Toy Maker Hasbro Bought The Rights To ‘Peppa Pig’ — And Got The Death Row Gangsta Rap Catalog Along With It
Toymaker Hasbro just made quite the deal by purchasing the rights to children’s television show Peppa Pig and getting the entire Death Row gangsta rap catalog as an add-on.
As ABC.net.au reported, the U.S. toymaker paid $4 billion to acquire Entertainment One, the Canadian entertainment company that produces Peppa Pig. As part of the deal, Hasbro will acquire all of the film and music content that had been licensed to Entertainment One, which includes the music catalog of the rap label Death Row Records, a pioneer in the “gangsta rap” genre of the early and mid-1990s. The deal means that the work of Snoop Doggy Dogg, Tupac Shakur, and Dr. Dre will now belong to the same company that makes Monopoly and G.I. Joe.
Hasbro announced the acquisition in typical industry jargon that didn’t explicitly mention Death Row Records.
“The acquisition of eOne adds beloved story-led global family brands that deliver strong operating returns to Hasbro’s portfolio and provides a pipeline of new brand creation driven by family-oriented storytelling, which will now include Hasbro’s intellectual property,” Hasbro chairman and chief executive officer Brian Goldner said.
Death Row Records, which was founded by rap bodyguard turned music executive turned convicted criminal Suge Knight, was auctioned off to New York’s Global Music Group back in 2008. The label had filed for bankruptcy two years earlier after Knight failed to pay a $107 million judgment to two former partners.
The Canadian company that purchased the label itself went bankrupt in 2012, and Death Row Records was sold to Entertainment One in 2013.
Peppa Pig, Transformers and Death Row Records, together at last https://t.co/ndu63JUiXA via @financialtimes
— Nic Fildes (@NicFildes) August 23, 2019
The deal earned quite a bit of interest online, with many finding it amusing that the maker of beloved children’s toys now also owned the controversial rap label. Peppa Pig may already be well-versed in the art of rap beefs, however. Earlier this summer, Australian rapper Iggy Azalea got into a beef with the fictional cartoon pig over the release of their records. As E! Online reported, the release of Iggy’s second studio album, In My Defense, just happened to fall on the same exact day that the children’s cartoon character released the not-so-creatively titled My First Album.
After Iggy Azalea joked about it on Twitter, the official Peppa Pig account fired back.
“Peppa’s so fancy, you already know,” the cartoon pig replied.
“Collab with me now or you’ll end up a breakfast special peppa,” Iggy tweeted in reply.
There is no word yet on whether Hasbro plans to make a Death Row Records-themed version of Monopoly.
