Pioneering gangster rap label Priority Records is relaunching. Capitol Music Group and Insurgency Music have formed a joint venture to handle the reboot of the former home of N.W.A, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Master P and Eazy-E, according to Billboard.com.
The new version of Priority Records will be much different than the old one, which also released albums by Mack 10, Westside Connection and C-Murder, among others. In its new incarnation, Priority Records will be a producer-driven label focusing on electronic and progressive urban music, as per Billboard.com
Priority Records’ first project under new president Michael Cohen will be the August 13 release of the song “Higher” by Just Blaze and Baauer featuring Jay Z. “We’re so respectful of Priority’s important role in Capitol’s history,” Capitol Music Group chairman/CEO Steve Barnett said to Billboard.com. “But it was also a street label focusing on music that thrives outside the mainstream. And that’s exactly what Michael and his team have been doing. They have a strong vision of the new generation of electronic and progressive urban music. Baauer was the first indication of that.”
Baauer released the hit single “Harlem Shake” and is managed by Insurgency Music. Cohen told Billboard that producer Harry Fraud and his Surf School label are among those who will also be releasing material through Priority. Fraud released the Saab Stories project with Action Bronson last month.
Even though Cohen says to Billboard that he does not come from the Hip Hop world, he said he appreciates what Priority Records stood for. “The genesis of that label was really about supporting the indie level,” he says to Billboard. “It broke the mold in terms of working outside the system to bring street-level music to the mainstream without any compromise. And the producer—who has always played a strong role in Hip Hop—has become the focal point coming out of the global electronic music space. It’s heralded a paradigm shift in the way music is created, discovered and spread. Our first single ‘Higher’ epitomizes everything we’re trying to do with Priority.”
One veteran Rap business executive says that Priority’s focus on urban music in general rather than Rap specifically will help the imprint be successful. “It’s more than being about a specific region or genre,” Kirdis Postelle, Capitol Music Group senior VP of marketing, says to Billboard. Postelle was the former General Manager of Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment. “It’s more about the youth culture, and a lot of that stems from what people call EDM,” Postelle continues. “But this isn’t classic EDM. It’s more of an underground street thing.”
After releasing compilations and albums by The California Raisins in the mid-1980s, Priority Records became one of rap’s most prominent independent labels in the late 1980s thanks to its release of Eazy-E’s Eazy-Duz-It and N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton. The success of those albums, which were released in conjunction with Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records, led to Priority’s subsequent distribution deals with such prominent Rap labels as Rap-A-Lot, Death Row, Roc-A-Fella and No Limit, among others.
EMI purchased Priority Records in 1998 and the imprint was absorbed into EMI’s Capitol Records in 2001. The label shut down in 2004, was re-launched in 2006 and added Snoop Dogg to its executive roster three years later.
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aint nobody fuckin wit dem no more.
and that’s a shame.
Snoop Dogg relaunched this label in 2009 when he signed with them and released,Malice n Wonderland,More Malice & Doggumentary…
Didn’t he also sign Cypress Hill to the label too? I seem to remember they released their “Rise Up” album on that brand.
@Burmy yeah are 100% correct.
you are*
About time, real rap unsigned hype is needed to shut all this Drake/Chris Brown gay ass hip hop down
How the fuck do you read ‘new generation of electronic and progressive urban music’ as real rap???? Thats the exact sort of shit that fruitcakes like Drake ARE releasing.
This new label will be an embarrassment to the original Priority Records.
WHOEVER WROTE THIS FORGOT THAT QUIK WAS THE REALEST ARTIST PRIORITY EVER HAD.
You forgot that your opinion won’t matter.
Plus Quik wasn’t even signed to Priority, he was with Profile.
what a joke jay z aint no gangster the only gangsters left is the GLO GANG with chief keef glory boys and the biggest gangster in rap BIG GUWOP.
gangsters dont cry over 60 days in juvie dawg, chief keef is not tough or gangster in any way
Fuck Chief Queef & Her Wack Azz Glory Hoes!!!! Bum Azz Bitchez!!!
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How come people don’t seem to understand that the music business is dead …
Universal posted earnings of 525m with a rise in digital sales, you should get out more
… but how much did the “artist” make …
The music business isn’t dead but the old ways of doing business are!
I AGREE! ARTIST DONT NEED LABELS ANYMORE. NEW ARTIST ARE STILL RUNNING TOWARD THE LAME RECORD DEALS AND OLDER ARTIST ARE LEAVING THE LABELS FOR INDEPENDENT DEALS. ITS A NEW AGE AND IF U ARE SMART AND THINK AHEAD OF THE GAME U WOULD KNOW THIS
[Jay-Z:]
I be trying to chill, bitches wanna fuck me
Every little city I go, fuck me
Shawty mustve heard, got the word, I move that D
Had it by a bladder, she like “oh I gotta pee”
Ran into a Rothko in my restroom
Singer slash actress in my bedroom
God I have the ticket for a walk through
Everything that do is big
I talk big money, I talk big homes
I sell out arenas, I call that getting dome
Million dollar voice, came through phone
We heading to the top, if you coming, come on
Im Flying out to Pisa, just to get some pizza
Fly down to Jamaica, just to roll some reefa
Sex on the beach, left love speechless
They say that money talk, tell these other niggas speak up
Whats up
FUCK NO… wow… electronic??? nigga pleeze..
SO THESE PEOPLE ARE PUTTING ALL THEIR CHIPS ON A FAD? ITS JUST THE STYLE OF MUSIC “NOW” THIS STYLE OF MUSIC IS OLD AND IS JUST BEING SAMPLED OVER AND OVER AGAIN. IT WONT LAST!…AND WASNT SNOOP THE CHAIRMAN OF PRIORITY RECORDS? DID I MISS SOMETHING?
this shit is good
was and will be defunct again damn its funny that power and brains dont go hand in hand these execs inherit positions with either a old track record or friend association if the company is already making money they look like they doing there job Fuck every exec if u aint lyor or La Reid
Why?
gangster rap label relaunching with a bunch of hipsters
Michael Cohen (Johns Creek) Atlanta Universal Music Group from Georgia and New York will change the hip hop and electronic music scene. Working with Warner Music Group in the past and with Universal Music group as of 2014