Noire Notes IX
On TDE, Doechii & The Makings Of A Historically Black Record Label
Author’s Note: Historically Black Record Labels (HBRL) is a collaborative concept between myself and Elijah that lets writers analyze some of the most important and impactful black record labels in music history using the five Bs (The Basics, The Beginning, The Breakthrough, The Bottom and, if applicable, The Bounce-Back) – starting with the West Coast hip-hop powerhouse currently celebrating their twentieth anniversary: Top Dawg Entertainment. Enjoy!
The Basics
Active: Yes
Established: 2004
Founder / CEO: Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith
Current Roster: Ab-Soul, Alemeda, Doechii, Isaiah Rashad, Jay Rock, Kal Banx, Lance Skiiiwalker, Punch, Ray Vaughn, ScHoolboy Q, SiR, SZA & Zacari
Former Acts: Kendrick Lamar & Reason
Total Album Sales (according to RIAA): Over 12.5 million records
Average Metacritic Score: 81
Cultural Highpoint: 2012 (Ab-Soul’s Control System, Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city and ScHoolboy Q’s Habits & Contradictions)
Commercial Highpoint: 2017 (Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. & SZA’s Ctrl)
Key Strengths: Artist Development & Finding Talent
Major Weaknesses: Marketing & Rollouts
Outlook: Positive
Rating: A-
The Beginning
Founded in 2004, Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) is a record label fashioned in the image of its creator: Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith.
Similar to what Jay-Z did with Roc-A-Fella, Anthony saw music as a way to escape the street life. However, unlike Jay-Z, Anthony had already seen a decent amount of commercial success in order to have some faith in his new endeavor.
Inspired by the success of his uncle, Mike Concepcion, who produced for the likes of Rome and the West Coast Rap All-Stars, Top Dawg created a studio in his Carson, California home as a back-up plan in case his hustling days came to an abrupt end.
While this studio functioned as a refuge for Top Dawg, it also became a safe haven for four young men who came from a similar background.
Enter Johnny Reed McKinzie Jr., better known as Jay Rock, the first signee to Top Dawg Entertainment and a Watts native like Top Dawg himself. Then you have Kendrick Lamar, formerly known as K-Dot, who first started as Jay Rock’s hype man before becoming the rapper we all know and love today. Together, with Ab-Soul and ScHoolboy Q, this four-headed rap monster collective would call themselves “Black Hippy”.
During the label’s early years, Top’s studio functioned as a pseudo-boot camp for these individuals. With nothing to do but sleep, eat and rap, Black Hippy would sharpen their skills by battling each other on a daily basis while consistently releasing mixtapes and independent albums online as they started to find their voice and refine their public personas.
The Breakthrough
From 2010 to 2012, Top Dawg Entertainment built a sizable digital following that caught the attention of a variety of blog era tastemakers such as 2DopeBoyz and NahRight.
The nearly consecutive trifecta of Kendrick Lamar’s Section.80, ScHoolboy Q’s Habit & Contradictions and Ab-Soul’s Control System catapulted TDE to a whole new level.
Having learnt from the mistakes of signing a joint-venture deal with Warner Bros. Records for Jay Rock’s debut album (Follow Me Home), TDE formed a partnership with Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records which allowed them to retain their creative control while tapping into the vast financial and marketing resources of a major record label. This creative collaboration led to the groundbreaking commercial and critical success of Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city which was then followed by ScHoolboy Q’s Oxymoron.
Behind the scenes, TDE had in-house producers (the Digi+Phonics) who reinterpreted classic West Coast sounds through an electronic / alternative lens. This team consisted of Dave Free (who also functioned as the label’s initial videographer, social media director and co-president on top of being Kendrick’s manager), Sounwave, Tae Beast and Willie B – with MixedByAli serving as the in-house engineer who ensured that there was a pristine audio quality for almost every TDE project released during the 2010s.
It was this sense of camaraderie and unity that won the label legions of fans as people could see the genuine bonds within TDE shine through on each project: whether it was iconic features or ad-libs on key tracks, interludes and outros being named after labelmates or even something as simple as doing the handwriting or sequencing for an album.
Fast forward to the third quarter of 2013 and TDE signs their next generation of artists: SZA and Isaiah Rashad. Like Black Hippy, these two acts were forced to live together for a period of time which created a synergy that flowed seamlessly between both of their projects (for example, Isaiah Rashad’s “Ronnie Drake” and SZA’s “Warm Winds”).
However, the label’s success seemed to be tied directly with the rise of its burgeoning superstar, Kendrick Lamar, which culminated in the release of DAMN., a Pulitzer Prize winning commercial juggernaut that (along with SZA’s CTRL) made the label account for nearly 5% of the US hip-hop and R&B market in 2017.
The Bottom
By 2018, TDE was, arguably, the hottest record label in the world. With the release of the Black Panther soundtrack, TDE had joined the likes of Death Row and LaFace Records as bonafide sonic curators whose logo almost functioned as a seal of approval.
Unfortunately, this zenith would be soon followed by a noticeable dip in commercial presence and cultural relevance because of the dormancy of its two flagship artists: SZA and Kendrick Lamar.
While TDE had continued to build its roster with a number of talented rappers and singers (such as Reason, Zacari and Ray Vaughn), barely any of them broke through and captured the zeitgeist. Moreover, other labels (such as Dreamville and Griselda) started to garner more praise and excitement compared to their West Coast counterparts.
With the exception of SiR (who, like SZA, had the benefit of signing a major-label-joint-venture deal with RCA records), it seemed that any TDE artist who was not part of the first or second generation of signees was either doomed to cult-hero status at best or total obscurity at worst.
Additionally, it did not help that a lot of TDE’s artists and fans started to publicly complain about the label’s constant album release delays, botched rollouts and lack of a coherent marketing strategy. Gone were the days when all TDE artists would have the same social media profile picture to generate hype for the next project. Gone were the days of fluid collaboration and friendly competition between labelmates. From the outside looking in, it seemed that TDE had let their artists’ introspective and perfectionist tendencies get the better of them, leading several people (myself included) to question the label’s viability in the near future.
Luckily, by 2022, both Kendrick and SZA had returned from their self-imposed exiles and released projects (Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers and SOS respectively) that brought TDE back to the forefront. However, the mystique surrounding the label would soon disappear and things would only get more challenging once one of their ‘big two’ finally left TDE to build their own thing.
The Bounce-Back
If the foundation of TDE was built on the back of Black Hippy, then it seems that the future of the label may rest on the shoulders of SZA, Alemeda and Doechii.
Despite SZA often being one album away from retirement, the way SOS resonated with the public throughout 2023 made her the de-facto breadwinner of TDE. Meanwhile, you have Alemeda, who, if promoted correctly, could successfully tap into the alternative pop / rock market popularized by artists like Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo.
Then you have Doechii.
There’s a reason why Top Dawg himself compared her latest project (Alligator Bites Never Heal) to Section.80. There’s a reason why Kendrick Lamar called Doechii “the hardest [rapper] out”. Doechii is a superstar in the making.
![“the hardest [rapper] out”](https://www.vibe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Screen-Shot-2024-10-18-at-9.14.20-AM.png){kind=link}
You don’t have to look further than her interviews, her live performances and music videos to know that she is supremely talented and a person that embodies the five qualities that TDE initially looked for in their artists: (i) charisma / personality / swagger; (ii) substance; (iii) lyrics; (iv) uniqueness; and (v) work ethic.
With twenty years under their belt, Top Dawg Entertainment is the independent record label that could. They defied trends and focused on making quality music that stood the test of time. It is impossible to talk about hip-hop in the 2010s without talking about their contributions to the culture and TDE will, undoubtedly, go down as one of the greatest record labels of all time.
Further Listening
Further Reading
[1] Datwon Thomas, Kendrick Lamar And Anthony ‘Top Dawg’ Tiffith On How They Built Hip-Hop’s Greatest Indie Label, Billboard
[2] Eric Ducker & Brendan Frederick, A Rational Conversation: The Sound Of TDE’s Success, NPR
[3] Jonathan Kermah, Kendrick Lamar Went No. 1 On His Own, What Does That Mean For TDE?, The Ringer
[4] Keith Murphy, Top Dawg: The HITS Interview, HITS Daily Double
[5] Matt Diehl, Enter The House Of Pain, Billboard
[6] Paul Thompson, TDE Played The Long Game, Vulture
[7] William E. Ketchum III, Punch On TDE’s Transformation, SZA’s Growth, And Kendrick Lamar’s Swan Song Future After Kendrick Lamar’s Departure, Mic
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As a long time fan of TDE, this was a joy to read. Thank you for writing it!
Thank you for doing the history work and providing analysis too. Helpful to read and study as an artist and student 🙏🏽