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The shift of Def Jam West artists to RAL seemed to occur fairly frequently. Thang (Life of a Youngster), which was released in 1995. Despite releasing several singles, including the Redman-produced “Blaze It Up,” Def Jam ultimately shelved his debut Return of the Player and moved him from Def Jam West to Russell Simmons’ other imprint, Rush Associated Labels for his sophomore album, It’s A B.G. Things at Def Jam West appeared to start losing steam around the time Compton rapper Mel-Low hit the promotional trail. Their Def Jam debut 'N Gatz We Truss included “Gang Stories,” a track best remembered for Prodeje’s cold couplet “I'm burnin muthafuckas like a arsonist / I have you walkin like a crippled and retarded bitch.” BCC blurred the lines of music and reality like few others at the time, particularly in their “Gang Stories” video, which allegedly used actual violent police footage.
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South Central Cartel more than made their own place in rap history, including working with southern rap artists like Big Mike years before it was regularly accepted. Originally part of a duo called Bo$$ (an acronym for “Bitches On Some Shit”), the MC had serious star potential according to Simmons, who dubbed her “hip-hop’s first gangstress.” Bo$$, whom gangsta rap fans may have known through her work with AMG and Spice-1, actually scored a number one hit with the Barry White-sampling “Deeper.”Īfter Bo$$, DJ West signed South Central Cartel, a four-member outfit consisting of two DJs and two MCs named Havoc and Prodeje, whose names are forever confused with the coincidentally named Havoc and Prodigy of New York group Mobb Deep. In 1993, the Los Angeles-based Def Jam West was launched.Ī sign things were going to be weird from the jump was when the L.A.-rooted imprint announced that their first signee was Detroit-born female MC Bo$$. After the release of New York gun-throwers Onyx’s Bacdafucup affirmed that some gangsta flavor would fly on the roster, label head Russell Simmons set his sights on the West Coast to grab every def gangsta he could find. But the emergence of gangsta rap as a nationwide force was unlike anything on the label at the time. Def Jam West - or “DJ West,” as its logo read - was the label's attempt not just to expand, but to stay at the frontline of what was happening in hip-hop.įor their first decade, Def Jam always seemed right in step with what was happening in hip-hop. Yes, the label that has always been synonymous with the biggest names in NYC hip-hop had, for a time in the early '90s, a California-centric imprint. While the New York-based label's storied history has been told repeatedly in film, television and books, there’s one part of their three decades of dominance that often gets left out.ĭid you know that there was a Def Jam West? Last week, iconic hip-hop label Def Jam Records celebrated its 30th anniversary with a gigantic concert at New York’s Barclay Center.