Over the last 10+ years, Top Dog Entertainment has proven itself to be not just one of the greatest record labels of the 2010s, but one of the greatest in the history of Rap music. Built around the Black Hippy collective of Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and ScHoolboy Q, TDE made a name for itself with music packed with substantive lyrics and lush instrumentation.

By 2013, artists like Isaiah Rashad and SZA joined the core four, eventually becoming household names in their own right. In the mid to late 10’s, however, TDE’s output began to slow, leading to frustration from fans, and even some of its artists, occasionally.

When TDE’s more recently signed artists like SiR, Lance Skiiiwalker, Ray Vaughn and Reason did not (yet) achieve the same commercial success as their predecessors at the record company, naysayers began to speculate that TDE’s triumphant run was nearing an end. That noise reached a fevered pitch when Kendrick Lamar, Top Dawg’s top star left the company to join his longtime friend and business partner, Dave Free, in launching their pgLang company.

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