Tiffany Chin: Snoop Dogg’s right-hand woman at Death Row Cannabis

Death Row Records’ Tiffany Chin knows how to make an impression. After graduating from the Wharton School, she joined the boutique management firm for several artists, including Snoop Dogg.

During her 10 years at the firm, she was also part of the cannabis business ventures team, which included companies like Merry Jane, Casa Verde Capital, and Leafs by Snoop. Motherhood, however, eventually led her down a different path. 

For many people that would be the end of the story. But Chin left that impression on Snoop, who sought her out to run his retooled cannabis brand. He spent a year trying to recruit her, but Chin had made a one-year commitment to the company she’d taken a remote position with.

But Snoop wasn’t one to give up easily.

Death Row Records

Chin recalled that around the time of Snoop’s appearance in the Super Bowl halftime show, he called one last time saying he had acquired Death Row Records and needed a person to run the cannabis arm of the company.

“I want you to run Death Row Cannabis,” he told her.

“And so it’s like an avalanche coming down on me, right? I’m floored by the requests, the offer, the ask and everything that he wants me to do for him. But I see the vision. It’s not just him dictating. He’s like, I know you’ve had a lot of experience with how this works, so I want your opinion on whether or not this makes sense,” said Chin.

Chin said that the Death Row Records company is split into divisions for music, film & TV, merchandise/apparel and cannabis. Each division operates independently, but there is some crossover. For example, a private listening party for a new recording may want some DRR cannabis. And that ability to leverage the other parts of the company could lead to even more opportunities, such as a Death Row Records festival selling Death Row Cannabis – if it becomes more feasible for such festivals to legally sell cannabis.

Of course, the industry has seen many celebrity brands come and go, with many licensing their name to a company but doing little to support the brand. As a result, many of those brands face questions about authenticity and credibility. Chin understands this criticism, but she counters that Snoop personally tests each strain before allowing it to use his name.

Chin has also had to manage the various restrictions on creating brand names, especially with the company’s international reach. She noted that the words Death and Death Row don’t resonate well with consumers outside of the U.S. when it comes to cannabis. In Canada, celebrity cannabis endorsements are prohibited, so Chin has to walk a fine line with the Dogg Lbs brand there.

SWED

Testing the product isn’t the only direct involvement Snoop has in his company. Despite the tight schedule, he appeared at his first store opening in Los Angeles for SWED (smoke weed every day). He also has a separate private entrance to the store and can actually check on the store from his private office that overlooks it.

Chin said, “During the store opening, he actually ended up staying a full 90 minutes after he was scheduled to leave. To me, that is the best indicator of him fully buying into the brand the process and what we’ve done for him and the store that we’ve opened.”

But don’t expect cookie cutter stores from Snoop and Chin. Each store will be treated as a different experience versus the current style of clinical-looking dispensaries, she said.

“Each store design will make each SWED a destination,” she said. The company may open as many as four stores in Los Angeles and possibly one in New York, with the intention of not saturating any market in which they operate.

Chin also shared photos of the soon-to-open consumption lounge in Amsterdam that leans into the dog motif associated with the rapper.

“We’re just so lucky to work with this man because he has so many sides to him,” Chin said. “He’s a grandfather, a family man. He’s also a super sports guy. He knows football, basketball, left and right, back and forth, but he also started his own Snoop Youth Football League and so many TV shows and film. He is so much more than just a musician, just a rapper, just an artist.”