Yeah I remember seeing that for certain priority re releases with Snoop's name on it. I feel very indifferent about him as a rapper. I only had brief interactions with him during his NL days and he was cool. I remember him doing an interview(bet) saying Post Pac death that he was in financial hell with DR folding, cars were getting repo'd and things of that nature. Even to this day he is always giving P shoutouts.
At the time snoop signed he was still one of the hottest rappers out and P made a brilliant move signing him because that notoriety legitimized NL and in return P let dude turn in 2 albums in a less than a year and walk away with the % of his publishing(Suge still controlled some) and showed him how to be a boss which transitioned him into his own label with doggystyle records. P could've have easily took a piece of that deal but he let snoop eat. And what did Snoop do in return? He basically raped the eastsidaz after two platinum albums and tray dee pulled up on him and had dude running for his life.
I know a lot of people blame Lyor Cohen for the birth of the 360 deal BUT to me the biggest catalyst for that was P. People quickly forget that when he moved back to NO from richmond, he was signing everybody in uptown. CMR was local and very clickish. He pulled all those dudes together and put them on. The deal he got with priority was beyond unprecedented. Dude was making poor quality movies in 96-97(I'm bout it) to standing shoulder to shoulder with guys like cohen, and Russell Simmons.
I know baby was pissed about the alleged blockage of his own distribution deal with priority but even his universal deal wouldn't have happened if not for P. Like
@shopthatwrecks said, that UPC code trick was a mothafukka & if not for that priority would not have came crawling to P. He played those dudes heavy.
To bring that point home, guys like cohen and other execs were salty as fukk with P business model of TREATING HIS ARTISTS RIGHT!!! Execs at the time despised P for that. In contrast Juvenile said many times when they would go to award shows Baby & Slim didn't want them associating with other artists and execs out of fear that the would get the game. Shytty industry is designed to keep artists in the red.
Soon as piracy started to affect sales, most major labels implemented that policy of minimal advances, large percentages of sales and shows going to labels off the top. Even though albums sales will never go back retro, fans still pay to see artists so the labels get that. From my brother experiences and me learning the industry, seeing so many people touch an artist money before they see a dime is depressing.
Point is, P reign at the top was similar to Marlo's reign in the wire. Short but powerful. P is a real stand up dude and I wish he release his vault and a real autobiography.