Snoop had like a 5 album deal with Death Row. When Suge went to jail Snoop asked out and obviously Suge isn't going to just let him go for free, so the deal was Suge would get money off of Snoops next couple releases, I don't remember the exact number, but this was brought out in court when Snoop or Priority sued The Row for posting the entire "The Last Meal" album on their web-site. Suge said that he shouldn't be held responible because he still has a finacial interest in how much Snoop sells, and it wouldn't make sense for him to be giving the album away for free when he's making money off of him.
I think I repeated myself a couple times, but I'm sure you got the point.