8Ball & MJG are headed to their third record label. T.I. announced the veteran group was signing with his Grand Hustle label during his Hot 107.9 Birthday Bash on Saturday. While 8Ball & MJG have always enjoyed critical acclaim, the group only saw moderate commercial success after leaving Suave House for Bad Boy in 2004. Their Bad Boy debut, Living Legends spawned the single “You Don’t Want Drama,” which eventually reached number 22 on Billboard Magazine’s list of Hot Rap Tracks. Ridin High followed in 2007 to little fanfare, and talks of the duo leaving Bad Boy began. In addition to their own independent works, the group also had a greatest hits album released through Koch.
Working with T.I. should be familiar territory for 8Ball & MJG, as they have collaborated on Living Legends’ “Look at the Grillz” and “Bezzle” off of T.I.’s Urban Legend album. Both Bad Boy and Grand Hustle are subsidiaries of the Warner Music Group.
In other T.I. related news, “Tip” may be fighting a war on both fronts. During the same birthday bash which he announced his signing of 8Ball & MJG, “The King of the South” continued his feud with D4L’s Shawty Lo. The argument over Shawty Lo’s claims that he is the “Real King of Bankhead” was kept to performance theatrics with Ludacris, DG Yola and Dem Franchize Boyz performing during Lo’s set, while 8Ball, MJG and B.O.B. performed with T.I.
Always one to embrace beef for promotional purposes, 50 Cent has now recruited Shawty Lo to assist on the remix of “On You So Tough.” The original version finds 50 taking aim at T.I. saying: “Nowadays this rap shit ain’t adding up/How niggas get caught with 10 machine guns, only get 12 months?”
HipHopDx
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