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The music business is like any other business, really. Most of the time, it isn't very different from the business of office furniture or the business of toilet bowl lids. Profits and losses, risk and gain, are crunched and munched-all with the hope of turning red to black. But that's most of the time. Sometimes, when you're really lucky, it's not like that at all. Sometimes the stars align and you get a front row seat to watch a cultural shift. But it's even better than that. You get to see it happen-you get to be a part of it. And for that brief moment you have your hands on the reigns that steer an entire culture. Think Clive Davis at CBS in '69. Think Neil Bogart at Casablanca in '73. Think Russell Simmons at Def Jam in '84. We, the founders of Rawkus Records, consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to have experienced one of those moments.
In the Fall of 1995, the two of us, college friends from Brown University, saw a truly exciting underground movement emerging in New York's hip hop scene. Hip hop had always had an underground, but it had been a minor league, where artists cultivated their skills and awaited their shot at a deal on a major. But as the '90s progressed and the commercial potential of the genre became apparent to the majors, there became more and more pressure on the artists to emulate "the formula." In response to this the underground, instead of chasing the labels demands, did an about-face and began making music without regard for commercial palatability or crossover potential.
Of course all the labels ignored this movement and dismissed the artists. But we saw this as a tremendous opportunity. So, with bankrolling from another childhood friend, we started Rawkus and created a home for this rebel music. A truly grassroots movement...
Moving forward, Rawkus is stronger than ever and we promise that we have many more classic albums in store for the fans. In addition, our management arm represents the best new artists in the game and we've also started a film company. But almost ten years later our mission is still the same: Rawkus intends to bring a fresh approach to the entire media game using the most artistic and culturally significant aspects of the underground. And the next time the underground bends the course of pop culture, we hope to be seated courtside once again.
