News of March 22, 1996
Dr. Dre Leaves Death Row and Founds His Own Label
18 million albums sold, then the split: in March 1996, Dr. Dre left the label he co-founded with Suge Knight. Tupac stayed with Knight.
On March 22, 1996, the Los Angeles Times reported that Dr. Dre was parting ways with Death Row Records. The producer had founded the label in 1992 with Suge Knight and made it big with his sound. By that time, Death Row had sold more than 18 million albums, with Dre himself, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, and Tupac Shakur.
New Label, Old Distributor
Dre wanted to run his own label, co-financed and distributed by Interscope, the very same partner as Death Row. The label was later named Aftermath Entertainment. Death Row remained in Knight’s hands.
For Tupac, who had been recording for Death Row since his release in October 1995, this shifted the internal dynamic: he stayed with Knight, while the man who had produced the label’s major records departed. Looking back in February 1997, the newspaper wrote that Dre had left behind artists whose careers he had built, including Snoop and Tupac.