Snoop Dogg’s Death Row Records Chain on The Voice Explained

There are a few pretty obvious reasons to compete on The Voice. The winner receives a $100,000 cash prize and a recording contract with Universal Music Group, and the runners up get a chance to expand their audience week after week on one of the world’s biggest stages, while being mentored by industry professionals.

Those are just the table stakes, but sometimes contestants receive bonus perks from their chosen Coach, some trinket or piece of memorabilia that symbolizes their shared goal (taking the crown) and their time together. In the past, John Legend gave out Team Legend jackets, Chance the Rapper handed out hats, Dan + Shay passed out bespoke baseball jerseys, and Reba McEntire is always tempting performers with tater tots, chicken strips, and other treats.

In season 27, Snoop Dogg has joined the Coaching ranks and he’s handing out what is arguably the coolest artifact in the history of The Voice: Death Row Records chains.

A Brief History of Death Row Records

Death Row Records was founded in 1991 by Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, The D.O.C., and Dick Griffey. The label was instrumental in defining west coast hip-hop and putting several big names on the map. Early on, the label secured a deal to contribute music to the soundtrack of the 1992 film Deep Cover. The title track was Dr. Dre’s first release after leaving NWA and featured a young Snoop Dogg.

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Shortly after, the label released Dre’s first solo album, The Chronic, Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle, and 2Pac’s All Eyez on Me, albums which remain definitive to this day. By the end of the decade, the label was struggling under the weight of Tupac’s murder, various legal battles, and the departure of its key artists, including Snoop Dogg. Death Row filed for bankruptcy in 2006 and was purchased by WIDEawake Entertainment three years later. It bounced around to several different corporate entities until Snoop purchased the label from MNRK Music Group in 2022.

The same year, Snoop released his third Death Row Records album, 26 years after releasing his second album in 1996. This time, he wasn’t just the label’s darling, he was its owner. A few decades ago, Snoop was given a Death Row chain by Suge Knight, and now 30 years later he’s the one handing them out.

The Unspoken Significance of Bling

Jewelry and other aesthetic adornments have been a part of human culture for hundreds of thousands of years, as long as we’ve been human. Through hip-hop, we can see the importance and cultural symbolism of jewelry writ large.

Early hip-hop artists were known for wearing simpler jewelry, often acquired at local shops, as a means of displaying success. An artist might pick up a ring or a necklace to celebrate an accomplishment or to symbolize reaching a new level. Over time, the role of jewelry in hip-hop culture evolved, each new artist upping the ante until it reached the many varied forms we see today in contemporary “bling.” Artists wear their successes not on their sleeves, but on wrists and fingers, on grills, and around their necks.

In addition to demonstrating wealth and success, bling also illustrates connection and found family. In 2002, Kanye West was a relative unknown when he signed with Roc-A-Fella Records and received a Roc-A-Fella chain in front of a crowd in his hometown. Roc-A-Fella’s co-founder Dame Dash, who presented a young Ye with the chain, said, “I just wanted to empower him. And that’s why I gave him the chain in front of everyone in his hometown,” according to Time.

In the right circles, the right chain (or other jewelry) actually does carry power and respect. They can’t be bought and they can’t be requested, they have to be given and the criteria for earning one is variable and nebulous. Rapper and radio host Roxanne Shanté was part of the Juice Crew, an 80s-era Queensbridge, New York hip-hop collective. She’s the only female rapper to have been given a Juice Crew ring, gold with a diamond-encrusted letter R.

“Back in the day, a person who had juice had respect and had control over their neighborhood and situations. So if you saw someone with the Juice Crew ring, then you knew that was a person that you can trust. You knew that was a person you could go to with your problems. So you had to earn it. The Juice ring could never be bought. It had to be given to you,” Shanté told NPR.

Shanté’s Juice Crew ring is one of the subtler pieces presented in Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry, on display at the American Museum of Natural History until January 5, 2025. The exhibit illustrates the history of hip-hop from the ‘80s to today, it features Run-DMC’s Adidas pendant, Nicki Minaj’s bejeweled Barbie chain, a grill made for Lil Nas X, and a clock chain made famous by Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav, among others.

Now, half a century after the birth of hip-hop, collectors are busily snatching up the bling of yesteryear. In 2023, a pair of Death Row Records pendants went up for auction, alongside artifacts from Tupac’s 1996 Saturday Night Live performance and other hip-hop memorabilia. The chains were commissioned by music mogul Suge Knight and intended to be loaned to artists. There were a few different kinds, including a “Fully Iced” pendant made of gold and encrusted with diamonds, worn by top artists like Snoop Dogg and Tupac. That same year, one of Tupac’s rings sold at auction for over a million dollars.

Pendants, rings, grills, and other bling are more than just fashionable accessories, they are a means of communication. They allow the wearer to communicate their affiliations, philosophies, and successes. And they provide a visual throughline, a constantly evolving but culturally regulated collection of artifacts, telling the story of an artform. Seen in context, Snoop’s chains on season 27 of The Voice are more than just necklaces, more than just souvenirs, they are uniquely special gifts that only Snoop can bestow.