Hasbro, the toy company behind such beloved childhood staples as Monopoly, NERF, Jenga, and Power Rangers now owns infamous gangster-rap label Death Row Records as the result of a bizarre buyout.
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As confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, the deal is the result of a $3.8 billion merger between Hasbro and Canadian studio Entertainment One, which purchased Death Row back in 2013. Founded in 1991 by Suge Knight and Dr. Dre, the label served as an incubator for the West Coast gangster rap trend of the early-to-mid 1990s that brought the country such West Coast superstars as Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur.
However, Suge Knight, is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for voluntary manslaughter, a sentence which began fall 2018. Death Row Records had been auctioned off to Global Music Group in bankruptcy court in 2008. Since the auction, Death Row has sporadically released archival materials from their hit-makers of the ’90s.
In addition to the rights to music from Tupac, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre, Hasbro will now also own the rights to children’s cartoons such as Peppa Pig, PJ Masks, and Nickelodeon‘s Ricky Zoom.
We’re just waiting for the special edition “Thug Life” Monopoly set to hit stores.
[H/T The Hollywood Reporter]