In keeping with his label's brash, street-buzz style, Master P's No Limit Records has already begun promoting the first No Limit release by rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg (a.k.a. Calvin Broadus), even though the rhymer's estranged label, Death Row, claims that he technically has not yet been released from his contract.

No Limit Records and its distributor, Priority Records, have concluded an agreement with Death Row and Snoop for the exclusive recording rights to the popular rapper's future recordings, according to a joint press release from No Limit and Priority (which also distributes Death Row).

"The deal was easy to negotiate," said Roberta Magrini, publicist for Priority. "It is a friendly agreement and all sides are happy with the deal."

Snoop's first record for No Limit will be called The Game is To Be Told, Not To Be Sold (Aug. 4), and a source at No Limit said the album will feature contributions from a number of rappers in the No Limit family, which includes label founder Master P, his rapping brethren Silkk the Shocker and C-Murder, and others.

Greg Howard, spokesperson for Death Row, said that, as of Wednesday, no deals had been concluded, and he would not confirm or deny that Death Row received a lump-sum payment and would "participate financially in all of Snoop's future releases" as stated in the No Limit press release. None of the parties would discuss the specifics of the deal. A source familiar with the negotiations said that O.J. Simpson attorney Johnnie Cochran had brokered the deal on behalf of Snoop several weeks ago.

Until the deal is worked out, Howard added, Snoop is still a Death Row artist. The label -- whose CEO, Marion "Suge" Knight, is currently serving a nine-year prison term for a parole violation -- has been plagued by big-name defections and losses over the past three years, beginning with co-label founder/producer Dr. Dre, followed by the murder of superstar rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996 and now, Snoop's apparent departure.

Snoop -- who earlier this year told his hometown newspaper, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, that he was leaving Death Row because he feared for his life -- really just wants to mature, according to Peetah Cobb, music editor at rap magazine Rap Pages, who recently interviewed the laid-back rapper. "He's matured, he wants to live and wants to go about making music," Cobb said.

Cobb also predicted that Snoop would return to his roots, much like hard-core rapper Ice Cube has on his current hit single, "We Be Clubbin'," and release the kind of gangstafied material that propelled his 1993 solo debut, Doggystyle, to multi-platinum status and a #1 debut on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

"Some people have talked to him and told him that he can't abandon his audience just because he's grown, gotten married, had kids," Cobb said. "But maybe there's a freedom thing in the atmosphere since he'll be off Thug Row. Master P is about business and you never hear about any conflicts or anything in the No Limit crew.

"I think his greatest fear is repercussions," Cobb added. "He knows Suge's mentality." Cobb dismissed talk of an imminent Death Row demise, though, even in light of Snoop's departure. "We don't know what kind of creativity is out there," Cobb said.

Although Snoop still has six albums left on his Death Row deal, the label had no current plans to release any of the material they have in their vaults, Howard said, adding that any future releases would depend on what kind of deal the two labels strike. "This is just the kind of thing where an artist's contract is being sold to another company," Howard said. "There are no ill feelings here. It's a business deal."