Rap-a-Lot Records | |
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Founded | 1986 |
Founder | James Prince |
Distributor(s) | RED Distribution |
Genre | Southern hip hop |
Country of origin | United States |
Location | Houston, Texas, U.S. |
Official website | www |
Rap-A-Lot Records is a Houston hip hop record label that was created in 1986. Sublabels include Smoke-a-Lot Records. The label was founded by James Prince in the mid-1980s and, with its most famous act the Geto Boys, put the South on the hip hop map. Since then, it has maintained its success and focus on gangsta and southern rap.
Rap-A-Lot was first distributed by A&M Records for a short time with the release of Raheem's 1988 debut The Vigilante. The label was later distributed through the 1990s by the EMI labels Priority Records (1991–1994), Noo Trybe Records (1994-1998) and Noo Trybe's parent label Virgin Records (1998–2002). During the rest of the 2000s, it was distributed by WEA's Asylum Records and then Fontana Distribution.
Geto Boys were the label's first nationally popular act, while Devin the Dude, whom The New York Times called "a brilliant oddball with a spaced-out flow," and whose contract ended in 2008, was, for 15 years, the label's longest-running act.
On August 22, 2013, Rap-A-Lot Records announced that it recently signed a distribution deal with RED Distribution. Artists currently on its roster include Z-Ro and Bun B among others.
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