Phonixthecool says his work with Snoop Dogg and Death Row Records is not built around putting every new release behind a label wall. Instead, the Durban rapper says Snoop has encouraged him to continue releasing music independently, building an audience and retaining ownership of that catalog while Death Row develops material of its own.
It is a significant distinction in an industry where a signing is often discussed as though it is a finish line. For Phonixthecool, born Lunga Khumalo, the deal appears to be part of a longer process: finding the right producers, making recordings that suit his voice, sustaining listeners’ attention, and building music that remains his.
“Snoop has mentored me on monetising music and using his name while still releasing independently. That way, I own the music,” Phonixthecool said.
The arrangement described by the rapper has a straightforward strategic logic. Independent tracks can keep arriving while label work continues in the background. Those releases can give fans something to hear now, rather than asking them to wait for a larger campaign to take shape. If Death Row releases later bring a wider audience to Phonixthecool, listeners may have a deeper body of work to explore—and, crucially, he says that independent catalog belongs to him.
What “owning the music” means in this context
Music ownership can be discussed too loosely, so it is worth separating the ideas involved. A song has creative elements, while a released recording is the particular captured performance people stream and play. In everyday industry conversation, artists often use “masters” to mean those sound recordings.
Phonixthecool’s point is that he is releasing independently in a way that leaves him with ownership of that music. The practical importance is control. An artist who owns a recording has a stronger position over how that recording is handled as a catalog asset, including its continuing potential to earn when listeners return to it. The available details do not lay out contract terms, rights splits, or the exact ownership structure of his Death Row recordings. They do, however, make the intended division clear: his own independent releases are meant to remain his while Death Row work is being developed.
That makes this less a story about rejecting a label than about setting boundaries around different bodies of work. A label relationship can provide a larger platform for a specific project, while artist-owned releases can continue to grow elsewhere. Whether that model works depends on execution—good music, consistency, clear communication and an audience willing to follow across releases—but the underlying aim is easy to understand.
A deal is work, not an overnight transformation
Phonixthecool also pushed back on the expectation that a record deal instantly creates stardom. His description of the process focuses on the less glamorous part: testing producers, recording material and working out what best fits his voice.
Related coverage includes Snoop Dogg Mentors Phonixthecool on Independent Ownership.
That is an especially useful reality check for anyone who treats a label announcement as a ready-made career arc. A signing may create attention, but it does not automatically answer the creative questions that determine whether an artist’s next songs connect. Producer selection matters because production is not merely a backing track. It shapes pace, texture, space for delivery, the emotional weight of a hook and the overall identity listeners associate with an artist.
For a rapper still defining how he wants to sound at a larger scale, experimenting with collaborators can be productive rather than indecisive. The objective is not simply to locate a recognizable name. It is to find a musical setting in which the artist’s voice, writing and presence work naturally. Phonixthecool’s account suggests that this kind of development is continuing alongside his independent output.
There is also a practical audience benefit to not going quiet. When releases are separated by long development periods, artists risk losing momentum or forcing newer listeners to wait without a clear sense of what is coming. Continued independent releases can maintain a connection, while also building the catalog that Phonixthecool says he wants to own.
The Snoop connection predates the Death Row signing
Phonixthecool had reached Snoop’s audience before the Death Row deal was announced. He appeared alongside Battle Locco and Kokane on “No Smut On My Name,” a track from 2021’s Snoop Dogg Presents Algorithm (Global Edition), released through Def Jam.
That earlier appearance matters because it places the relationship in a broader creative timeline. The Death Row signing was not presented as a first encounter built solely on a corporate announcement. There had already been recorded work connecting Phonixthecool to Snoop’s musical orbit.
Snoop announced the signing in September 2023 while teasing Death Row Africa. The name indicates an ambition to expand the Death Row identity beyond its familiar U.S. history, but the concrete details in Phonixthecool’s comments are more modest and more revealing: direct mentoring on monetisation, the freedom to keep releasing independently, and development work intended to find the correct creative match.
Phonixthecool says most of their communication has happened through texts and FaceTime. He also said he plans to visit Los Angeles in January 2027, which would be his first trip to the United States. That detail underlines how contemporary artist development can happen across distance. Contact and creative direction do not necessarily require a shared studio routine from the beginning, even if an eventual in-person visit may become an important milestone.
Why ownership is a particularly resonant lesson from Snoop
Snoop’s guidance on ownership carries added weight because his own connection to Death Row has been shaped by the same issue. In February 2022, he bought the Death Row brand from MNRK Music Group. Funds managed by Blackstone controlled MNRK, and no purchase price was disclosed.
He had explained in 2022 that he wanted greater control over his own recordings. Jimmy Iovine connected him with Blackstone’s David Kestnbaum because Iovine knew Snoop wanted his masters. Snoop’s position was direct: he did not want to be on another person’s label, but owning Death Row made being associated with it a different proposition.
That history does not mean Phonixthecool’s deal is identical to Snoop’s experience; the available information does not support that claim. But it does establish why the advice is coherent. Snoop’s own business move was rooted in control over a brand and in the desire to regain control of recordings connected to his career. Phonixthecool says the mentorship he has received applies a related principle at an earlier point in an artist’s development: do not abandon ownership of the catalog you are able to build independently.
There is a broader cultural echo here, too. Music careers, like game-development careers, are often described through launches and big announcements, while the long-term value sits in the underlying work: the songs, recordings, audience relationships and rights. That is one reason industry conversations about creative control can matter as much as headline-making signings. Readers interested in how creative businesses are increasingly built around unexpected collaborations may also find this look at changing partnership approaches in games useful context.
A hands-off approach to an artist’s identity
Snoop has also described a relatively hands-off philosophy toward the sound of artists he works with. Rather than instructing new signees how they should rap, he has said he wants artists who already have a clear musical identity and need a bigger platform. His experience as a rapper informs that approach to label business.
For Phonixthecool, that philosophy fits the emphasis on finding producers and recordings that complement his voice rather than forcing him into a preset template. The difference is meaningful. “Development” can imply polishing an artist into an established brand’s house style. It can also mean providing time, resources and feedback that help an artist identify what is already distinctive about their own work. Phonixthecool’s account points toward the second model.
It is still early to draw conclusions about how the Death Row Africa effort will develop or what its releases will look like. There are no stated dates for Phonixthecool’s Death Row material, no disclosed contractual details and no promise that independent momentum will automatically translate into wider success. The available facts support a narrower, more useful reading: Phonixthecool says he is being encouraged to make and own music now, while a larger label-backed chapter is constructed carefully.
The practical value of keeping a catalog active
The word catalog simply means an artist’s accumulated body of released music. In this case, it is not a passive archive. Phonixthecool views it as a growing asset: music that can keep drawing listeners and potentially earn more as his profile rises.
That outlook changes the purpose of independent releases. They are not necessarily placeholders until a label takes over. They can be foundational work, both creatively and commercially. Each track gives a new listener a route into an artist’s broader output. Each release can also help establish what an artist sounds like before a major campaign amplifies that identity.
Of course, releasing more music is not automatically a substitute for careful planning. A catalog needs songs that the artist stands behind, a coherent identity and enough attention that listeners can discover it. Yet the core principle remains practical: building something owned can provide a durable base while bigger opportunities are still being shaped.
For Phonixthecool, that is the lesson he says Snoop Dogg has emphasized. A Death Row signing may be a major opportunity, but it is not being framed as a reason to stop creating independently. It is being used alongside an ownership-minded plan—one built on ongoing releases, a growing audience and music that remains part of the rapper’s own catalog.
