Capitol Music Group is about to get turnt up.
The behemoth label has just announced its plan to re-launch Priority Records, an early force in the rise of West Coast hip-hop. This time around, however, Priority will be “a producer-driven label focusing on electronic and progressive urban music,” according to Billboard. For Capitol’s definition of “progressive urban music,” look no further than the first release on the reincarnated Priority: Baauer and Just Blaze’s speaker-rattling, Jay-Z-sampling trap tune “Higher”. While the pair have been playing it since early this year, it will officially drop on August 13.
Capitol’s new project will not only include Baauer, but the team behind him. The Priority re-launch is a joint venture between the label and Insurgency Music, the management company co-founded by dance veteran Michael Cohen. Insurgency is comprised of United Management, Undocumented Management and Baauer’s Mixed Management; artists under the Insurgency banner include RL Grime, Wolfgang Gartner, Dada Life and Bloc Party.
”[Priority] broke the mold in terms of working outside the system to bring street-level music to the mainstream without any compromise,” Cohen told Billboard. “And the producer—who has always played a strong role in hip-hop—has become the focal point coming out of the global electronic music space. It’s heralded a paradigm shift in the way music is created, discovered and spread.”
