Status Active Founder Fat Joe Country of origin United States of America | Genre Hip hop Founded 2006 | |
Location The Bronx, New York City, New York Distributors Atlantic Records, Loud Records, Big Beat Records | ||
Terror Squad is a hip hop record label founded by Fat Joe in The Bronx (New York). The label had been distributed by Atlantic Records, EMI, and Imperial Records—and now E1 Music (formerly Koch Records).
Contents
History
Fat Joe decided to form Terror Squad after he began to associate himself with Big Pun, which was around 1995. Early on, Fat Joe used the label for mixtape releases until he struck up a distribution deal with Relativity Records in 1993. The deal with Relativity led to the release of Fat Joe's debut album Represent in 1993. The label got plenty of exposure in New York with the release of Joe's hit single "Flow Joe". In 1995, he signed Big Pun, Cuban Link and Triple Seis to the label. In 1995, Terror Squad would release Fat Joe's second album Jealous One's Envy. Soon after Fat Joe would begin his search for a new distributing label.
After seeing the success of the Terror Squad label and Fat Joe being disappointed with the album sales at Relativity, Fat Joe would move the label into the Atlantic Records umbrella. In 1998, Terror Squad debuted as a group on the track "The Hidden Hand" from Fat Joe's album Don Cartagena. In 1998, Big Pun's debut album Capital Punishment was released through Loud Records, and Fat Joe released Don Cartagena, which debuted at number 7 on the Billboard 200 chart. In 1999, Terror Squad released its debut album The Album. The album was somewhat successful and made a legit name for the group and the label. On February 7, 2000, in Crowne Plaza in White Planes, New York, Big Pun died, & his album Yeeeah Baby was released posthumously that year on April 4.
Fat Joe released two more albums, Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E.) in 2001 featuring the hit single "We Thuggin'" with R. Kelly. In 2002, Fat Joe released the modestly performing Loyalty. In 2004, Terror Squad released its second album True Story. In 2005, Fat Joe released All or Nothing.
In September 2006, Fat Joe finalized a distribution deal for Terror Squad through Imperial Records and EMI. "Make It Rain" featuring Lil Wayne was the debut single for Fat Joe's debut with TSE Me Myself & I. The label also released the debut album from DJ Khaled & PRO's Super Produced Listennn... the Album that year on Koch Records. The label followed the success of these two albums into 2007, which led to the second album from DJ Khaled We The Best which featured the hit single "We Takin' Over", which had guest appearances from Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Baby, and Lil Wayne.