Death Row Records is guilty of "hatin' to the highest power" for posting an upcoming album by ex-Death Row artist Snoop Dogg on its web site, the label's former top executive Dr. Dre tells MTV.com.

Snoop Dogg's current label, Priority Records, said Monday it is taking legal steps in response to the posting of "Tha Last Meal," due Dec. 19 on No Limit/Priority. But imprisoned Death Row Records chief Marion "Suge" Knight questioned the suggestion that his label was trying to hurt Snoop Dogg by leaking the album. He said Death Row, which Snoop Dogg left nearly three years ago, still has a vested financial interest in the LP.

"Why would Death Row attempt to sabotage "Tha Last Meal" when we are partners with No Limit/Priority Records on this album?" Knight said in a statement issued from jail Friday. "The same was applied to the last two No Limit/Priority Snoop Doggy Dogg releases. We are also partners with Priority Records on Snoop Doggy Dogg's next three albums."Snoop shortened his name from Snoop Doggy Dogg to Snoop Dogg after leaving Death Row.

The 19 songs on "Tha Last Meal" appeared and disappeared from deathrowrecords2000.com during the week of Nov. 27. The songs reappeared on the site last week, but were gone again Monday (Dec. 11). Visitors to the site were asked to "take the Snoop Dogg challenge" and compare "Tha Last Meal" to "Dead Man Walkin'," a Snoop collection Death Row released in October.

Knight, who is serving a nine-year prison term for violating probation on an assault charge, issued the statement in response to comments Dr. Dre made Thursday night about the downloads. Dre co-founded Death Row with Knight in 1992 but left in 1996.

"Why don't those people do what we are doing [and] move on?" said Dre, who co-produced and mixed "Tha Last Meal." "You live your life; let us live life. I don't f--- with you, you don't f--- with me, and then everybody can just move on with their lives, be happy and chill with their families, and go on."

"The way of thinking is so minimal right there. Like, 'Yo, my record selling, so I'm gonna try to f--- up what you tryna' do,'" Dre continued. "It seems really wack to me. Do your thing, make your records, and I'm more than happy to go and pick up your record when it comes out, and I'll feel it when it's hot. But don't try to f--- up what the next guy is trying to do."

Snoop left Death Row and signed to No Limit/Priority in 1998. The labels came to an agreement in April of that year in which Death Row received a "lump sum and will participate financially in all of the rapper's future releases," according to a joint press release No Limit and Priority issued at the time.

Despite the agreement, Priority said in a statement Monday that posting of "Tha Last Meal" is unauthorized and "appropriate legal steps are being taken to remedy the situation."

"The fact that Death Row has a financial interest would not give them the right to post the album online," said Whitney Broussard, a music attorney who is not involved with either party. "But if they were co-owners, they would have the right."

Broussard said that the album'' premature posting was more likely intended as co-promotion than sabotage. "It could be just show," Broussard said. "I would think if one wanted to attack, they could find a better way to do it."

Dre, who earlier this year filed suit against Napster, said the appearance of Snoop's record on the Death Row site "almost makes me afraid to go into the studio and spend a lot of time working on a record."

"Usually it takes between nine and 10 months to produce and make a record that's gonna be hot enough to present to the people," the rapper/producer continued. "If I go in there and spend that kind of time on a record, and then somebody grabs it because of some kind of animosity or stuff like that and puts it up on the Internet for people to get free, it's kind of crazy to me. It's like hatin' to the highest power."

Snoop's departure from Death Row followed a series of blows for the once dominant record label. Following Dre's departure, Death Row's other major star, Tupac Shakur, was killed in a 1996 drive-by shooting. Soon after, Knight was sentenced to prison for his involvement in a beating outside a Las Vegas hotel just hours before Shakur was killed. The incident violated Knight's probation on an earlier assault charge.