Hittman was signed into Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment label in 1998. He received various guest appearances, rapping on 9 tracks off Dr. Dre's 2001 album, making him the most featured artist. Under Dr. Dre's label, he failed to release his own album, and soon faded into obscurity, and left the label, like other artists at the time such as Rakim.1

In 2000, he released his most popular single, "Last Dayz", featured on the B-side of the Dr. Dre single, "Forgot About Dre". In the music video for "Forgot About Dre", "Last Dayz" got its own one-minute segment at the end.3 After leaving Aftermath, he released his own solo album in 2005, Hittmanic Verses under Sick Bay Records.

Busta was going to make a great album

Rakim never liked the beats Dre gave him lmao and Dre was forcing him to rap about gangsta s*** too

What are we even talking about here? Did he flop as an artist? Sure.
But he never released his debut on the label, so it's no flop release for them. That's all I'm saying.
The list of rappers who left or were dropped before they could release an album is incredibly long. Not even Eve could and she was already established when she signed for the second time.

Off top there were Bishop Lamont, Rakim, Eve, Joe Beast, GAGE, Jon Connor, Slim da Mobster, Shaunta, Brooklyn, Hayes (the guy who killed his gf and himself) and some more

At least he could release his debut. The Big Bang is a personal classic to me. Some of the best production of the 00's.

I think the problem with Rakim werent the beats iirc it was the subject matter that Dre wanted Rakim to deliver. And Jimmy Iovine wanted more hooks or something

Aftermath couldn't do anything with them so yeah they flopped

Except Eve and Rakim they all did

I read Rakim's chapter about Dre from his book.. the negative content Dre wanted him to rap about bothered him for sure but he said he wasn't feeling the beats either

He said they only finished a few songs and Dre also kept him waiting for months while working with other artists

Ultimately Rakim felt proud of himself for not selling out tho

Kinda like how P had Fam-Lay all over clones and on remixes but he never got pushed

Really liked that dude. Rock N Roll

Kendrick and Paak keeping up the Aftermath tradition of being GOATS of their eras

ktt just says whatever fits the narrative atm. same with cole

Cole been getting slandered for years so that’s not new.
It feels like because of one album people didn’t LOVE (Oxnard is good music) Paak isn’t getting the respect he deserves. Ventura was one of the best albums last year. Plus he’s doing very well for an older R&B act with no huge single

Yeah, Dre's beats at the time really weren't Rakims style. I would've loved to hear this tho. This could've been huge for Rakim. I personally never even bothered to listen to his last album. The Master and the 18th Letter were so good tho. I like them more than the Eric. B and Rakim stuff tbh.

And After You die was fire. I listened to it a lot back when it leaked. I always found it interesting that Dre used the same hook on Busta's Legends of the Fall Offs.

how does this make sense? what do u mean by lyrically

Right, pretty sure dre was all over TPAB