Relativity Records

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Relativity Records is an American record label founded by Clive Davis. The label has had various acts signed to the label.

Company History

Beginnings

Davis founded the label, but left it in the hands of his parent company. The label was originally a heavy metal and rock record label so it signed a number of bands and solo artists, including Death, Exodus, Megadeth, Napalm Death, Impelliteri, Corrosion of Conformity, Circle Jerks, Jet Red, Joe Satriani, Shotgun Messiah, Scatterbrain, Scott Henderson, Sick of it All, Steve Vai, Stuart Hamm, Tigertailz, David Robles of October, Dark Angel, They Eat Their Own, Lucy's Fur Coat and Forbidden among others. From the late 80s into the early 90s, they had plenty of success from releasing this type of music. In 1990, new management took over the label and they began to sign on more urban acts. From 1985 to 1990, they had many platinum and multi-platinum releases from the many artists that were signed to the label, despite this, they still decided to get into the rising hip hop scene.

Hip Hop Power

After making the decision to tap into the urban market, they would discover and sign Chicago rapper, Common(then known as Common Sense) and quickly release his debut album in 1992. In 1992, they struck a deal with Fat Joe and his Terror Squad label. Also during this time they added Three 6 Mafia, Hussein Fatal, and even rapper Mac Mall from Vallejo, California to their growing hip hop roster. From this they also became a distributing label to Eazy-E's Ruthless Records, Combat Records, Terror Squad Ent. and many rock and roll subsidiary labels. From all of these artists, they released many popular albums from their artists and had nearly 200 acts signed to the label. With so many artists and sub-labels, they formed a distributor named RED Distribution, which still contains Relativity and all of its associated labels.

References

See also

• List of record labels

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