Major Breakups in Hip Hop

Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tags: 50-Cent , b.g. , beanie sigel , Birdman , cam'ron , damon dash , Hell Rell , hot boyz , Jay-Z , Jim-Jones , juelz santana , Juvenile , Lil-Wayne , Memphis-Bleek , Snoop Dogg , Tupac

If there is one big lesson that hip hop can teach you is that all good things must come to an end even if your selling millions of records and making millions of dollars in the process. If it isn’t working anymore, it just isn’t working. So in the wake of the whole Beanie Sigel/Jay-Z (now 50 Cent) thing, I decided to look up some high profile hip hop endings… and some of them will surprise you… and some of them you’ll probably see coming a mile away.

THE DIPLOMATS
Members: Cam’ron, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana just to name a few

In there hay day, The Diplomats had a real good run. They are possibly one of the last great hip hop groups to come out of New York City . The group was offically founded around 2002. They had their coming out party after rapper Cam’ron released his album Come Home With Me on Roc-A-Fella Records after actually signing with long time friend, who happened to be a Harlem native as well asDame Dash. The album sold over 220k in its first week and that also brought shine to Juelz Santana and Jim Jones who also had separate & major deals with labels such as Def Jam & Koch (anybody remember Koch)? Now with the ball rolling, they were able to grab a major deal and present their newest creation to the people in the form of Diplomat Records. They released 14 total records under the label, introducing us to rappers, Hell Rell, 40 Cal., J.R. Writer, and even giving us entertaining movies such as Killa Season, Paid in Full, along with cameos in State Property 2.

So WTF Happened???
Well, Jay-Z and Damon Dash decided to part ways in a alleged controversial private battle after Hov became President of Def Jam. People would argue that since Cam’ron/Dipset were already friends with Dame Dash, they sided with them, and that led to Jim Jones launch of a full scale attack on Jay-Z. But the “death blow” finally came when Cam’ron decided to call up Hot97 and check studio guest 50 Cent, when he stated that Koch was a graveyard. That lead to 50 dropping a track named “Funeral music” dissing Cam’ron, which consequently resulted in Cam’ron dropping a track named “Curtis”, a song dissing 50. The end result? Jim Jones appeared with 50 Cent on Rap City, and Cam’ron went M.I.A…later Cam’ron came back with a surprise announcement iterating that he would no longer work with Jim Jones and then after that, all the Dipset artist technically disbanded. I say technically because even up until last summer, they were all still claiming Dipset even Cam’ron himself.

What happened with the other artist like Freaky Zeeky, Hell Rell and J.R.? Well in so many words, Hell Rell is beefing with Jim over money, we have yet to really hear anything about 40 Cal outside of the tri-state area. J.R. survived a shooting and released a song dissing his attackers and even first lady of Dipset Jha Jha threw subliminal shots at Nicki Minaj. Yes it’s safe to say Dipset is over for now, but hey, at least we have Skullgang and Byrdgand…moving along

DEATH ROW RECORDS
Members: Suge Knight, Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Snoop “Doggy” Dogg

What happened???: Let’s roll back the clock to the 1990’s. Possibly the biggest reign in rap history can when Suge Knight ran Death Row Records, and with a label that housed legendary artists like the ones I just named, it seemed as if Interscope Records and Suge had hit the lotto. Now when you hear a lot of west coast rappers say “We want to try and get the west coast back to where it once was”, they are really saying, “We want the west coast to at least get back to a forth the power that Death Row had and we’ll be good money.”

Death Row was founded in 1991 by Dr. Dre and Suge Knight and stocked up on lyrical ammo with artist like Snoop Dogg, Warren G and of course, the late Tupac Shakur. Even artists like Crooked I, DJ Quik, Petey Pablo and Left Eye were signed to the label at one point in there careers. Now if that doesn’t surprise you, this will. Death Row Records sold more than 50 million records world wide and made over $750 million. That’s how much Google bought Admob for this year, just imagine making all that money just for making classic hip hop albums. Now with the success, came the controversy, you see NWA might had been one of the founders of gangsta rap, but if you look up the word in the dictionary, you will more than likely find the Death Row logo right by it. Back then, the youth might had been blasting the Doggfather or All Eyez On Me all the time but, political figures tried to shut down the machine for its “vulgar violent lyrics towards women, the black community and the police”. Honestly though, it made this hip hop giant grow bigger obviously before its downfall. However, in so many words, Death Row started to crumble after the infamous Bad Boy beef, and the Death of Tupac Shakur. Plus the Dr. Dre departure to his own record label Aftermath Records, and a Suge Knight incarceration, didn’t help either. Snoop did stick around for a while but Master P’s label, No Limit Records made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. By that time, Suge Knight came back home to a label that was decimated, and and the label never got back to it’s original prominence. Also, after multiple lawsuits, and former artists speaking against the once feared Suge Knight (really this guy was the first true muisic goon ask Vanilla Ice), nobody really bought anymore music from them unless it was one of the countless Tupac tribute albums. In the end, the label almost flat lined but was salvaged in 2008. In my opinion though, it will probably never be the same as it once was, but at least it’s still around…I guess.

HOT BOYZ
Members: B.G., Turk, Lil’ Wayne and Juvenile

What Happened??? Well, the Hot Boyz who didn’t really hit the mainstream media’s radar until around the late 1990’s were actually put together in 1997 thanks to partial help from an up and coming entrepreneur who went by the name of Brian Williams aka The Birdman. The super group was formed by the most popular up and coming artists in New Orleans Juvenile, B.G., Turk and Lil’ Wayne. Sadly thoug, with internal problems brewing at the Cash Money label concerning money as well as the label’s direction, in 2001, B.G., Juvenile and Turk decided to part ways with Lil Wayne being the sole member. Now as the the years went by, the careers of departing members went fairly well. Oddly though, Juvenile came back at one point to drop an album through Cash Money records that hit number 1 in 2004. B.G. was doing his thing but not to an highly successful level. As far as Turk his situation went bad in 2004 when he shot a Tennessee police officer and was convicted of attempted murder in early 2006.

The biggest success story out of the four was with Lil’ Wayne when he released the anticipated Carter 3 album. Recently he’s even while promoting this album, he entertained the thought of a possible Hot Boyz reunion in 2008. Well it’s late 2009, we have yet to actually hear any concrete facts that there will be a Hot Boyz album but some serious die hard fans are still holding there breath. So as far as the official status of the Hot Boyz, their broken up now...but this story will be continued.

N.E.R.D.
Members: Pharell Williams, Chad Hugo, Shay Haley, and Rhea

What Happened??? Well, it all began when a young Pharell and Chad were signed by super producer Teddy Reilly fresh out of high school to Virgin records. They became the producing duo called The Neptunes. The team was highly successful. After spending almost over a decade producing millions of songs for major artists that sold millions of copies and went number #1 a whole bunch of times, they linked back with their childhood friend Shay Haley and formed N.E.R.D. in 2001. The debut album In Search Of… went gold and the second album Fly or Die although not as successful as the first, managed to go gold as well. Now if your reading this, you’re probably saying to yourself, “How come the Neptunes can get everyone else to go multi platinum and they can only go gold?” Well, some would argue that with only two albums released as a group and several production commitments to dozens of other artists, The Neptunes never really got the opportunity develop their own unique sound. But it didn’t matter, because in 2005, the group ended their contract with Virgin and announced that N.E.R.D. was no more. So to answer your question of what happened… We don’t really know. Either they stuck with their day job, or they had bad record sales.

The trio did get back together for a hot minute and released the Seeing Sounds project under Pharrell’s label Star Trak entertainment. It only sold 80,000 copies it’s first week and that supports the bad sales theory of why they disbanded. Now officially N.E.R.D. is still sort of together and even added a new member Rhea, but in the words of the great Ed Lover while holding up a cardboard sign… Come’n Son!!! It’s over.

ROC-A-FELLA RECORDS
Members: Jay-Z, Dame Dash, Memphis Bleek, Beanie Sigel (to name a few)

What Happened??? Being tabbed as one of the more succesful rap labels in the history of hip hop, Roc-A-Fella records was founded by Jay-Z, Damon Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke. Oh, In case you didn’t know, the name of Roc-A-Fella records, came from a reference to the wealthy businessman/oil guy/philanthropist John Davidson Rockefeller. And for your information John Rockefeller died in Florida at the age 97 from sclerotic myocarditis, which is the hardening of heart muscles due to old age, so as far as I know Nas is technically wrong in “Ether”. But anyway, the Roc was founded in 1996 because, believe it or not, there was one point in time when Jay-Z couldn’t get a major deal. But with the help of Dame and Biggs, Jay-Z broke down the doors and here he is today. Along with the release of classic albums from Jay-Z, the Roc signed and broke artists such as Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, Amil, Chistion’ and even at one point MOP, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, N.O.R.E., DJ Clue, Teirra Mari, Young Gunz, Freeway, Jadakiss and Kanye West, producer Irv Gotti and more.

To say the Roc was a success is an understatement because it was something more of an movement. It brought us branch labels such as State Property, Roc La Famillia (remember Tru Life), Armadle Vodka liquor, and even Rocawear which grossed well over a $100 million on its own, not to mention movies such as State Properyt 1 & 2, Paper Soldiers, Backstage and Fade to Black. But just like the movie that was released under Roc-A-Fella named Death of a Dynasty, it all came to end. Now some can argue that the drama started way earlier, but the actual demise came when Jay-Z took a little job with Def Jam as president of the label which lead to the migration of several artists to the new establishment. For the ones who didn’t go joined the label Dame Dash Music Group. One major group that decided to at least side with Dame were his friends from Harlem who I mentioned earlier The Diplomats that got signed the Roc thanks to Dame. One of the artist from that group, i think his name is Jim Jones, spent most of his time sending shots at Jay in 2004 right around the time Jay said that he would be retiring from music to spend more time working on his Def Jam presidency duties. Consequently, the retirement was short lived and Jay-Z dropped his “comeback” album Kingdom Come before leaving Def Jam. With no possible signs of Dame and Jay or Biggs ever speaking again after 2006, it was pretty much over for the Roc and even Rocawear. I mean who would want to wear Rocawear after that? Would you wear apparel from Death knowing that label is no more?

So now its 2009, Jay-Z released the much anticipated Blueprint 3 under his own independent label Roc Nation, and we still haven’t heard from Dame in the business. You might see him give street interviews here and there, but they’re mostly about what he thinks about how Jay is doing. What happened to most of the artists I mentioned? Well, most of them managed to stay in the game but the biggest recent success has been experienced by Kanye West. It’s safe to say he survived the death of the dynasty. Beanie Sigel is sending shots at Jay and even got 50 Cent involved, still no word from Jay (I guess Nas really messed him up). At the end of the day the once poweful label is no more. Which brings me to my other question… Is Jadakiss and Kanye still repping Rocafella?

These are just a few stories, trust me I know there are plenty more, so feel free to add them. But at the end of the day, even though these alliances are finished, they still left great music to for fans to remember which also reminds me of another lesson that I was once told… the only way people will remember you is not how you died, but how you lived. Think on that.

Source: BadNews – Contributor to HipHopRuckus

-If you have any questions or comments for Badnews, hit him up @ Myspace

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