Death Row Sale May Mean Another Posthumous Tupac Album

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Following the bankruptcy of Death Row Records' Suge Knight, the famed label hit the auction block Wednesday. Ultimately, Nashville-based Global Music Group won the rights to Death Row's catalogue for $24 million and taking ownership of albums like Dr. Dre's The Chronic, Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle and, perhaps most lucratively, twenty unreleased tracks by Tupac Shakur. Odds are that a new, posthumous Tupac album could hit shelves by the end of the year, though one obstacle is that new Tupac releases must be approved by Evergreen Copyrights and Shakur's heir. Evergreen and Warner Music Group were both in the running to buy Death Row, but the label's deep pool of unpaid debts scared away both companies from offering more money. Suge Knight was forced to sell off Death Row Records after falling into bankruptcy following a $107 million judgment leveled against Knight by a former partner.

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Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

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