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So Loud, and yet quiet as a mouse..

© Steve Juon

As hip-hop fans, we're all familiar with the pattern of records having announced release dates that are pushed back. You go to your favorite national chain or local mom and pop thinking you can pick up the debut solo album by Inspectah Deck -- UH OH! Sorry, it's not available. Check back next week. Next month. And now perhaps, next year?

If your favorite artist is on Loud Records, you may be in for a long wait. Loud ended it's distribution run of over 5 years with RCA and is now said to be negotiating with Sony for a new distribution deal. The reasons for this split are unclear, but for frustrated fans of artists like Mobb Deep, Inspectah Deck, and Tha Alkaholiks, their long wait for new albums will only get longer. In particular, Deck's +long+ anticipated solo album (purported to have originally been recorded and completed long before Raekwon the Chef's first solo several years ago) is now on the back-burner, having already missed at least a half-dozen release dates this year. It is not to Loud's advantage that this extended anticipation has littered the net and the market with dozens of different bootlegs and MP3's of music.

What can we say, other than Loud perhaps now has the most unaptly named label in the history of hip-hop music. Despite a year which started out very strongly with both their label website (www.loud.com) and the artist Funkmaster Flex (www.funkmasterflex.com) both winning "best of" site awards at the Online Hip-Hop Awards in New York City, word from the label has been almost non-existant. Considering that this label has one of the strongest lineups in all of hip-hop, not just commercially but artistically, this is doubly frustrating.

We will keep you updated at Suite101 as the situation develops, and hopefully Loud will be making some bigger noise by the end of the year as their distribution arrangement is worked out.

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