Snoop Dogg and son start Death Row Games

Never satisfied with his status as one of hip-hop’s most prolific artists, Snoop Dogg continues to build his business empire with the launch of Death Row Games.

Created with son Cordell Broadus, Death Row Games will support minority creators within the Fortnite ecosystem, according to Vibe.

“Our vision for Death Row Games is to provide access and opportunity to diverse creators to empower them as well as broaden the narrative around what gaming is and can become. We are still in the early stages, but my team and I are excited to start building on the UEFN ecosystem where we believe the next generation of audiences are,” said Broadus.

Broadus is no stranger to the gaming industry; he’s been a part of it for the past six years — so it’s no surprise that he’s using his talents, platform and vision to create Death Row Games with his father.

“We’ve been creating games, and none of them has been published on a huge scale, but on a very amateur level,” Broadus told AFROTECH. “We’ve been around games for the last five to six years. And Snoop, he’s done mobile games. A few of them in the past five to six years in apps and stuff like that. So we’ve always had the mindset of building it on our own.”

According to PBS in 2020, “the International Game Developers Association found that 81% of developers identified as White/Caucasian and 2% identified as Black/African-American/African/Afro-Caribbean.”

While those numbers are shocking, they highlight the disconnect between development representation and its players. A 2015 study showed that 83% of non-Hispanic Black teens are gamers.

“I keep saying ‘show representation of the culture in these sectors,’ versus us just being the talent. We wanted to make sure that we’re part of the decision that’s being made and more importantly tell these stories from diverse creators and focus on creatives in underserved communities.” said Snoop.