PRIORITY

Priority Records revolutionized rap music and the rap business. The Los Angeles-based label showed the strength of street knowledge by establishing itself as the go-to company for gangster rap and by giving rebel artists and businessmen a home free of censorship and constraint. Priority Records changed the music industry by pioneering distribution deals with artist-run companies, by getting into the soundtrack business, by launching a film division and by making the direct-to-video market a thriving and respectable branch of the film industry.