Newsweek magazine -- August 21, 1995
Music: A Change of Tune on Gangsta Rap
The music industry is seldom motivated by anything other than greed, but right now Time Warner is operating under a very different impulse: fear. Last week sources said the media giant was on the verge of selling back its 50 percent share in Interscope, which distributes Death Row Records, home to gangsta rappers like Tupac Shakur and Snoop Doggy Dogg. Time Warner is desperate to avoid further controversy over gangsta-rap lyrics, which conservative bigwigs Bob Dole and William J. Bennett have been crusading against. By selling its $100 million stake in Interscope, Time Warner could wash its hands of the matter. But the company has a lot to lose: not only a portion of that investment but future profits from rap acts who routinely sell millions of records.
Death Row's next release, by snarly Snoop spinoffs Tha Dogg Pound, makes Time Warner particularly nervous. Warner Music Group chairman Michael J. Fuchs has been negotiating to end the relationship as early as this week, before that record comes out. Fuchs declined to comment. Sources say an eleventh-hour compromise is unlikely. If Time Warner dumps Interscope, Death Row may sign with Priority, the independent label that released gangsta pioneers N.W.A. Meanwhile, turmoil at the Music Group continues: Warner Bros. Records chairman Danny Goldberg is reportedly on his way out, and ex-Warner execs Doug Morris and Bob Krasnow have started new labels at MCA, where the DreamWorks SKG team has also landed. Now that's something for a rival company to worry about.
More sweeping statements coming right up.