The Album (The Firm Album)
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The Album (The Firm Album)
''The Album'' is the only studio album by American hip hop group The Firm. It was released on October 21, 1997 by Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. The project was created by rapper Nas, his manager Steve Stoute and producers Dr. Dre and Trackmasters, who came up with the idea of forming a hip hop supergroup. The original line-up included Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown and Cormega who were all featured on the song "Affirmative Action" from Nas' album ''It Was Written'' (1996). However, Cormega later left the group due to artistic differences between him and Nas, as well as contract disagreements with Stoute. He was replaced by Nature prior to recording of the album. ''The Album'' is a concept album that revolves around the themes of mafia and "gangsta" lifestyle. The songs on the album were mainly produced by Dr. Dre, Chris "The Glove" Taylor and Trackmasters (as Poke and Tone), and feature guest vocals from Pretty Boy, Wizard, Canibus, Dawn Robinson, Noreaga and Half-a-Mi ...
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The Firm (hip Hop Group)
The Firm was an American hip hop supergroup that formed in New York City in 1996. It was created by rapper Nas, his manager Steve Stoute, producer Dr. Dre and production team Trackmasters. The group is composed of East Coast-based rappers Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ and Cormega. Rapper Nature is a former member: he served as a replacement for Cormega after he was ousted from the group. Although the group received initial hype and high expectations from fans upon their formation after collectively signing to Dr. Dre's Aftermath label, The Firm's debut album, '' The Album'' (1997), generated disappointing sales and generally negative criticism. The album, which featured predominant mafioso rap-themes and production from Dr. Dre and the Trackmasters, was criticized for its pop-orientation. Their debut album was the group's only release and they disbanded in 1999 with each member continuing their solo careers. The members (including Cormega, who had made up with Nas after their falling-ou ...
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Pieces Of A Man (AZ Album)
''Pieces of a Man'' is the second solo studio album by American rapper AZ. It was released on April 7, 1998 via Noo Trybe Records. Production was handled by Trackmasters, Goldfinga, Gucci Jones, L.E.S., Kenny Kornegay, Nashiem Myrick, RZA and Tony Dofat. It features guest appearances from The Firm, Half-A-Mil, Monifah, RZA and Panama P.I. The album peaked at No. 22 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and at No. 5 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in the United States. The album was highly praised for its complex and insightful lyricism. The first single was intended to be "Hey AZ" featuring SWV, which peaked at No. 50 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Music video for "Hey AZ" was shot, but the song was included only in the Japanese edition of the project. Track listing ;Sample credits *Track 1 contains a sample from " Feeling Good" by Nina Simone, and a sample from "Happy Birthday Maggie" by Hans Zimmer. *Track 3 contains a sample from "Show Me" by Glenn Jones. *Track 7 contains samples fro ...
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Cormega
Cory McKay (born December 3, 1970), better known by his stage name Cormega, is an American rapper who attained notice when he was shouted out by Nas on his song "One Love", from the critically acclaimed 1994 album ''Illmatic''. The album was released during Cormega's time in prison, but the mention sparked his career and created anticipation for his own rapping. Early life Cormega was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and raised in Queens. He was childhood friends with Nas, Havoc and Capone, who all went on to become successful rappers. A frequent theme of his music is the countless number of his friends and family that have been killed by violence. Career 1990s He was featured on Hot Day's "Going Straight Up" from his album ''It's My Turn''. He was also featured on Blaq Poet and DJ Hot Day's track "Set It Off" from their album ''Without Warning'' in 1991. During a period of incarceration, Cormega gained some attention following a shout-out from Nas on his song "One Love", ...
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Supergroup (music)
A supergroup is a musical group whose members are successful as solo artists or as members of other successful groups. The term became popular in the late 1960s when members of already successful rock groups recorded albums together, after which they normally disband. Charity supergroups, in which prominent musicians perform or record together in support of a particular cause, have been common since the 1980s. The term is most common context of rock and pop music, but it has occasionally been applied to other musical genres. For example, opera superstars The Three Tenors ( José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti) have been called a supergroup. A supergroup sometimes forms as a side project for a single recording project or other ''ad hoc'' purposes, with no intention that the group will remain together afterwards. In other instances, the group may become the primary focus of the members' career. History ''Rolling Stone'' editor Jann Wenner credited British rock ...
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Steve Stoute
Steve Stoute (born June 26, 1970) is an American businessman and record executive. Stoute is the founder and CEO of the Translation, a marketing agency, and the author of ''The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy''. Previously, he worked in the music industry as an American record executive and artist manager. In 2017, Stoute received $70 million from investors such as Alphabet Inc. and Andreessen Horowitz to launch UnitedMasters, a music venture. In 2008 Stoute worked with Mary J. Blige to co-found the Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now (FFAWN). Record executive From 1990 to 1999, Stoute was an executive at several labels in the music industry. At Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Stoute served as President of the Urban Music division and executive vice president. Prior to joining Interscope, Stoute was president of Urban Music for Sony Music Entertainment, where he played a role in launching the music career of ...
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The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creative community of New York City. It ceased publication in 2017, although its online archives remained accessible. After an ownership change, the ''Voice'' reappeared in print as a quarterly in April 2021. Over its 63 years of publication, ''The Village Voice'' received three Pulitzer Prizes, the National Press Foundation Award, and the George Polk Award. ''The Village Voice'' hosted a variety of writers and artists, including writer Ezra Pound, cartoonist Lynda Barry, artist Greg Tate, and film critics Andrew Sarris, Jonas Mekas and J. Hoberman. In October 2015, ''The Village Voice'' changed ownership and severed all ties with former parent company Voice Media Group (VMG). The ''Voice'' announced on August 22, 2017, that it would cease p ...
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The Source (magazine)
''The Source'' is an American hip hop and entertainment website, and a magazine that publishes annually or . It is the world's longest-running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988 by Jonathan Shecter. David Mays was the magazine's co-founder. ''The Source''s Five-Mic albums The Record Report is a section in the publication in which the magazine's staff rates hip-hop albums. Ratings range from one to five mics, paralleling a typical five-star rating scale. An album that is rated at four-and-a-half or five mics is considered by ''The Source'' to be a superior hip hop album. Over the first ten years or so, the heralded five-mic rating only applied to albums that were universally lauded hip hop albums. A total of 45 albums have been awarded five mics; a complete, chronological list is below. Albums that originally received five mics: *''People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm'' – A Tribe Called Quest *''AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted'' – Ice Cube ...
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Los Angeles Daily News
The ''Los Angeles Daily News'' is the second-largest-circulating paid daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Southern California News Group, a branch of Colorado-based Digital First Media. The offices of the ''Daily News'' are in Chatsworth, and much of the paper's reporting is targeted toward readers in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. Its stories tend to focus on issues involving local San Fernando Valley businesses, education, and crime. The editor currently is Frank Pine. History Earlier titles The ''Daily News'' began publication in Van Nuys as the ''Van Nuys Call'' in 1911, morphing into the ''Van Nuys News'' after a merger with a competing newspaper called the ''News''. In 1953, the newspaper was renamed the ''Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet''. The front page was produced on green newsprint. During this period, the newspaper was delivered four times a week for free to readers in 14 zoned editions in the San Fernando Valley. ...
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Time Inc
Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illustrated'', '' Travel + Leisure'', '' Food & Wine'', ''Fortune'', ''People'', ''InStyle'', ''Life'', ''Golf Magazine'', ''Southern Living'', ''Essence'', ''Real Simple'', and ''Entertainment Weekly''. It also had subsidiaries which it co-operated with the UK magazine house Time Inc. UK (which was later sold and since has been rebranded to TI Media), whose major titles include ''What's on TV'', ''NME'', '' Country Life'', and ''Wallpaper''. Time Inc. also co-operated over 60 websites and digital-only titles including ''MyRecipes'', ''Extra Crispy'', ''TheSnug'', HelloGiggles, and ''MIMI''. In 1990, Time Inc. merged with Warner Communications to form the media conglomerate Time Warner. In 2018, media company Meredith Corporation acquired T ...
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Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular culture. The magazine debuted on February 16, 1990, in New York City. Different from celebrity-focused publications such as ''Us Weekly'', ''People'' (a sister magazine to ''EW''), and ''In Touch Weekly'', ''EW'' primarily concentrates on entertainment media news and critical reviews; unlike ''Variety'' and ''The Hollywood Reporter'', which were primarily established as trade magazines aimed at industry insiders, ''EW'' targets a more general audience. History Formed as a sister magazine to ''People'', the first issue of ''Entertainment Weekly'' was published on February 16, 1990. Created by Jeff Jarvis and founded by Michael Klingensmith, who served as publisher until October 1996, the magazine's original television advertising soliciting ...
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All Media Network
RhythmOne , previously known as Blinkx, and also known as RhythmOne Group, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went public on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in 2007, and began trading as RhythmOne in 2017. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and London, England. RhythmOne acquired All Media Network and its portfolio of web properties in April 2015. In April 2019, RhythmOne merged with Taptica International (renamed Tremor International in June 2019), an advertising technology company headquartered in Israel. History Blinkx was named after blinkx.com, an Internet Media platform that connects online video viewers with publishers and distributors, using advertising to monetize those interactions. Blinkx has an index of over 35 million hours of video and 800 media partnerships, as well as 111 patents related to the site's se ...
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AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ...
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