Whatever happened to Aftermath? Sep 19 '08 (Updated Feb 01 '09)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1 by The Prodigy From $11 Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 The Bottom Line With the recent departure of Busta Rhymes, things are seemingly beginning to get even worse at Aftermath... Eminem, 50 Cent, Rakim, Busta Rhymes, The Game, Raekwon, G-Unit, Eve, Joell Ortiz, Marsha Ambrosius, Bishop Lamont, Stat Quo, Last Emperor, RBX, Hittman, G.A.G.E and Truth Hurts. All these artists would be the dream roster for any kind of record label, not just a Hip Hop record label. With the rappers and singers mentioned in the list you have a mixture of talented music artists and proven hit-makers which is presumably the reason why Dr Dre’s Aftermath record label has become synonymous with Hip Hop during the last decade. However, there’s just one problem...Most of the music artists mentioned have left the record label due to one reason or another over the years and the situation shows no sign of improving. In fact, its becoming even worse... Considering the fact that Aftermath is a record label mostly aimed at a mainstream Hip Hop audience, it’s probably somewhat understandable why rappers such as Last Emperor and Joell Ortiz have been released due to them possessing talent in abundance but having little-to-no commercial appeal. However, critically-acclaimed rappers such as Rakim and Raekwon, who have tasted success in the past, have been inexplicitly dropped from Aftermath’s roster with the only official reason provided being that familiar phrase, ‘creative differences’. By looking deeper to these cases, we see a common issue tends to be problems each artist had experienced with Dr Dre. According to Raekwon, Dre lost interest in ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2’ despite it being one of the most eagerly anticipated albums around. While Rakim suggested that Dr Dre wanted him to switch up his style and adopt a more aggressive tone in his music, something that Rakim was unprepared to do. Some of Dre’s supporters would argue that he has always favored working with younger talented opposed to established music artists and this true as one of the reasons why Dre’s long fabled album ‘Detox’ has been constantly pushed back is because of Dre’s determination to work the young and unproven talent in his record label. However, the problem with this situation is that Dre has allowed his most talented young rappers signed on his label such as Joell Ortiz and Last Emperor to leave which leaves 30-year old, Bishop Lamont as Aftermath’s hope for the future. The other so-called ‘Jewells in the Crown’ such as Lloyd Banks, who has been exposed as being hideously overrated and The Game, whose unruly, spoilt, attention-seeking behavior has seen him end up on Geffen, have been proven to be anything but. In fact, Dre’s failure to find a successful artist besides Eminem, 50 Cent and The Game is something that looks set to be a sticking point in his legacy as while he hit gold with those three artists, most of the other artists he has signed have disappeared into obscurity with their career’s seemingly ending when released from Aftermath. Even though Dre should rightly take some of the blame. It is Jimmy Iovine, the boss of Aftermath's parent company Interscope, who seems to be the main reason why the label has been getting rid of so much talent. In fact, his recent alleged argument with Busta Rhymes not only resulted in Busta going to Universal Motown records but also encouraged me to write this article. For me, the most shocking thing about Busta’s removal from the Aftermath roster is that whilst Rakim and Raekwon have only enjoyed a little bit of success throughout their careers, Busta has constantly enjoyed it over the years and for him to be apparently kicked off the record label without Dre having much of a say suggests that Dre has less power than what people had originally thought. While a number of people probably couldn’t care less about Busta considering his previous album, ‘The Big Bang’ was rather disappointing, it has to be said that Busta’s recent attempt to get Back On His BS (no pun intended) has been quite impressive with good songs such as ‘Don’t Touch Me’ being somewhat reminiscent of him in his prime. This raises the question whether Jimmy got cold feet since he felt that Busta’s supposed return to his old style would result in a loss of potential sales figure and considering the fact he was responsible for Joell Ortiz’s removal from Aftermath despite some opposition from Dre, this could even be considered a plausible explanation. So in conclusion, the question that could be raised is how do you solve a problem like Aftermath? Well these issues have been occurring for several years now and the tactic of ensuring success in a short space of time has merely papered the cracks until recently. The sad decline of Eminem’s rapping skills wouldn’t of been such a hard blow if 50 Cent’s previous album, Curtis hadn’t under-performed but it did and as a result Aftermath’s position of being one of the most successful rap music labels is now hanging in the balance. Of course Dre and Eminem’s respective new albums, ‘Detox’ and ‘King Mathers’ have yet to be released but considering the weight of expectation placed on their shoulders the price of releasing a critically and commercially disappointing will be too much to bear and even 50 Cent and Bishop Lamont wouldn’t have be able to anything about it with their new albums. If that happens then Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine’s numerous culls of the Aftermath roster might come back to haunt them and confirm Aftermath’s downfall from a Hip Hop powerforce to a sinking ship. As a result, maybe its time Dre stood up to Jimmy for once but since biting the hand that fed you is frowned upon then the chances of that happening are very unlikely...

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