atlantic

Gucci Mane’s fall: Do record labels enable self-destructive rappers?

As Gucci Mane’s career has become less noteworthy, it looks as though his label doesn’t consider him worth the trouble any longer. He was arrested five times and sentenced to jail time four times from 2008 to 2011, when he was at his commercial peak. Yet he continued to land lucrative deals for himself and his 1017 Brick Squad imprint.

Atlantic’s Kawan Prather on T.I., losing Yelawolf and learning the industry

Kawan “K.P.” Prather has two decades of music industry experience under his belt, and he’s witnessed stars come and go; as well as having seen technology completely revise the way the industry works. But as Head of Urban A&R (East Coast) at Atlantic Records, K.P. acknowledges that while many things have changed over the years—a lot of his approach remains rooted in the same principles on which he’s built his career.