In hip-hop, and to a degree music in general, there are few record labels as storied as Death Row. Def Jam have the best catalog, some say No Limit were the most innovative, but neither compared to the sheer star power and controversy caused by the crew from Compton. Launched by Harry-O’s drug money, forged by the brute force of Suge Knight and critically acclaimed thanks to the platinum touch of Dr. Dre, the label’s five year run may be the greatest apex in history for any rap boutique. So great that even the soundtracks were classic. But the shit you heard was only half of the deal. The other half? Well, it comes with its own story. Almost a year ago, we dropped a Death Row: Unreleased compilation on our since deleted blogspot page and got some crazy feedback. It’d be a shame not to have it archived on our new site, so we reformatted it, re-wrote it and added five more tracks to the mix. Since it was previously posted, it’s been often imitated, and in some cases, duplicated by mark azz bustaz tryna pass off my work as their own. (if you’re going to copy it to your own blog, at least give some damn credit). But that’s aight though, because the 2.0 version is even better than the original, complete with even the write-ups and pictures packaged together in an XML file for your own collection. This is for the zigganz that was down from day one, welcome to Death Row: Unreleased. Hit the jump for write-ups, tracklisting and the download link. Peace to dirt_dog from TROY for the cover art.

— Snoop Bloggy Blogg

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