Rap is full of endlessly entertaining hypothetical questions. It’s fun to look back and think what if this or that had gone differently, what would the rap landscape look like today? What if your favorite rapper had signed with a different label? Labels can have a lot of influence on a career, especially for young rappers, and its amazing how close many rap legends came to signing elsewhere.
Can you imagine 2Pac as a No Limit soldier? What about if Lil Wayne dipped from Young Money to Roc-A-Fella in 2006 or if Cam’ron had signed to Bad Boy way back when? Might sound crazy, but believe us, these things almost happened. Some came closer to fruition than others, but all were discussed at some point. Come back in time with us and check out 20 Rappers Who Almost Signed To Other Labels—and then you can start speculating.
Written by Max Goldberg (@goopygold) & Imani Mixon (@ImaniMixon)
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NWA
Jaz-O
2Pac
Nas
Cam'ron
DMX
Big L
Crooked I
Nas
Kanye West
Snoop Dogg
Fabolous
Wale
Big K.R.I.T.
Lil Wayne
Kool G Rap
Danny Brown
2 Chainz
French Montana
Label They Almost Signed To: G.O.O.D. Music
Label They Ended Up Signing To: Bad Boy, Interscope
Circa: 2011
French Montana almost signed to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. 2011. After ditching his deal with Akon’s Konvict Muzik over problems with album delays, the Moroccan-born rapper boosted his street cred with a string of lauded mixtapes. "Right after that deal was done, it was literally like no label that was out didn't have a contract at my lawyer's office,” he said during a recent interview on The Combat Jack Show.
Kanye came calling, interested in expanding his ever-evolving roster. In a radio interview with DJ Envy, Montana explained that he preferred Diddy’s process of presenting a collection of artists at the same time over Kanye’s gradual and sometimes sporadic approach. Bad Boy has had its fair share of casualties, but after Montana’s debut album Excuse My French came out in May, French Montana seems to be in it for the long run.
Joey Bada$$
Label They Almost Signed To: Roc Nation
Label They Ended Up Signing To: Cinematic Music Group
Circa: 2012
In a little over a year, Brooklyn’s Joey Bada$$ has gone from a promising upstart to a legitimate force in the rap game. That rise kicked off when a video of him freestyling caught the attention of Jonny Snipes of Cinematic Music Group, who quickly scooped him up. That relationship doesn’t mean that Joey hasn’t come close to signing elsewhere. On A$AP Rocky’s “1 Train,” one line from Joey’s show stealing verse had everyone talking. He says, “Just got back to the block from a 6 o’clock with Jigga/And I’m thinking ‘bout signing to the Roc.” He later elaborated on Complex’s own Combat Jack Show, where he talked about the actual meeting and how psyched he was when Jay told him, "'Yo, that 'Waves' track, that is it right there.'"