Dart Adams presents What If?...Slaughterhouse Signs With Shady/Aftermath

Given recent happenings in the Hip Hop world, I figured that it would be a good time if I decided to address each of them in my own style. That being the case, I present to you all "Dart Adams presents What If?...Slaughterhouse signs with Shady/Aftermath". Please hold all questions until after the blog is done. Enjoy:


The question "What if?" comes up quite a bit in Hip Hop, however we tend to use it in relation to situations we feel went awry or generally "where it all got fucked up at". I'm thinking why not use it right now? During the new video for the single from the "More Than A Game" documentary soundtrack you can see the underground Hip Hop supergroup Slaughterhouse right behind Eminem during the final verse of the song (which Em bodied). The people raised the People's Eyebrow at this and began speculating as to why they were in the video. I found out from Miss Info that Slaughterhouse is rumored to be in negotiations with Shady/Aftermath to sign with the label. Ohword.com?

What we need to do is deconstruct the entire situation at look at it objectively like rational adults rather what we typically do as Hip Hop fans...fly off the handle and become prone to knee jerk reactions (i.e. "The Blueprint 3"). First off, Eminem is working on "Relapse 2", Dre claims to be "finishing up" "Detox". 50 Cent keep trying to toss mixtapes into the crowd to convince people that he hasn't forgotten how to make quality music so he can build a buzz big enough to finally release "Before I Self Destruct". After Interscope dropped Charles Hamilton officially all they have coming out soon is Wale's "Attention Deficit". They have nothing else on their plates so why not sign Slaughterhouse?


Slaughterhouse started out as a posse jam slated to appear on Joe Budden's Amalgam Digital project "Halfway House" almost a year ago (October 2008). The buzz that track generated when it hit the blogs halfway through that month was tremendous. It was all anyone could talk about for weeks in an era where few songs regardless of quality holds the entire internet's attention longer than a week at most. The possibility of another song from this outfit had everyone geeked. Late that October, Joe Budden dropped "Halfway House" which did well off the strength of the buzz generated by "Slaughterhouse". The first week of November, Slaughterhouse (minus Nino Bless) dropped a megaton bomb on the entire internets entitled "Onslaught". Things were all set in motion from the moment this song hit the blogs/Hip Hop sites.


On January 22nd, 2009, Slaughterhouse had built a buzz so big in a short time that they had their first show as a group @ S.O.B's in New York. Joe Budden was embroiled in a lyrical battle with Saigon and people wanted to see the show so badly that Amalgam Digital had set up a live feed to broadcast the entire show live. Unfortunately, the feed never worked but if you were on Twitter or hit the blogs the next day you got to see a fair amount of the show. Keep in mind that they'd just dropped a new song online called "Move On". They had no deal. They were doing a show in a packed venue in New York where the entire audience was screaming the lyrics along with the group. In this era of cynicism do you all realize how much of an accomplishment it was to pack heads in there at between $20-$25 a ticket? Do you really?


We all know what the problems with signing with a major label are. In particular you know all about Interscope/Aftermath's recent track record with signees. If you go back 5 years to now you name each of the cats that signed and still haven't released material on the label on got dropped altogether. Stat Quo, Bobby Creekwater, Obie Trice, Hot Rod, Spider Loc, Mazardi Fox, M.O.P., Mobb Deep, Mase, Cashis, Bishop Lamont, Eve, Young Buck, Olivia, The Game, Joell Ortiz and Charles Hamilton all either got dropped, asked for their releases or have failed to have an album drop after years languishing on the back burner or having their projects get pushed back farther than Nic Cage's receding hairline.

From the standpoint of Interscope/Aftermath they could use an injection of excitement. They are in dire need of some serious image rehabilitation right now. Hip Hop fans are extremely distrustful of Aftermath right now. They haven't released anything except for Eminem's album so far. It's looking like 50 Cent's album won't drop until 2010 (which is odd because "Before I Self Destruct" has been in the works since 2007) and music fans have all but given up on ever hearing "Detox". After Raekwon finally dropped "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" it really puts more pressure on Dre to finish "Detox". If the news dropped that a label finally decided to buy "Greatest Story Never Told" Dre would be all but fucked with fans.

Slaughterhouse made an album on indie label E1 Music this August that embarrassed 90% of major label albums this year with minimal budget in only 6 days. They had the media ablaze. The entire internet was anticipating the albums release. Bloggers and music journalists wrote about Slaughterhouse without having to be asked to do so. This group captured the imagination of the Hip Hop industry. There were people that rarely even bought CD's anymore that pre-ordered this album. It was the #1 pre-order on multiple sites (including Amazon). This is all without major label push or promotion. This shit all started through "word of mouth" (or what passes for it in 2009). The "Slaughterhouse" album has sold in excess of 32,000 physical copies to this date and possibly more than 50,000 if you include digital sales. You do the math, people.

When asked directly, Royce and Crooked I said that they got a call from Paul Rosenberg to appear in the "Forever" video and the talk about them signing with Shady/Aftermath is purely speculation and rumor. I know that some people don't want to see them sign with Aftermath but if they actually promote them and put the machine behind them you wouldn't want to see Slaughterhouse on a major? Do we really not want to see anyone succeed? Are we thinking about what a good look that would be or are we afraid that a major label would try to dilute their material or never put it out?

Slaughterhouse claims that they're putting out an album in 2010. Joe Budden's dropping "The Great Escape", Royce is releasing "Street Hop", Joell has "Free Agent" on deck and Crooked I has a project in the works called "Mr. Pig Face Weapon Waist". Y'all always complain that majors sign wack dudes nowadays so why not have Slaughterhouse on Shady provided they let them do them? They certainly don't censor 50 or Em...how bad could it possibly be anyways?

One.