Imperial Records Bio
Imperial Records is a full service label group that began operations in June of 2006 when entrepreneur, Neil Levine joined EMI Music to establish a division focused on the independent urban music market.
Imperial Records is an independent label and artist development division that is a part of Capitol Music Group/EMI. The company is designed as a catalyst to help develop new labels and as a breeding ground for new talent. Imperial will work closely with emerging artist to make sure that each project is nurtured and given the possible opportunities to achieve success. The label group will market and promote each release all the way from the grass roots level to the top of the charts. Some of the services that Imperial will provide include publicity, radio promotion, street team promotions, sales management, product management and on-line marketing. Imperial will also handle additional resources to urban artist within EMI’s major labels in the United States, including the Capitol Music Group.
Originally established in 1950, Imperial Records started on the West Coast and the small label grew to eventually become one of the powerhouse record labels of Rock n’ Roll and R&B music. Imperial launched the careers of such groundbreaking artist as, Slim Whitman, Fats Domino, and Ricky Nelson. The label continued to make an impact on both genres of music with releases by iconic artist, Cher and the legendary Temptations.
Looking ahead to the future, Imperial is just getting started with making a new generation of hits. Neil Levine, the Senior VP/GM previously served as Worldwide General Manager of Rykodisc. Levine has also previously served as head of TVT Records’ Urban division, where he helped launch the careers of multi-platinum artist Lil’ Jon and the Eastside Boyz. Prior to that Levine founded his own independent label, Penalty Recordings, launching the careers of Noreaga (Nore), David Banner and the award winning producers, The Neptunes.
Some of the albums and artist that Imperial Records has released over the last year include, the platinum ring tune selling artist Fat Joe on Terror Squad Records, Jin on Raptivism Records, a re-launch of Levine’s own Penalty Recordings, previously unreleased tracks from the 6 time Grammy nominated artist Anthony Hamilton on Merovingian Music, which debuted at 3 on Billboard Independent Albums Chart and 13 on R&B albums Chart as well as the debut album from Evidence of Dilated Peoples and the second release from Singer/Songwriter Donnie on Soulthought.
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