Artist Pages

Despite having been in jail for the first half of 2009, Alley Boy’s name remained relevant in the streets due to the support of his Duct Tape family and the success of Big Bank Black’s “Try It Out." Upon being released, the Edgewood, Atlanta native bounced back and signed a joint venture between Atlantic Records and DTE.

Alley Boy's co-signs range from DJ Drama, to Gucci Mane, to fellow emerging artist Pill, and the Atlanta tastemakers have already crowned Alley Boy's Duct Tape Entertainment the biggest street movement since BMF.

Big K.R.I.T. turned heads with the release of his K.R.I.T. Wuz Here album through Cinematic Music Group and GFCNY. K.R.I.T. stands for “King Remembered in Time,” and if the Southern emcee’s creative production and exceptional lyricism are any indicators of his career’s longevity, he'll surely be remembered.

In addition to producing his own music, Big K.R.I.T. runs Multi-Records, a label set up to give Mississippi artists support, and is a member of the rap group The Alumni.

Dom Kennedy is part of a handful of emerging West Coast emcees whose talent far outweighs their buzz. After bursting onto the scene in ’08 with his well-received 25th Hour mixtape, Dom was able to solidify his presence on ‘09’s follow up release, Future Street/Drug Sounds. Now, having completed four projects, the unsigned emcee is in a pivotal career position.

Also, in addition to rapping, fashion has always been a strong point for Dom. He’s co-signed by the California-based clothing line, The Hundreds, and even made his first big performance on The Sneaker Pimps Tour back in ’07.

Due to his classic hip hop style, flow, and lyrical content, Fashawn has received a number of comparisons to a young Nasir Jones. These comparisons became even more rampant after the Fresno California native released his debut album, Boy Meets World, which featured album artwork similar to Nas’ Illmatic.

The success of Boy Meets World helped Fashawn grace the cover of XXL Magazine this spring as one of 2010’s artists to watch. Most recently, he re-worked Nas’ classic Illmatic, giving it a West Coast feel in Ode To Illmatic.

After being kicked out of college and discharged from the military, Freddie Gibbs found his home in gangsta rap. The Gary, Indiana native uses his lyrics to vividly portray stories of his home town's crime infested streets. This talent was quickly noticed by Interscope, who signed Gibbs to a record deal within his first year of rapping. Despite showing him early love, Interscope kept Freddie Gibbs' music shelved for years.

Now that Freddie Gibbs has been released from that contract, he's already dropped two of 2009's best mixtapes in The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs and Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuisk and is prepping for 2010's Str8 Killa, No Filla release. It's only a matter of time before the labels come knocking on Gibbs' door.

After hearing J.Cole’s self-produced track, “Lights Please,” Jay-z signed the North Carolina artist to his Roc Nation label. This record deal put a lot of attention on the young emcee, who quickly released one of 2009’s best projects in The Warm Up mixtape. Now, unlike a number of popular southern hip hop artists who release material regularly to stay relevant, J.Cole has managed to keep his buzz alive for a little over a year since releasing that tape. His impressive lyricism even landed him a guest spot on Jay-z’s The Blueprint 3 album, opening the door to nation-wide exposure. J.Cole’s debut album is set to be released in late 2010.

In March of 2009, Mike Posner released A Matter of Time, one of the year’s biggest mixtapes, from his Duke dorm room. The impressive project, hosted by DJ Don Cannon and DJ Benzi, helped land the emerging artist his current record deal with Sony Music Group.

Mike Posner aims to make a name for himself in pop music, while staying relevant within hip hop circles, similar to Justin Timberlake. This goal is not too far fetched, as his fans already enjoy the artist’s feel-good, pop-rap music and smooth hooks.

Since graduating from Duke at the end of 2009, the talented artist and producer, has been working on his upcoming 31 Minutes to Takeoff album, set to be released in the fall of 2010.

Nipsey’s music is often a reflection of his surrounding environment, as he gives us a view into the harsh realities of the LA street life. Before his hip hop career, Nipsey was involved with South Central's Rolling Sixties Crips, and even owned his own clothing store.

Nipsey Hussle's motto of “All Money In, No Money Out,” stresses the labor, regardless of the fruits of one’s labor. This hustle mentality coupled with an impressive amount of co-signs and comparisons to fellow L.A. emcee Snoop Dogg, has brought Nipsey's music to the public eye.

Pill’s music is refreshing, as he paints a portrait of the streets in a very natural and real way, effectively shaming all the artists who pretend to be from his part of town. The XXL Magazine Freshman turned heads with his debut video for "Trap Goin' Ham," directed by Motion Family, as it graphically portrayed the poverty taking place in Pink City, five minutes away from a police precinct and seven minutes away from the state capital.

So far all of Pill's releases have been named after the various locations in which he grew up. 4180: The Prescription refers back to the Kimberly Court Projects on 4180 Cant Street and 4075: The Refill refers to the address of Pill’s aunt’s house. His next release, hosted by DJ Drama, should be a major turning point in his career as he's sure to be exposed to a wide fan base. Gangsta Grillz 1140: The Overdose is set to drop on June 1st.

Don’t let the “Freeway” Ricky Ross beard fool you, Sean Falyon’s music is far from gangsta. Having said that, it’s a good thing that Sean embraces his personal rap style instead of spitting fabricated lines in an effort to fit into the stereotypical rap image.

Before heavily pursuing the rap game, Sean first made a name for himself with his clothing line, Soupy Jones. He's since put all of his focus into music, and although being the emcee’s third project, Sean Falyon “BE” Everywhere serves as a great introduction to his sound.

Gifted since an early age, Shawn Chrystopher completed high school by 16 and received a full ride scholarship to the University of Southern California. After studying music theory, Shawn decided to leave college a year before graduation to pursue his hip hop career.

Currently Shawn is working with Elitaste (Wale & Mike Posner), and has two impressive releases under his belt in A City With No Seasons and The Audition EP. Shawn's creative lyrics and impressive production skills are building quite the buzz around the Inglewood emcee's name.

Travis Porter, made up of Quez, Strap, and Ali, announced their record deal with Jive on November 29th. Prior to their major deal, the group had made themselves the hottest independent rap group in the country with over forty five million Youtube views, multiple singles reaching the Billboard charts, concerts overseas, and music videos in rotation on MTV Jams.

It'll be interesting to see what the boys do while under the major label umbrella, as they've already accomplished more than a number of artists who are signed!

Vado, who’s name stands for Violence And Drugs Only, came up in Harlem alongside his childhood friend and current Young Money Entertainment artist Jae Millz. It was Millz’s early success that inspired Vado to seriously pursue a rap career of his own. Upon hearing that hometown hero Cam’ron was looking for new artists, Vado reached out and became the first signee to Killa Cam’s music group, The U.N.

Having already built a tremendous buzz through collaborative projects with Cam’ron, Vado is now being looked upon as the next artist to blow from NYC.

Waka Flocka Flame was born in Jamaica, Queens, to Debra Antney, Gucci Mane and Nicki Minaj’s ex-manager, but relocated to Riverdale, Georgia when he was 9 years old. Growing up, the rapper was given the nickname “Waka” by his cousin who thought that he sounded like Fozzie Bear from The Muppet Babies TV show. Years later, Waka’s mentor and CEO, Gucci Mane, evolved the nickname into Waka Flocka Flame.

Despite having a smash single in "Say Yeah," Wiz Khalifa spent 2 years sitting on the shelf at Warner Bros. Records. However, after leaving his major label situation during the summer of 2009, the XXL Freshman’s career really started to take off.

Due to an impressive amount of grass roots marketing, orchestrated by his current management team at Rostrum Records, Wiz's most recent project, Kush and Orange Juice, became a trending topic on Twitter and the talk of major music publications upon its release. Wiz Khalifa's once hard-to-pronounce name is now becoming more common place in hip hop discussions.

On July 30th, Wiz announced that he signed a record deal with Atlantic Records.

XV’s stage name represents the age at which he first started to pursue a career in hip hop, fifteen. Despite coming up in the small city of Wichita, Kansas, this video game and comic book fanatic was able to grow a nationwide fan base through a string of successful mixtapes and online promotions. On July 31, 2009, XV released his biggest project to date in the Everybody’s Nobody mixtape hosted by DJ Enuff and DJ Benzi.

Almost a year later, on July 26, 2010, XV announced that he had signed a record deal with Warner Bros. and would finally have a chance to release his long awaited album, The Boy With The Green Backpack. The debut album’s title comes from the high school nickname given to XV by kids who didn’t know his real name.

Yelawolf's Trunk Muzik mixtape, hosted by DJ Burn One, catapulted the Alabama emcee into the emerging artist spotlight in early 2010. This project's buzz coupled with numerous co-signs (including Eminem) helped to land Yela a record deal at Interscope.

Described by Mike Bigga as a mix between Outkast and Lynyrd Skynyrd, Yelawolf’s style is thoroughly southern. The southern drawl adds to Yela's unique sound which often meshes hip hop with classic rock. Other unique aspects of Yelawolf's persona are his love of skateboarding and appreciation for classic rock, which help him stand out amidst a sea of emerging hip hop artists.