YOUR FAVORITE MTV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

Death Row Planning Snoop Hits Album For Fall

Rapper's former label promoting disc with taunting print ads.

Nearly three years after Snoop Dogg left Death Row Records, the label is still acting like he's one of its top dogs.

Death Row says it will release a Snoop greatest-hits album in September or October, featuring previously unreleased material. An inflammatory ad for the album, which is slated to run in three hip-hop magazines in March, is the latest in a taunting, and at times threatening, campaign Death Row has aimed at Snoop.

Details about the best-of compilation were slim at press time, but fans can expect a batch of Snoop classics, such as "Gin & Juice," "Who Am I (What's My Name)" and the Snoop/Dr. Dre collaboration "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang," Death Row Records spokesperson Jonathan Wolfson said.

The album will be titled Snoop Doggy Dogg's Greatest Hits — Death Row continues to refer to the rapper as Snoop Doggy Dogg, even though he shortened his name to Snoop Dogg after he left the label and signed to No Limit/Priority in 1998.

No information was available on the previously unreleased tracks or whether the album will feature material from the three albums Snoop recorded for No Limit/Priority, Wolfson said.

Death Row has a financial interest in Snoop's albums on Priority as part of a 1998 agreement between the labels. However, it was not clear whether the greatest-hits set legally can include material from the Priority releases without permission from that label.

Snoop's publicist said she was not aware of Death Row's plans to release a Snoop greatest-hits album and had no comment.

Death Row had earlier announced a Snoop best-of package would arrive in March 2000, but the album was never released. Wolfson could not confirm whether the track listing announced for that album stands for the upcoming project.

The label said it will take out full-page advertisements in the March issues of three hip-hop magazines to promote the best-of album. The ad, which currently greets visitors at www.deathrowrecords2000.com, "congratulates" Snoop on the success of Dead Man Walkin', a Snoop collection Death Row put out in October, and Tha Last Meal, his just-released album on No Limit/Priority.

"Death Row Records knows that success for a Snoop Doggy Dogg album means $$$$ for [imprisoned Death Row chief] Suge Knight," the ad reads. "Keep it up because you know Suge Knight eats off your next three albums as well as your previous seven albums!!!"

Priority Records vowed to take legal action against Death Row after Tha Last Meal appeared on the label's Web site three weeks before its December 19 release. Visitors to the site were asked to "take the Snoop Dogg challenge" and compare Tha Last Meal to Dead Man Walkin'.

After the holidays, deathrowrecords2000.com began featuring an intro screen that read: "2001 the year of fear." The next screen read, "All doggs run & hide," and the next: "Suge is coming home." A dog was heard barking and then whimpering after a shot was fired.

Knight, who is serving a nine-year sentence for violating probation on an assault charge, is eligible for parole on April 25.

Wolfson said the sequence concluding with the dog being shot was self-explanatory. Snoop's No Limit publicist had no comment.

Death Row will revisit the career of another of its former stars prior to the Snoop album when it releases a box set from slain rapper Tupac Shakur.

Latest News