Above The Law Speaks On Death Row Signing

Above The Law, one of the pioneering West Coast Hip-Hop groups to come out of Eazy E’s Ruthless Records fold, have announced that they are officially signed to Suge Knight’s Death Row imprint. Above The Law group members Big Hutch aka Cold 187um, KM.G AKA Vin Loco and DJ K-oss, severed their ties with Tommy […]

Above

The Law

, one of the pioneering West Coast Hip-Hop

groups to come out of Eazy E’s Ruthless Records fold, have

announced that they are officially signed to Suge Knight’s

Death Row imprint. Above The Law group members Big Hutch

aka Cold 187um, KM.G AKA Vin Loco and DJ K-oss, severed

their ties with Tommy Boy in 1998, due to lack of promotion,

marketing and "basic enthusiasm."

After breaking

from Tommy Boy, the group formed West World records and

released Big Hutch’s debut solo album Executive Decisions

and Above The Law’s seventh album "Forever-Rich

Thugs." The group

was approached by several major labels (including their

former label Ruthless Records) about a new record deal,

but according to group leader Big Hutch, "instead of

taking two steps forward these deals would have had us going

three, four steps back."

According to

Big Hutch, the group hadn’t been given the creative control

and financial backing since the death of Eazy E. "Ruthless

owed us a lot of money and still do. We tried to renegotiate

a deal with Ruthless and Ruthless fronted on us. So Enter

CEO of Death Row Records, Suge Knight, who is looking to

reestablish Death Row Records as a leading powerhouse in

Rap. Suge made an offer that the group couldn’t refuse.

"Suge saw the light," Hutch continued. "A

lot of people don’t realize that Suge used to manage Above

The Law when we were on Ruthless in the early days when

he managed us and D.O.C. I love Ruthless and what we built,

but you gotta move on. She (Tamika Wright) sold the label

anyway, so it is what it is."

Having full

creative control, distribution promotion and marketing,

the group feels all is in place for them. "Suge knows

how our whole collective operates," said Big Hutch.

"We see eye-to-eye on how we want Above The Law to

be presented to the streets, the people, and the industry.

He’s giving us the artistic freedom we haven’t

had in years."

Hutch has also

announced that he has formed an production team for Death

Row Records. Big Hutch and Darren Vegas have formed The

Executioners. Big Hutch over saw the production of a handful

of songs on the new Dogg Pound 2002, which is slated for

a July 31st release.

"We gonna

peel some caps back for real, cause Suge is letting us do

our thing," Hutch said. "We are really getting

focused with this Death Row Record cause you know we wanna

come out punishing fools. Certain fools we think out there

need punishment."