Dealing a major blow to the already beleaguered gangsta-rap label Death Row

Records, rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg has announced a deal with Master P's No

Limit Records for the release of his next album.

No Limit CEO and rapper Master P welcomed Snoop to the label in a press release issued Friday, saying "The relationship between No Limit Records and Death Row Records is good. This was a business decision that I feel will be beneficial to both Snoop's musical career and No Limit Records."

Da Game Is To Be Sold, Not To Be Told is the name of the upcoming

(Aug. 4) effort from Snoop (a.k.a. Calvin Broadus), who has been vocal

lately about his dissatisfaction with the West Coast gangsta-rap label

Death Row, whose CEO, Marion "Suge" Knight, is currently serving a

nine-year prison term for a probation violation.

A spokesperson from Death Row said Thursday that "at this time Snoop is

still under contract to the label unless there's some negotiation going on

that I'm not aware of." The source, who preferred not to be named, said the

Long Beach, Calif., rapper still owes the label six albums. Death Row lawyer David

Kenner could not be reached for comment at press time.

No Limit, the self-proclaimed "#1 independent label," has had a

string of gold and platinum albums from P and proteges such as Young Bleed

and Mystikal. Barbara Pescosolido, publicist for No Limit, said P

would executive produce the album, which she said would feature a number of

unnamed No Limit artists as guests and production by Beats By the Pound.

"I'm sure Master P will be on board," said Pescosolido, referring to a

possible vocal cameo, "both parties are excited."

It was just two months ago that Snoop told his hometown paper, the Long

Beach Press-Telegram, that he was planning to leave Death Row because

he felt that his "life was in danger" as long as he was on the label. More

recently, in the new issue of the rap magazine The Source, Snoop --

citing a California statute that limits personal contracts to seven years --

said he is legally out of his contract, which he said he signed in 1991

with the precursor to Death Row, Future Shock Records.

The rapper said in the article that he was ready to release records without

Death Row's permission, including an in-process album that he played for the

article's author that featured a song entitled "Death Row Killers," as well

as other songs with lyrics such as "you stole my money and my soul" and "I

put out my records independently/ that way ain't no nigga yanking

me."

Snoop also alleges in The Source piece that Death Row hasn't paid

him since October. "That's why I don't give a fuck about Death Row right

now," Snoop said. "Y'all should just let me go. If you had let me go, I

would have never said fuck Death Row. But y'all don't even wanna let a

nigga go. You hold onto me like I'm a slave or some shit. This is 1998.

This ain't 1898." Snoop also recently announced plans to launch his own

independent label, Dogg House Records, on which he said he hopes to release an

album entitled Corleone's Revenge, a movie and soundtrack to a tale

based on his experience with Death Row.

With Snoop's announcement of his leaving Death Row, the former industry

powerhouse has lost its top three stars, beginning with co-founder/producer

Dr. Dre's defection in 1996 and followed by the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.