Welcome to Death Row: The Uncensored Story of Death Row Records in the Words of Those Who Were There

by S. Leigh Savidge, Steve Housden (Contributor), Jeff Scheftel (Contributor)

It started in Compton. it ended in infamy.

In the wake of Marion "Suge" Knight's move to rip the guts out of Ruthless Records and NWA, Death Row Records exploded on the music scene in 1993 with the "gangster rap" sound that had taken world by storm. Yet despite its unprecedented success with stars such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur, it quickly unraveled in a firestorm of rivalries, greed, violence and government scrutiny as Suge Knight's unconventional business methods increasingly mirrored the violent, hard-edged themes of its music.

Based on the award winning documentary film of the same name, WELCOME TO DEATH ROW is the complete and untold story of the rise and fall of the notorious Death Row Records label, presented as an oral history through first-hand accounts of the people that lived it. It is vastly expanded with compelling (and sometimes shocking) accounts not heard in the documentary film, with stories from over 60 former Death Row rappers, promoters, music executives, journalists, producers, managers, publicists, lawyers and drug dealers -all eyewitnesses to the label's phenomenal success, internal battles and violence, and its inevitable crash.

Interwoven with these histories is the story of the high-risk quest to complete the film, chronicling how director Leigh Savidge and producers Steve Housden & Jeff Scheftel navigated a surreal world of Crips & Bloods, crooked lawyers and cocaine kingpins, 'gangsta' rappers and thuggish music executives, and how the team persuaded the key players to tell their story under the threat of retaliation from every element, including threats from major music companies and the bizarre involvement of OJ Simpson prosecutor Chris Darden.

Universal Pictures' STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON was developed a follow up to the WELCOME TO DEATH ROW film by its producers, constructing the story and acquiring rights, with author S. Leigh Savidge writing initial drafts of the screenplay

Genres: Music

372 pages, Paperback

First published August 13, 2015

Reviews

[Gunnar Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting style for a book and one that worked on occasion and didn't on others. The book seemed hastily put together and the number of typos and grammatical errors was horrendous at points. That being said it is a very fascinating read and even if this is not a topic you are at all interested in it is worth picking up if you have the time.

[Ali Monaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating--even better than the movie Straight Outta Compton.

[Jake Voss · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot describe this book in any other way than a bait & switch. It bills itself as an oral history of NWA and Death Row, but in actuality, it is little more than a self-published, sloppy autobiography of the unremarkable author. More than half of this book deals with the author, his VHS distribution company, and how he came to make a Death Row documentary. He inserts himself into the narrative as if he was a part of the NWA/Death Row story, but it soon becomes clear that is not the case. Most of the time, the author whines about how much money he had to spend to get his documentary made, but I did not feel a shred of sympathy for him. He adds a lot of narrative weight on the characters that actually agreed to speak with him, but even they are only tangentially related or important to the NWA/Death Row story. If you are looking for a definite telling of the NWA/Death Row story, this book is not for you. I suggest watching the Dr. Dre documentary "The Defiant Ones" on HBO instead. That documentary actually has on-camera interviews of the people involved in the story, and it tells a much clearer story than this book does. The biographers there do not see it necessary to insert themselves into the narrative. This book is self-aggrandizing and frustrating. Worst of all, it's sloppily written and fraught with spelling and grammar mistakes that anything other than a self-published book would be free of. For example, he spells FedEx three different ways in one chapter. This book lacks edits and basic proof-reading. Do not be fooled by this book. If you have the choice, you would skip it.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has to read to be believed

The saga of Death Row Records is amazing, despite this book not being able to secure interviews with a lot of the principal players. I say book, but books is more appropriate since there are really two concurrent storylines here. One is the story of Death Row, and the other concerns the making of the documentary on which this book is partly based. Both make for gripping reading. My only issue, and this might just be the Kindle version, is that it could have been edited better (awkward spacing, spelling errors). If you're interested in music industry history, or really dug the movie STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, you'll love this.

[Michelle Renee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once I found out this was also a film I went to check it out. The book is almost verbatim what the film is. I could not get through the entire book as I felt it was composed in a strange way. Rather than telling the chronological story of Death Row Records, the book is full of people comments on the matter. I would rather just have had the historical story of Death Row Records.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

found this to be very informative and interesting..

[Darren Carmon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good details on the death row story but my GOODNESS there are so many typos!

[Steve]

Promotional video for Welcome to Death Row | The Book

[Steven Askin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent

Fantastic read!!!! Great information about an era of music that was turbulent and crazy. Well put together and a great addition to the film.