Death Row Records Making Movies?

Say what?! Death Row, the infamous record label that rose to popularity during the mid-nineties, has found a new hustle. According to Yahoo, Death Row is getting into the movie making business. The label’s new CEO Lara Lavi plans on expanding the company with her newest division, Death Row Films. More on the story below.

The first film Death Row will shoot (no pun intended) is entitled Sons 2 the Grave. It will star Tonya Lee Williams (Olivia, Young and the Restless), Dorian Harewood, K.C. Collins, and Cameron Miles Jones. Production will start this October in Toronto. The story of the film centers on “a young basketball phenomenon returning to an embattled ghetto after two gunshots cut short his dream of an NBA career.”

According to Lavi, “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.” I don’t buy that for one bit, but to each his own. One minute she says that and then the next she says, “We’re looking at film properties that relate to ‘Boyz n the Hood‘-type stories, and to power the films with Death Row music.”

As an African-American, I’m just not interested in seeing more movies that feature minorities being shot and killed because of senseless violence. It’s not like Death Row films will be showing us anything that hasn’t been perpetuated in the media for the past 25 years. I’ll pass.

What do you think of Death Rows first entry into the film business?