A Beginner's Guide to Rawkus Records

Long before James Murdoch inherited the media mogul persona of his father, he was a tattooed Harvard dropout living in New York City with an interest in conscious rap. Sensing the potential in having a stake in a record label, he partnered with friends Jarret Myer (pictured above) and Brian Brater (pictured below) who started Rawkus Records as a grassroots effort. Murdoch soon invested seed money in the company's future to get the label on its feet. The rest is history.

Though many fans view The Slim Shady LP as Eminem's big league debut, he'd been rapping professionally for nearly three years prior to dropping that album. Along the way, this young, brash, white rapper from Detroit caught the eye of Jarret Myer and Brian Brater who decided to bring him in to record a verse for a couple other white rappers/producers signed to Rawkus, High & Mighty. They never ended  up signing him, but that verse ended up on a song called "The Last Hit" off the duo's 1999 debut album Home Field Advantage. Though his sophomore album had dropped months earlier, for many fans of underground rap, that verse was their first introduction to the Slim Shady character. He later appeared on "Any Man" for the label's Soundbombing 2 mixtape, a feature Eminem references in "Stan."

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Getting in early on the mixtape game, for its second release Rawkus put together a 17-track compilation album called Soundbombing. Released in 1997, it featured labelmates Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Hi-Tek, Company Flow, Sir Menelik, and Shabaam Sahdeeq. In particular, it launched the careers of Mos and Talib with standout tracks like "Universal Magnetic" and "Fortified Live." The label went on to release a sequel to the mixtape in 1999 and launched the Lyricist Lounge mixtape series shortly after.

A no-brainer signing based off the work he previously did with De La Soul, Rawkus scooped up Mos Def quickly after the label was founded. Riding off the coattails of his well-received album with Talib Kweli, Mos dropped his own debut solo album Black on Both Side in 1999 to critical acclaim. The album went on to go platinum, making it the most commercially succesfull album in Rawkus' catalog and the only solo effort from Mos for the label before he left for Interscope/Geffen.

Without Hi-Tek, Black Star's famed debut Talib Kweli & Mos Def Are Black Star may not ever have seen the light of day. While Talib and Mos penned the album's masterful lyrics, Hi-Tek produced more than half the album—including the career-defining tracks "Respiration" and "Defintion." Capitalizing on his ear for beats, Rawkus Records signed Hi-Tek early on and enlisted him to produce for several other Rawkus artists, including Talib, as well as for the label's compiltation albums Soundbombing and Soundbombing 2. He later went on to release his own rap album on Rawkus Hi-Teknology in 2001.

Hailing from Philly, rapper/DJ duo Mr. Eon and DJ Mighty Mi joined Rawkus in 1998 and quickly put out their debut LP Home Field Advantage. Based on guest spots from label-mates Mos Def and Pharoahe Monch and production from The Alchemist, it was bound to catch underground attention. But a feature from Eminem saw a spike in the album's hype. At the time, Em was fairly new to the game, and people were still trying to figure out his Slim Shady alter-ego which drew more mainstream fans to give the album a spin for that reason alone.

With the underground success of Soundbombing under the label's belt, Rawkus added another mixtape series to the mix called the Lyricist Lounge, a reference to the New York showcase. This time, the double-disc album released in 1998 featured an impressive collection of established rappers like Q-Tip, Jurrasic 5, KRS-One, De La Soul, Black Thought, Rah Digga, and Zack de la Rocha alongside other Rawkus rappers and producers. It also featured up-and-coming rapper Common.

After recording three albums under the moniker Organized Konfusion with Prince Poetry, Pharoahe Monch signed to Rawkus as a solo artist in 1997. Following standout appearances on Soundbombing 2, he dropped his debut solo album Internal Affairs in 1999 to critical acclaim. He also received commercial support from the self-produced "Simon Says," which was featured in the 2000 film Charlie's Angels.

For the second installment of the Soundbombing series released in 1999, Rawkus expanded beyond artists signed to the label and reached out to rising rappers like Eminem, Common, Bahamadia, Cocoa Brovaz, and Skillz. Not only is the album notable for its early notice of Eminem and Common, it also charted on the Billboard 200 at No. 30 due to consistent radio play.

Working with producer Hi-Tek on Talib Kweli & Mos Def Are Black Star and on an earlier collaboration with Cincinnati rap group MOOD undoubtedly inspired Talib to jump in the studio with Hi-Tek again for their second album as a duo. Calling themselves Reflection Eternal, Hi-Tek and Talib released Train of Thought in 2000. It's notabe for featuring Dave Chapelle, Mos Def, Les Nubians, and De La Soul. The two subsequently released a mixtape and sophomore album not affiliated with Rawkus.

Due to label politics forcing Kool G Rap to release his third album The Giancana Story on Koch records, he never did get a solo record out on Rawkus. But Kool G Rap made his mark on the label elsewhere, appearing on several Rawkus mixtapes and compilation albums and collaborating with other labelmates on their solo projects, notably on Big L's last album.

Though mainly an underground hip-hop label, Jarret Myer and Brian Brater began Rawkus with early influences of drum and bass which was evident in their decision to sign DJ Spinna. He released his solo album, Heavy Beats Volume 1, on Rawkus in 1999 and has remained one of the genre's most prolific underground DJs. His close friendship with labelmate Shabaam Sahdeeq also inspired the hip-hop group Polyrhythm Addicts along with Mr Complex and Tiye Phoenix. The group's two albums featured another fellow Rawkus labelmate Pharoahe Monch, though Polyrhythm Addicts were never directly affiliated with Rawkus Records.

Like labemate Shabaam Sahdeeq, Sir Menelik was one of the more lowkey members of Rawkus having never released a solo album for the label. He was, however, featured on the Soundbombing mixtape on the songs "Nightwork" and "So Intelligent" and again on the mixtape's sequel.

Prior to being tragically gunned down in early 1999, Big L managed to record one last album The Big Picture, which was released posthumously by Rawkus Records in 2000. Though he had formed his own independent label Flamboyant Entertainment and was in talks to sign with Roc-A-Fella Records just days before his death, Big L's legacy remains with Rawkus. In Big L's absence, the album was put together by a collective of his manager Rich King, Rawkus Records, guest producers, and rappers featured on the album.

The rumor that Kanye West was initially interested in signing to Rawkus Records—while courted heavily by Roc-A-Fella records—was only recently confirmed by Talib. In an interview with Vlad TV, the rapper claimed Kanye was so curious about joining the label as both a rapper and a producer that he would regularly hang out in the Rawkus offices and pass on beats to their artists. But, as Talib explains, Myer and Brater "didn't see his vision as an artist," and preferred he remain solely a producer—feedback Kanye received constantly at the time. We all know what happened next.

The '90s ended in gruesome fashion with the racially motivated murder of Amadou Diallo who was shot 41 times by the NYPD. In response to the extreme police brutality, Mos Def and Talib took to the studio once again as a duo to create Hip Hop For Respect EP. But unlike Talib Kweli & Mos Def Are Black Star, the two didn't keep this project to themselves. Instead, they enlisted 41 rappers—labelmates, friends, and rappers with a message who could add to the conversation—to represent each bullet that went through Diallo. The EP was released in 2000 to critical and commercial success.