COMPANY TOWN ANNEX

Death Row Records to Release New Tupac Shakur CD: Rapper Tupac Shakur’s new, expletive-laced “All Eyes on Me” double-CD will be released Feb. 13 by Death Row/Interscope Records, the Westwood-based record label that Time Warner Inc. dumped last year after a controversy over explicit lyrics. Shakur’s new single and album are expected to be made and distributed by PolyGram, suggesting that the Dutch-owned conglomerate’s Island Group division may be close to signing a partnership pact with Interscope. But sources said that Death Row/Interscope has negotiated a deal with PolyGram that covers distribution rights only for the one project. PolyGram has been competing with MCA Music in the bidding war to acquire a chunk of Interscope, which may be valued at more than $400 million. MCA Music Chief Doug Morris flew to Los Angeles this week to lobby Interscope to join the Canadian-owned firm. Sources said Morris has devised a plan to alleviate the concerns of Seagram Co. Chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. regarding the explicit-lyrics issue. MCA’s bid is now said to include a provision that would allow Interscope the freedom to distribute elsewhere products that MCA deems “too controversial.”