Death Row Records purchased by toy company Hasbro

In an extraordinary deal in popular music, the West Coast gangsta label Death Row Records is now on the same shelf as iconic toys as Mr. Potato Head, Peppa Pig, PJ Masks, Monopoly, Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom, My Little Pony and Power Rangers.

Death Row was founded in 1991 by Dre, The D.O.C., and Suge Knight and was a blueprint for late 20th-century popular music with artists as Dr. Dre, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound and MC Hammer.

At its peak, it was making $150 million a year, but went bankrupt in 2006 after which it drifted through a number of owners.

Canadian conglomerate Entertainment One or eOne purchased the label in 2013 for either $280 million or $6 million, depending on whom you believe.

In the year ending March 31, its various divisions reported net income of $257.34 million on revenue of $1.225 billion.

Now the Canadian firm has been bought over by massive toy company Hasbro as part of its $4 billion acquisition of the content library of Canadian conglomerate Entertainment One or eOne which owned distribution rights to the toy brands.

Entertainment One had a highly successful music division which made $83.9 million in its last financial year.

It includes labels like Dualtone and Last Gang and hitmakers as The Game, Joe Budden, DJ Khaled, Soulja Boy, Lil Kim, Black Label Society, Ace Frehley, Brandy, Guy Clark, Tegan and Sara, Zakky Wylde and Lisa Knowles.

It also had theatrical distribution companies in Australia (which Universal Pictures International handled from April 2019), Canada, the UK, and Benelux.

Hasbro already had toy-to-film properties like Transformers and G.I. Joe.

It now expands further into the TV and film biz via Entertainment One’s global film and TV production and distribution business.

The kids who were born when Death Row launched are now cashed up 28 years olds.

The franchise revenue possibilities are huge.

But somehow we don’t think Hasbro has any plans for a weed-smoking Snoop Dogg toy figure or a Dr. Dre action movie or a mystery board game Who Killed Tupac?