Everything about Interscope Records totally explained
Interscope Records is an
American record label, owned by
Universal Music Group, and operates as one third of UMG's
Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.
History
Beginnings
Interscope was formed in 1990 by
Jimmy Iovine,
Ted Field, and Tom Whalley with financial support from
Atlantic Records (which owned a 50% stock in the label). Upon its creation, it was initially distributed by Atlantic Records' subsidiary
East West Records America.
The label's first release was
Latin-rapper
Gerardo, who scored a top 5,
gold hit with "Rico Suave" in the spring of 1991. More early success came later in the year when the label released the debut album from
Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, which went platinum in early 1992. During this time, Interscope also signed rapper
Tupac Shakur,
Primus,
No Doubt and
Nine Inch Nails. They also released
Bad4Good's album,
Refugee in 1992, yet it was a commercial flop.
Death Row Records
Though Interscope seemed to be on a roll with its first few releases, the label was faced with criticism for manufacturing what was considered
cookie-cutter hip-hop that many didn't take seriously. That changed when, in 1992, Iovine financially assisted
Suge Knight and
Dr. Dre in the creation of
Death Row Records, and arranged for Interscope to distribute its records. The arrangement hit paydirt when Death Row and Interscope released
The Chronic, the solo debut album from rapper/producer
Dr. Dre. The album was distributed by
Priority Records and released in December, became a seminal hit into the new year, eventually going triple platinum, and introduced the world to an up and coming
Snoop Dogg—whose own debut album
Doggystyle was released in late 1993 and became a monstrous success as well.
Following the success of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, Death Row and Interscope became powerful labels in the industry, both collectively and respectively. With this acclaim, however, came criticism from various sources over the
gangsta rap image that was being perpetuated. Feeling the heat from activist groups,
Time Warner (Interscope's parent company) refused to distribute Death Row's next release,
Dogg Food by
Tha Dogg Pound, which was originally scheduled for release in June 1995. The album was subsequently pushed back, while Death Row and Interscope made an outside deal with
Priority Records to distribute that album upon its release.
The controversy swirling around Death Row and Interscope made Time Warner's shareholders nervous, so much so that in late 1995, the company sold all of its stake in Interscope Records to
MCA Music Entertainment (later renamed
Universal Music Group). Not wanting to take on the scrutiny that plagued Time Warner, MCA too initially refused to distribute many of Interscope's Death Row releases; including
All Eyez on Me, the much anticipated forthcoming Death Row debut album by
Tupac Shakur. This forced Death Row and Interscope to strike a deal with
Island Records to distribute that particular album outside of its home base.
Death Row began to collapse in 1996 following the death of Tupac Shakur, the
incarceration of Knight, and departure of Dr. Dre. In August of 1997, Interscope (under pressure from Universal Music Group) made the decision to sell off all of its share in the label. However, they continue to join forces when it comes to releasing posthumous albums by Shakur with
Amaru Entertainment.
Today
Though Interscope initially made a name for itself as a label dealing heavily in hip-hop and urban music, by the mid 1990s, its range began to expand and, subsequently, the company would eventually experience success with artists in all genres, for example, the
Industrial Rock artist
Nine Inch Nails (
Nothing Records). Following UMG's acquisition of
PolyGram (also the owners of
Island Records) in 1998,
Geffen Records and
A&M Records were merged into Interscope—making it the extremely powerful and leading unit at UMG that it's today. In 2005, Interscope launched a new imprint,
Cherrytree Records for emerging artists, beginning with
Oakland, CA's
The Lovemakers. In May 2007, Interscope announced a joint-venture partnership with
Justin Timberlake to create a new recording label called
Tennman Records. The label has grown from a vanity label under
Atlantic Records, to one of the world's largest labels with 312 artists signed and growing.
Artists
Labels under Interscope
Criticism
Rapper
Ice Cube has criticized Interscope for their use of
Tupac Shakur's music in his song "Child Support", he raps the lines "Keep your dumb ass out of that casket/'cause Interscope will spend your money/They don't give a fuck/About a dead rapper/Nigga, they'll chop it up."
Salaried artists
At the
SXSW conference in 2006, Interscope lawyer Darryl Franklin said during a panel discussion, that the contract with the group
The Pussycat Dolls is unique in that its members are actually salaried employees of the record label and, by design, completely interchangeable. This means that in addition to CD sales, the label also controls merchandise, web sites and all other commercial aspects of the group and their income, excluding songwriting.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Interscope Records'.
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