![]() Slim’s story is a familiar one – picked up by Dre in 2008, he eventually signed a complicated three-way deal with Aftermath, Shady Records and 50 Cent’s G-Unit, and it didn’t end well at all. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 7/11) ![]() His debut would eventually see the light of day in 2003, but apart from backpackers who buy Raptivism records, The Last Emperor was mostly forgotten, his brief Aftermath dalliance remaining a head-scratcher.įun Fact: The Last Emperor is responsible for a single so 1997 it hurts: the comics-versus-rap lyrical fest ‘Secret Wars’. “Slowly but surely I began to feel neglected,” he says, “and the passion had for the project in the beginning wasn’t there.”Īfter about a year at Aftermath and some time on Interscope, the rapper (who was shocked that the major label game “wasn’t about finding music that complimented my style but about moving units”) decamped for the indie world, eventually signing with Rawkus… just as the lyricist-friendly label was trying to go mainstream. As Gray tells it, he came to Aftermath during a period of turmoil: the label’s first compilation had not sold as Interscope was hoping it would, and Dre’s attentions turned elsewhere. Dre, who promptly signed him to his then-fledging imprint. In the mid-90s, Philly’s Jamal “The Last Emperor” Gray (who took his moniker from the Bernardo Bertolucci biopic of the same name) made waves at open mic mecca The Lyricist Lounge, and his demo ended up in the hands of Dr. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 3/11) All or Everything (or AoE for short), is a collaboration with fellow Berklee grad and Masshole Phil Beaudreau and we get the sense there’s much more to be heard from Dawaun Parker.įun Fact: Parker co-produced Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City bonus track ‘Black Boy Fly’. ![]() Fast-forward three years though and Parker has a brand new project in the works, and it’s not even rap related. Sadly, Parker’s solo career wasn’t quite so successful – after 2010 single ‘Lost’ (which was co-produced by Dre, no less) flopped, his album was canned and he appeared to take a step back for a minute to lick his wounds. He signed to Aftermath and quickly ended up producing for Eminem, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes and his childhood hero Raekwon. Dre’s people that they needed someone on the keys and dropped everything to fly out to L.A. On graduating from the prestigious Berklee College of Music, the young instrumentalist almost immediately got the call from Dr. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 2/11)ĭawaun Parker isn’t so much forgotten as he is purposefully positioned behind the scenes. Three years later, and Lamont is still waiting to drop The Reformation.įun Fact: In 2007, Lamont released the collaborative Caltroit mixtape with Detroit’s Black Milk, but due to legal issues with Aftermath, he couldn’t be credited as an artist on the retail release. “Dre is still my big bro, but after five years of just sitting there, it is kind of unfair to the fans and my family and myself that the release date has changed when all these people are waiting,” he said at the time. While his debut album, The Reformation, never materialized, Lamont dropped a steady stream of controversy-courting street albums with a taste for cover art depicting him in religious imagery, or in the case of the N***r Noize mixtape, wearing a KKK hood.ĭre’s discomfort with Lamont’s posturing kept The Reformation on the shelf, and in 2010, Lamont left Aftermath with rights to the more than 700 (!) songs that he had worked on while on the label. Apparently the answer was “no one” - Dre signed Lamont to Aftermath in 2005, with promises of being featured all over Detox, in the role that proteges Snoop and Hittman had previously filled. ![]() California rapper Bishop Lamont’s first release was a mixtape called Who I Gotta Kill To Get A Record Deal?. ![]()
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