Snoop Dogg

Tha Dogg Pound is a rap group made up of Daz Dillinger and Kurupt. They were signed to Death Row Records in their early careers and were key to the... label's success. The group made their 1992 rap debut on Dr. Dre's The Chronic, on various songs. They also appeared on Snoop Dogg's debut album Doggystyle, and the Death Row soundtracks Murder Was The Case and Above The Rim. Their debut album Dogg Food was released in 1995. It was another addition to the controversy of hardcore hip hop due to the sexual and violent lyrics and went on to sell two million albums. Kurupt and Daz went on to release solo albums starting in 1998. They had both eventually left the crumbling Death Row Records in 1999 after Daz left due to long-lasting internal struggles on the label after friend and labelmate Tupac Shakur's murder in 1996. Kurupt started Antra Records, while Daz and Soopafly started D.P.G. Recordz. In 2002 a feud arose between the two when Kurupt decided to sign back with Death Row Records, upsetting everyone involved with the group.
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Tha Eastsidaz, originally spelled as the Eastsiders, was a hip hop group of somewhat reforming the LBC Crew with Snoop Dogg, Lil' C-Style and... Techniec. Their first appearance was in the Tommy Boy Records' Ride:Music from the Dimension Motion Picture with Crooked Eye Q on a Battlecat-produced song called "Feels So Good" in 1998. Possibly due to Snoop's label and thus name change, the same happened with this idea, and since the other two members still remained signed to Death Row the trio disbanded. It took another two years for the revival of the ensemble and they formed again in 2000, with a new line-up made up of Snoop Dogg, Tray Deee, and Goldie Loc. After signing on to Snoop's Doggystyle Records, distributed by TVT, they released their debut album, Snoop Dogg Presents Tha Eastsidaz; which was a hit and eventually went platinum. They were also featured on "Lay Low," a hit single from Snoop Dogg's Tha Last Meal. The next year, they released their second album, Duces 'n Trayz: The Old Fashioned Way. The album was critically well-received, but only certified gold.
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N.W.A was an American hip hop group from Compton, California, widely considered one of the seminal acts of the gangsta rap sub-genre. Active from... 1986 to 1991, the group endured controversy due to the explicit nature of their lyrics, and was subsequently banned from many mainstream U.S. radio stations, and even prevented from touring at times. In spite of this, the group has sold over 10 million units in the U.S. alone. The original lineup consisted of Arabian Prince, DJ Yella, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and MC Ren; Arabian Prince embarked on a solo career in 1989 and Ice Cube left in December of that year over royalty disputes. Several members would later become platinum-selling solo artists in the 1990s. Their debut album Straight Outta Compton marked the beginning of the new gangsta rap era as the production and social commentary in their lyrics were revolutionary within the genre. Rolling Stone ranked N.W.A 83rd on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". The group was assembled by Compton-based Eazy-E, who co-founded Ruthless Records with Jerry Heller. Initially, N.W.A consisted of Eazy-E and Dr.
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No Limit Records was an American hip-hop record label that was founded in 1990 by hip-hop artist, Percy "Master P" Miller. It was distributed by Priority Records. Master P began his career by distributing his records through a small San Francisco Bay area record label. He named the label "No Limit... Record Shop", which started out in Richmond, California where his mother resided. Despite being on the West Coast, he maintained his connections to the South through his father who remained in New Orleans. Miller signed his friends E-A-Ski & CMT, Sonya C , King George, Big Ed, Lil Ric and added his brother, Silkk the Shocker. Later he and Silkk went on to form the group TRU. During the early 90's, P released many solo albums, with very little success. However, Miller was able to garner notoriety for himself and No Limit Records on the West Coast by collaborating with various artists and through his compilation albums West Coast Bad Boyz 1 & 2. Following his success on the West Coast in 1994, he decided the time was right to expand his label.
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Star Trak Entertainment is a record label, founded by record producers Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams in 2001. Today it operates as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and is distributed by Interscope Records. Star Trak Entertainment was formed in 2001 by The Neptunes' duo of Pharrell Williams... and Chad Hugo. The label was partially funded by Arista Records in a joint-venture. Pharrell would sign longtime friends, Clipse, a duo of brothers Malice and Pusha-T. Their debut album, Lord Willin', was released in 2002 led by the hits, "Grindin'", and "When the Last Time." After the success of the album, the label would sign Kelis, Vanessa Marquez, Fam-Lay, N.E.R.D., and pop rock band Spymob, who provided backing instruments for N.E.R.D's debut album In Search Of. The label released a compilation album during the summer of 2003, entitled, The Neptunes Present... Clones. In late 2003, Star Trak Entertainment released the highly-successful album, Tasty, by Kelis led by the hit single "Milkshake." In early 2004, distributor Arista Records dropped their imprint Star Trak Entertainment, which then linked with EMI's Virgin Records for a new distribution deal.
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Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group. Interscope was founded in 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Interscope Communications' Ted Field with financial support from Atlantic Records . Initially... it was distributed by the Atlantic Records subsidiary East West Records America. A&R Executive John McClain and producer Beau Hill were also part of the original founding team. The original focus of the label was on hip-hop and urban music, but by the mid 2000s its range began to expand, to extent where its roster would be as wide ranging to include the industrial rock artist Nine Inch Nails , shock rocker Marilyn Manson, Limp Bizkit, Helmet, No Doubt and later the Latin artist Kings Of Flow in a unique partnership with Los Angeles based indie Latin label. Following UMG's acquisition of PolyGram in 1998, Geffen Records and A&M Records were merged into Interscope.
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Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally... used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular. The term has subsequently had a number of shifts in meaning. From the early 1950s, the term rhythm and blues was frequently applied to blues records. Starting in the 1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music. By the 1970s, rhythm and blues was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as "Contemporary R&B". Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine coined the term "rhythm and blues" in 1948 as a musical marketing term in the United States. It replaced the term "race music", which originally came from within the black community, but was deemed offensive in the postwar world.
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