Death Row Records To Launch Film Arm, Cannibalize Back Catalogue

New CEO Lara Lavi has announced, via The Hollywood Reporter, that the first Death Row Films production, “Sons 2 The Grave,” (surprisingly, not a sequel to the Jet Li and DMX vehicle “Cradle 2 The Grave”, for better or for worse…) will go before the camera in October, telling the story of a basketball star (K.C. Collins), who returns to his inner-city home after gunshot injuries cuts his career short. Lavi says “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.”

Awesome. This is undoubtedly an honorable intention. Particularly when Suge Knight, who founded Death Row, was last seen “holding a knife and beating a woman in a car park.” A woman, Melissa Isaac, who testified that Knight “grabbed her hair and punched her in the neck with a closed fist, all while he was driving his champagne-colored Escalade… When Knight pulled into a parking lot on Spring Mountain Road, she tried to run, but Knight grabbed her, threw her to the ground and began kicking and punching her in the back of the head, until she blacked out.” Suge Knight had all charges dropped against him, when prosecutors were unable to contact Melissa Isaac.

“Sons 2 The Grave” is likely to feature music from the Death Row back catalogue, which includes golden-era records from Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur. “We’re looking at film properties that relate to “Boyz n the Hood”-type stories, and to power the film the films with Death Row music,” Lavi says. The Hollywood Reporter goes on to say that she “added the Death Row library… is barely exploited.” Exploited being the key word, apparently…