Dr. Dre has been battling Death Row Records over the past year over unpaid funds from the online sales of The Chronic and he has come out victorious.
According to Billboard, U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder ruled that Dr. Dre is entitled to be paid more royalities from the digital sales of his 1992 debut album than what he has been getting. The album can still be sold digitally, but Dre will now receive 100 percent of the monies from digital sales.
“For years, Death Row Records forgot about Dre when they continued to distribute his music digitally and combined his hits with weaker Death Row tracks in an attempt to elevate the stature of their other artists,” Dre’s lawyer Howard King wrote in a statement. “We are gratified that the federal court has unambiguously declared that Death Row has no right to engage in such tactics, and must hold all proceeds from these illicit distributions in trust for our client.”
The Aftermath CEO filed the lawsuit last year against WIDEawake/Death Row for improperly selling The Chronic online and using his music on compilations without his permission. Now they can only sell the album in the format in was in before he left the label in 1996, which is cassette, CD, 8-track and vinyl.
As Dr. Dre celebrates this win, Death Row Records’ former CEO Suge Knight sits in jail facing murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run charges.
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