The BEST & WORST Rap Labels To Sign To

are you ready to see the organizations that can make or break artist careers because today we are going to be looking at the best and worst rap labels that you can sign to now in an industry as competitive as hip-hop the record labels artists sign to end up being one of the most important decisions that they will ever make from rapper Le creative entities to corporate music factories the record labels artists join have the power to sement their legacy as alltime great or destroy their reputation and make them the laughing stock of the rap world so if you're ready to see the labels that are currently finding the best talent and dropping the most cuttingedge music and also the ones that are a sheer and utter disgrace to hip-hop as a whole let's waste no time and let's get right into it now when it comes to the very best labels in hip-hop right now there's no better place to start than looking at what has become the model modern day record label with J Cole's dreamville now when we look at the label that has been founded and led by the one and only Germaine Cole he has done everything that a great label needs since he founded it all the way back in 2007 now in today's rap world the best labels are really defined by three things the talent they discover and develop the quality of the music they put out and of course the success they have putting all this together and when it comes to dreamville nobody has done these things better than them recently now while many labels that are led by the biggest superstars in the game tend to put all of the attention to themselves as they push the rest of their artists to the sideline dreamville has done the opposite as J.Cole has worked just as hard to disc discover new rappers as he has on his own craft this is why at the same time as Cole released iconic albums like four Your Eyes Only kod in the off season artists like BOS Earth Gang and of course jid were able to really assert themselves into the rap world and when it comes to the success of this label right alongside J Cole jid has become just as important to dreamville as he has cemented himself as an absolute Mega star in his own regard with the Acclaim of albums like the forever story and the virality of songs like surround sound now with dreamville the artists on the roster are not treated like employees or clients to Cole and crew but instead Jay Cole has built this group to be like a family so he has directly mentored and work with these rappers to help them actualize their full potential this is why you see a handful of features from Cole on nearly every dreamville release or you see executive producer credits from him because he's not just funding these albums or adding them to his business portfolio but everything dreamville does is a creative Endeavor with a story and idea that he is truly invested in helping get out to the world the support Cole shows for his artists is also one of the main reasons why dreamville has also released so many compilation projects as these Mega collaborative efforts only help amplify the voices and talent that He has worked so hard to build up now as rappers like J prepare to release an entire collab album with Metro boomman and colas as his upcoming album the fall off it's clear that dreamville is only going to continue to flourish and for this reason they will further establish themselves as a premier Powerhouse in Hip Hop and while once dreamville was often compared to Top Dog entertainment as Kendrick Lamar left the label in 2022 and many of its biggest artists went into hiding many people began to say that TDE fell off but even without Kendrick they have still done a ton of good things for the music world as a whole now as Top Dog entertainment has moved into this current ERA of hip-hop while they have not been as dominant as they once were with Kendrick and with siza being their biggest artist now their dominance is really in an entire new Lane in terms of what they have been bringing to the hip-hop worlds things have been pretty mixed for them overall on one side it seems like things in the TDE Camp have gotten pretty bad as newer Sines like reason have publicly stated that the label and its roster do not support him or give him the proper resources and promotion to build his career and with so many of its biggest stars not releasing new music for up to over six years it seems like Top Dog entertainment has no longer been giving artists the tools that they need to make the albums they want but at the same time as all this when rappers on TDE do drop they tend to release great projects we just saw this firsthand with school boy Q and his first album since 2019 Blue Lips which between its mature rapping and dynamic musical atmosphere is truly one of the best made and most compelling rap albums that hip-hop has seen in quite some time but while this album is great and other records like abols Herbert and Isaiah Rashad's the house is burning were all received pretty well by fans even with all the Acclaim it seems like these insanely long wait times have hurt the commercial success and total impact that these records could have had if they were released sooner so with Top Dog entertainment today while their legacy artists keep giving us great music I don't think it's a place that any new rapper should sign to as really everything great that they did as a record label left with them and followed Kendrick Lamar and his new imprint PG Lang now ever since Kendrick Lamar and Dave free founded PG Lang in 2020 while their output hasn't been massive they have been establishing a top tier creative agency that is built to empower artists in ways that have never been seen four now with PG langwell many labels try to build out as big of rosters as they possibly can the approach they have taken has been quite the opposite Kendrick Lamar has focused on quality over quantity with the label only having three rappers on their roster with Kendrick himself his cousin baby Keem and tan Leon and this is entirely intentional as Kendrick only signed artists who he sees absolute potential in now with PG Lang so far it seems like every artist and project released have worked in unison with one another to all tell a continu a story that is only binded by the one-of-a-kind Vision that the label has we saw this unravel directly in 2021 and 2022 as baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar made their grand welcoming to the world with the track Family Ties which built up hype for baby keem's album The melodic blue but also Kendrick's long- awaited return to Hip Hop which would become Mr morale and the big steppers from the releases of the melodic blue and Mr morale feeling like companion records to one another the Kendrick featuring both baby Keem and tan Leon on some of Mr moral the big stepper his most significant moments with PG Lang everything has been done with purpose and prowess and this has made all of the music they've given us so far have so much impact in replayability so as Kendrick Lamar continues to build this label and baby Keem only becomes a bigger star I would bet that PG Lang only becomes a more important creative Powerhouse that any rapper would be honored to join and while going to this label may be in honor one of the worst labels a rapper can be signed to is the absolute joke of Drake's OVO now whether it was mismanaging the careers of so many melodic rappers and singers and only really using them for ghost writing and reference tracks or was the signing of abysmal rappers like Smiley oio sound really feels like a joke of a label that has only been used to benefit Drake's own personal brand at the expense of everybody else signing to this label really seems like a sentence to destroy your career as all of the talent is brushed to the side or never really even acknowledged by Drake publicly it's honestly sad because while other rappers like Ken and Cole have used their own careers to help amplify and Elevate the talent that they have been working directly with it seems like Drake never wants anything to do with his Artist as they are barely seen featuring on any of his massive albums and considering that Drake's music is only made in the first place to make money and to not actually do anything meaningful it makes no sense why he wouldn't help the artist who he literally has a personal investment in there's really nothing good to say about this label as it's really so much of a joke that most people don't even remember that Drake has a label so whatever you do if you're an artist stay far away from obio sound but when we look at how bad this label is in a way I guess we can't put all of the blame on Drake because he himself learned from Birdman who has run one of the shadiest labels to this day in cash money now for Cash Money Records well once they were known for treating Lil Wayne so bad that he almost retired from music and they were able to still find success despite all this drama because Birdman had a stake in all of Drake and Nicki Minaj's albums up until 2018 today this label is an absolute joke as they harvest some of the worst rappers in all of hip-hop and if you don't believe me to put this into perspective the most popular artist they have signed to them today is blueface it is that bad now when you see the steaming pile of garbage that is Cash Money Records today it's really not surprising how the label that once house Little Wayne and was the parent company to his Young Money imprint has fallen so far from Grace considering the horrible reputation they built in the 2010s and as they somehow continued to exist with blue leading their roster of artists this ship will only continue to sink with time now when we look at other labels that's reputations have been on the downturn for quite some time one of the saddest falloffs can be seen with quality control is after becoming the label that was really The Taste makers forming all of the buzzing Trends in the late 2010s they are now a shell of themselves filled with some of the most lazy and complacent artists out today now outside of Lil yotti who has been carrying this label on his back with brilliant releases like his 2023 album let's star here and so many other amazing singles the rest of the QC crew has lost the touch that made them so renowned just a few years ago whether it's the city girls who were qc's answer to all of the competition in the female rap scene or Lil Baby who has had one of the biggest fallouts in hip-hop after being seen as somebody who can become the next all-time great after his 2020 album my turn it seemed like once these acts got Buzz around their names and began to Garner so much hype and attention they stopped pushing themselves and caring at all about the music they were putting out now what's made everything even sadder for quality control has been the downfall of the Migos which between offset leaving the group and even suing the label and leaving it to the unfortunate passing of takeoff the trio that defined what quality control stood for has now been destroyed and all that's left is quo and while he still continues to release music it's just not the same without his family turned rap group behind him now while quality control has faced a lot of problems as we have seen Lil yotti redefine what a rap like him can do it's clear that despite all of the struggles and drama that has been tearing up the label there is an organization that on some level is trying to do the best by their artist so while QC is no longer a premier destination for rappers to sign to its downfall hasn't been a sever as some have made it out to be and who knows maybe they will turn it around now as L baby has fallen off one of the main reasons many think is behind his decline has been due to the absolute Insanity going on at his mentor Young Thugs YSL records as Thug has been in a highly publicized RICO case along with many other members of his label now very similar to QC YSL was a label that was responsible for setting so many of the biggest Trends in Hip Hop and during 2022 when Young Thug was very much still on top of the world and Gunna was having a career year at the time they and many other label mates were locked up in a case that has been going on to this day and as it's continued and members like Lil Duke and Gunna have been released there has only been more interner tension created between the labels now when it comes to what's been going on in YSL as a label as Gunna is now a free man there has been non-stop drama centered around if gunana is a snitch and also speculating on what his current relationship is with young thug as a whole now between all the subliminal disses that seem to be on young fugs business's business album and the silent treatment that gunana has received from his former right-hand man in Lil Baby along with many other of his most prominent collaborators he has been seemingly blackballed from the spaces he was once embraced at meanwhile everybody in the rap World continues to ride for Young Thug but while the label has faced so many problems and even Young Thug's album with what seemed like the entire industry on it underperformed the only artist keeping them afloat has been gunno whose 2023 record a gift and a curse became not just the biggest album of his career but what of the most successful of last year as a whole so with YSL as long as Thug and Gunner remain at odds and the group's case continues on this label just has no place doing anything music related and with the future of it depending on what happens to Young fug himself it's scary to say but we don't even know if this label will be here in the months to come now when it comes to drama and Hip-Hop right alongside fug and gunana no other rapper has been in more controversy recently than Kanye West and as his former label good music dissolved and longtime members like push a t and Big Sean left along with its parent company Def Jam shutting it down as a whole Kanye became an independent artist under his own Yeezy imprint and as yay has begun to release new music and show Ambitions to help give even more artists their ownership ship act it seems like Kanye could be expanding this creative entity into something way more threatening for the larger music industry now with ta doas sign already releasing the vultures albums with yay who knows if he will end up becoming the first artist to sign to this label when he gets out of the deal he is currently in and Beyond tie Kanye has hinted at Lil Durk joining his own team as yay tries to help get him out of a contract that he's stuck in currently now doing any sort of business with Kanye is definitely a risk but considering that when he was locked in with ses like push a or even common and John Legend all the way back in the 2000s he was able to show just how great of a producer he was and I think a lot of artists will be intrigued by the prospect of teaming up with yay but time will only tell if this label is truly going to be worth something bigger than just Kanye West now one artist who has stayed so close to Kanye over the years has been Travis Scott and as Trav found his own imprint Cactus Jack records while it seems like Trav has done a great job at keeping his ear to what's hot to find new Talent just like Kanye did when it comes comes to giving these artists the proper development that they need to build strong careers of their own it's a much different story now with Cactus Jack records only being composed of Travis himself Shea West Don toer and so Figo overall this is a concise but talented group of individuals but when it comes to how all of these artist careers have turned out to this point they have all seen varied results now Don toer has been by far the most successful artist out of this group as he's developed his own signature sound and he has built a super strong fan based through his dedicated work ethic which has given us three albums since 2020 but beyond Dawn whether it's sha West who has not released new music since his 2018 debut album mud boy or so fago whose career seems to be really over before it's even started overall it seems like Cactus Jack could be so much more than it currently is now with this said part of the mixed results between the label members could be because of all of the controversy that Travis himself has been in over the past few years and also the pressure of releasing his long anticipated album I Opia but now that all of Travis's problems are behind him time will only tell how this entire roster of artists will turn out and with him teasing a second compilation record for the label in Jack Boys 2 it seems like we will see how Trav and his crew can work in full force sooner than ever so while Travis's label is nowhere near a failure signing to it does not seem like it will be a guaranteed success but when it comes to the best places for Cutting Edge young talent to go there is perhaps no better destination right now than Playboy card's label which has had had an insane rise in just a few years now when it comes to the creative entity founded by the one and only Playboy cardi from the way members dress to the music itself he has created a one-of-a-kind culture that is unlike anything that hip-hop has ever seen before led by the trio of cardi himself Ken Carson and Destroy Loman this small But Rising label has been in instant action ever since the release of Cardi's 2020 album whole lot of read as all members have consistently dropped music that expands on the sound and ethos and or of the group as a whole the biggest thing this label really has going for it is the overall cohesion and Synergy throughout the entire group's style and sound and this has allowed for them to grow such a dedicated following in such a quick time now very similar to Kendrick Lamar with PG Lang while cardi will only sign you if you can fit into this dedicated musical world that he's building if any rapper has the chance to join this team this is one of the best places that you can go now while the one artist that everybody wants to see join card's label is Lil Uzi ver Uzi has been signed to DJ drama's generation now in print and while this label is not as elusive as some of the other organizations we have looked at it's done a pretty solid job of allowing its artists to do just about anything that they want now with generation now this label is led by Lil Uzi Jack harlo and L Tyler and with all of these artists being very different you can see that DJ drama's philosophy when it comes to building this label is simply about letting these young talents shine in the way that best benefits them now while this process has allowed for somebody like Jack harlo to spiral out of control and turn into a rapper who does almost everything for the mainstream success it's also allowed somebody like Lil Uzi to release a record as experimental as the pink tape so while Generation Now doesn't have the footprint that some of these other labels do and without a consistent Direction and ecosystem of artists it hasn't built the type of culture and Ethos that many of the other Premier labels have in an industry where so many organizations try to force artists into being what they want them to be it's great to have somebody like DJ Drama who just Champions artistic Freedom now with major labels today one of the biggest problems we have seen are the company's exploitative nature but often times even worse than this some labels sign artists and then simply let their careers dry out and when it comes to this unfortunately M&M Shady Records in print has become an absolute disgrace to everything that it once was decades ago now with Shady Records despite signing some of the most talented spitters time and time again every artist they sign seems to leave the label after a lukewarm tenure or they just get trapped into their contracts entirely as they fall away Into Obscurity whether it was yellow wolf whose career really burned out partially because of shady or even new rappers like grip or Westside Boogie whose careers have stagnated despite them getting better and releasing more compelling albums as time has went on the managing and marketing at Shady Records has made it more of a graveyard for artists rather than a place where they can actually develop and grow we often forget this now but Shady signed griselda's Westside gun and Conway the machine all all the way back in 2017 and with the members only releasing one album each in these times which didn't come out until 2020 and 2022 respectively it's safe to assume that their careers would have died if it wasn't for the work of their own label Griselda records now when it comes to the best labels in hip-hop right now there is fewer ever that have been better than Griselda at the same time as Wes and Conway were in an unflattering Shady deal they consistently released quality album after quality album on their own independent labor and this allowed for their boombap lyrical heavy style to take over hip hop in a way that nobody expected in an industry where big companies are trying to control everything grizela proved that a label can be independent and pave their own way by merely betting on themselves and the unprecedented Vision that they brought to the table in today's musical landscape the dream team of Westside gun Conway the machine and Benny The Butcher all became stars in the rap world through the releases of so many acclaimed albums which would get them noticed by so many super stars in the rap world who the trio would go on to work with now while Conway and Benny have went on to form their own musical imprints and Benny also signed a deal with de Jam which actually resulted in him releasing his worst performing album in years as Def Jam constantly misunderstands their artist needs and how to Market them despite being such a massive company despite all the odds grisela has continued to grow and flourish under the direction of Westside gun as they have brought in new rappers like Rome Street stove God cooks and Baldi James as they continue to expand upon the music IC ecosystem that has garnered them such a dedicated following Westside gun is really a one-of-a-kind creative in the rap world who makes everything that he does with the intention to uplift all of the artists around him and with him only continuing to work with and discover more Cutting Edge lyrical Talent at this very day as time goes on it seems like Griselda is only going to stay as an absolute Powerhouse in the rap world who will only continue to do great things so all in all with all of these labels that stand as the parties that Define hip-hop today you can see just how vital it is to find the right creative environment as an artist as these choices can truly make or break your career now looking at all these labels and seeing how they are either dominating or dying out in the rap World let me know what do you think is the best rap label right now and what is the worst go ahead and tell me in the comments below and if you want to see the most controversial rap albums ever released check out the suggested [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] video [Music] w

Channel: Fantastic Hip Hop

Views: 686,092

Keywords: Best and Worst Rap Labels, Worst Rap Labels To Sign To, Best Rap Labels, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Playbioi Carti, ScHoolboy Q, Travis Scott, TDE, Dreamville, Drake, OVO Sound, What happened to TDE, TDE beef, Kendrick Lamar Baby Keem Label, JID, Best and Worst rap labels, Best rap labels, The worst rap labels ever, Best and Worst record labels

Id: jYpTMhAlEpw

Length: 20min 41sec (1241 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 16 2024