of. I just feel like that’s where the industry is headed. Being in it for so many years, 30 years strong. My fans coming to show up for me, me charging them for everything. T-shirts, concerts, this, that, but not giving them shit back. Don’t sit right.”
When asked why he’s the “only one” in the music industry to have this level of commitment to Web3 technologies, Snoop said he’s just the first to do it, and because he’s his own boss, he doesn’t need a label head’s permission.
“I’m the CEO, the artist, all of the above,” he said. “So I’ll just ask myself, ‘Hey Snoop, is it okay if you do an NFT?’ ‘Sure do whatever you like!’ Everybody else gotta go to a label, a bunch of motherfuckers. … How many artists do you hear complaining about, ‘We don’t make money off our YouTube videos. We don’t make money off our streaming. The label won’t let me go, I can’t do this, I can’t do that.’”
Snoop went on to discuss Taylor Swift’s efforts to reclaim her discography after Scooter Braun bought the rights to Big Machine’s catalog.
“She ain’t an old artist at all she’s quite new. What did she do? She remastered her album. Why? Because she wasn’t making revenues off of that album,” Snoop said before revealing that he considered a similar approach. “I was going to remaster my album. My son had told me years ago, he was like, ‘You should just remaster Doggy Style Pops, fuck all that. Just remaster it, you ain’t gotta worry about all that.’” he continued. “But I didn’t wanna go that approach, because you can’t remaster Doggy Style like you can remaster them R&B songs. That shit was a feeling, that shit was a moment. You can’t recapture that.”
Circling back around to his Death Row NFT plans, Snoop said that record labels have only begun “easing into” the Web3 space because they’re “afraid” of how it could impact the bottom-line. “They know that they have so much control traditionally, and all that they’re hearing about in the NFT metaverse space is that the artist has control,” he said before comparing it to if NFL players started their own league with full control
Shortly after his acquisition of Death Row in February, Snoop revealed his plans for it to become the first NFT record label. “We will be putting out artists through the metaverse,” he explained at the time. “Just like we broke the industry when we was the first independent [label] to be major, I want to be the first major [label] in the metaverse.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Snoop was asked how much he charges for a feature. “About $250,000,” he said. “You get about 16 bars.”
When the topic of Will Smith’s Oscars slap came up, Snoop didn’t hold back.
Snoop originally thought it was “fake,” but realized it wasn’t after hearing Will Smith yell from his seats. He also reflected on his Halftime Show performance at this year’s Super Bowl.
According to Snoop, Dr. Dre had full control over the show, and “put together what he felt was best for his performance.” Snoop said he was “one of the first ones to be called”
Watch his entire interview on the Full Send podcast above.
