Death Row Records moving into movie production

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-19 10:45

TORONTO - Newly resurrected rap label Death Row Records is expanding into film production.

Death Row Records CEO Lara Lavi said her new Death Row Films division is set to shoot "Sons 2 The Grave" in Toronto this October, with Tonya Lee Williams, Dorian Harewood, K.C. Collins ("Flashpoint") and child actor Cameron Miles Jones on board.

The indie drama features Collins as a young basketball phenomenon returning to an embattled ghetto after two gunshots cut short his dream of an NBA career.

"This film embodies what we're trying to do with Death Row, to tell human stories that don't always have happy endings, and that allow us to learn from violence and disenfranchised lives, but not glorify it," Lavi said.

WIDEawake Entertainment Group, Lavi's Toronto-based company, acquired Death Row Records, which was in bankruptcy, in January for $18 million.

Death Row Films will tap the rap label's catalog for the music score of "Sons 2 The Grave," before moving on to other projects.

"We're looking at film properties that relate to 'Boyz n the Hood'-type stories, and to power the films with Death Row music," Lavi said.

She added that the Death Row library, which includes songs and albums by 2pac, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Danny Boy, is barely exploited.

"We're sitting here with 10,000 masters, of which only 10 percent to 15 percent have been released to the public," she said.

Death Row Records is licensing its songs to film, television, videogame and advertising producers, including EA Games and the makers of the "CSI" and "Cold Case" TV series.

The label also will re-release Dr. Dre's 1992 album "The Chronic" on September 1. "The Chronic Re-lit" collector's disc will feature 16 original songs and seven new tracks, as well as previously unreleased video of Dr. Dre and other artists. Death Row is also readying boxed sets of unreleased master recordings for the holiday season.