Record Label Research

Young Money

Young Money Entertainment was founded by Little Wayne (who is also a member of young money) in 2003, the distributing label of Young Mula is universal in addition, they are also a imprint of Cash Money records. Mack Maine is now the president of Young money, who recently took over from Cortez Bryant in 2009. Young money have signed big names such as, Lil Wayne, Drake, Tiga and Nikki Minaj

Young money racked up £147,000 in their 1st week of sales, and soon after their success they were estimated to of been worth £42 million by just their ticket sales.

Def Jam Records

Def Jam is a American record label founded by and owned by Universal music group, as well as operates as a part of the island def jam music group.
It was founded by Rick Rubin in the early 1980's, ever the years def jam grew and by 1988 Lynor cohen became president of the record company.
Def Jam records have signed big names such as, LL cool j, fabulous and Jay Z

Def jam records, being owned by Warner Bro's Ent, and Def jam eventually grew into 6 different types of records labels under warner bro however all apart of Def Jam, and brought in almost £700 million a year

G Unit Records

G Unit Entertainment was established in 2003 by the american rapper 50 cent and his manager Sha Money. Thanks to 50 cents success, his record label grew and consisted of him, Lloyd banks, Tony Yayo and young buck. To this date the company have been signing new people, and recently they announced they wish to sign new comedians and authors to the record label. In the near future, G Unit hope to be 1 of the big names in the record label industry, and will keep making music and strive to success till then.

in 2003 after their 1st week of release, they sold 377,000 in their 1st week, & it has now sold 2.7 million copies in the US and 6 million worldwide.

CD Cover Analysis

CD Cover 1:
Chris Brown - Exclusive

The picture itself is of Chris Brown wearing a shirt and tie while holding his jacket over his shoulder. This costume choice was done to show his matuirty and how he has grown over the years as a singer. In addition, it gives the album a sense of 'exckusiveness' hense the album's name exclusive, as a suit symbolises power, authoirty and status.
Behind the singer, there are sky scrappers and tall buildings, which look aged in addition to the floor he's standing on which shows, he's a important person in this ageing world.

The singer is also looking over his shoulder towards the city, he has done this as it shows he's watching his back, looking out for himself as he's 'exclusive' however not in a arrogant way, as he's wearing modest colours, nothing attention seeking.

His facial expressions show that he s not at ease, and he maybe looking out for something, or he's noticed something which has caught his attention, and by not looking at the audience its gives the impressions he's not addressing them, as the album is 'exclusve'

Finally, the font is quite sharp, tidy however has a urban look to it, and furthermore the O in Brown has a dot in it, making it look like a eye is watching/looking at you, in adition the X in Exclusive is in a bigger font then the rest of the letter in the word, making it stick out compared to the other letters, which empathises the exclusiveness of the album.

CD Cover 2:
Lil Wayne - The Carter III

The picture on this album is of a little boy around 2 or 3 years old looking very innocent and confused. This has been done as the album has songs which are about his past and childhood, so this album cover is letting the buyer know this album is more about the boy who is LIL wayne rather then the raper they all know.

The little boy is wearing a suit forshadowing, its still little wayne however in a innocent child, in addition, the same tatoo's lil wayne has, have been superimposed onto the little boy, hinting to the buyer once again the little boy is little wayne.

The background in a plain black wall, the blackness is to portray emptyness, this album is just pure little wayne and himself, you wont get nothing more or less then him. In addition, its used to show lil wayne's childhood, that he had a very lonely childhood and had to cope by himself for a lot of it.

CD Cover 2:
Ludacris - Thearter of the mind

The picture of the album is of a small audience spread out in a thearter, watching something beyond the CD cover, hense the album name, Thearter Of The Mind
At closer inspection you can realised its full of the artists however in different clothing pulling the facial expressions, however every character is pulling a diferent facial expression and is wearing different clothing. This is becuase is to symbolise this album is full of the artist 'ludacris' however, its of him in many forms, each song if a diferent part of ludacris being evoked by the song.

However, the character which is at the front and sticks out the most is the smart and intellegent version, portraying this album is different to all past albums as they consisteed of a more urban CD cover, so untimately portraying this album has parts from all of ludacris, but this 'new' ludacris is a fresh new change.

Finally, as the CD cover is set in a thearter and the album name is Thearter of the mind, it portrays the album to be more sophisticated them before, as a thearter symbolised the amazing, inspirational and exciting.