So So Def Recordings

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So So Def Recordings

Parent company	EMI
Founded	1993
Founder(s)	Jermaine Dupri
Distributing label	Virgin Records (US)
Genre(s)	Hiphop, R&B
Country of Origin	US
Website	Official site of So So Def Recordings

So So Def Recordings is a record label, based out of Atlanta, Georgia and owned by Jermaine Dupri, specializing in Southern hip hop, R&B, and bass music.

The label was established in 1993 as a joint venture with Columbia Records; its first act was female R&B group Xscape, who's first album, released in the fall of 1993, had singles which hit the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Later that year, Dupri found a local DJ in an Atlanta club who had extraordinary talent. His name was Lil' Jon, and he would go on to work for So So Def until the year 2000. In 1994, the label produced another star, Da Brat who immediately became the first female rapper to ever go platinum. Xscape member Kandi Burruss introduced a group called Jagged Edge, to Jermaine Dupri. Dupri had the group sing backup on Usher's Nice & Slow, a single from the 6x platinum My Way, which Dupri was executive producing. Jagged Edge released their first album in 1998, A Jagged Era. In 2000, Lil' Bow Wow released his first album for the label which achieved double platinum status. Future acts for the label included Manish Man Dem Franchise Boyz, T Waters, SunN.Y., The Ghost Town DJs, INOJ, The Kid Slim, Young Capone, 3LW J-Kwon Lathun Trina Broussard R.O.C., Short Dawg and Anthony Hamilton.

In 2000, Clive Davis, founder of Arista, got into disputes with BMG, the parent label of Arista. He left the label and was replaced by LaFace Records CEO and founder, L.A. Reid. Arista fully purhchased LaFace and temporarily dissolved it, moving most of its acts' contracts to the Arista label. Meanwhile Davis founded J Records, which was still distributed by BMG. The label signed acts such as Alicia Keys, Maroon 5, and in 2001, Monica who followed Davis from Arista. Both Monica and Alicia Keys had tracks produced at So So Def. In 2002, BMG used the RCA Records Group to purchase the J Records Label and appointed Davis to head of the RCA Records Group.

In 2002, Bad Boy Entertainment's deal with Arista/BMG ended, and So So Def's deal with Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment ended. Bad Boy Entertainment signed with the Universal Music Group, and in 2003, Dupri was appointed president of Arista Black Music and moved So So Def from Columbia Records to Arista. Bow Wow and Jagged Edge were forced to stay at Columbia because their contracts were with Columbia Records through So So Def, but the other acts transferred to Arista with Dupri. In 2004, L.A. Reid, then head of Arista, called on So So Def's production team for Usher's 2004 album, Confessions, which eventually sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. "You Make Me Wanna", "Nice & Slow," "My Way", "Burn," "U Got it Bad," "Confessions," "My Boo" and numerous others are among the tracks produced from the So So Def Studios.

In 2003, BMG added Arista to the RCA Records Group, which already consisted of RCA Records & J Records, and was headed by Arista Records founder, Clive Davis. In 2004, Arista's parent company BMG, merged with (ironically) the parent company of Columbia Records, Sony Music Entertainment. Clive Davis was promoted to Chairman and CEO of BMG North America. Arista (which had acquired ownership of LaFace Records in 1999) was merged with the Zomba Recording Group. Clive Davis was now a CEO of a parent company which owned two record labels which he founded. In 2005 J Records was merged into Arista Records. Due to the merger, L.A. Reid was terminated at Arista despite the fact that artists such as Usher, Outkast (who's 2003 double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below would eventually go more than 11x platinum) and other acts were enjoying phenomenal success.

Reid was later named head of the Island Def Jam Music Group, a division of the Universal Music Group. In 2004, The Island Def Jam Music Group bought Roc-A-Fella and named Jay-Z the head of Def Jam. For awhile Bad Boy had a joint venture with Def Jam, but it was later purchased by the Warner Music Group,

When the SonyBMG merger occurred, So So Def left Arista for EMI Music's Virgin Records. Dupri was appointed Executive Vice President of Urban Music at Virgin Records and So So Def moved again, this time over to Virgin and EMI losing acts such as Bone Crusher and the YoungBloodZ. Dupri has retained artists such as J-Kwon and Anthony Hamilton despite the fact that they are still signed to LaFace/Zomba.

By the time So So Def arrived at the EMI label, Virgin Records had already bought out Mariah Carey's contract. However L.A. Reid made sure that Mariah see as much of her former Columbia Records labelmate as possible so that as much of the production as possible was done through So So Def. The result, earned Mariah the nickname "the Comeback Queen" with the best selling album of 2005, The Emancipation of Mimi.

after days of Rumors , So So Def has left Virgin Records , possible Labels who would Distribute So So Def are : Def Jam/Island Def Jam , Atlantic Records ^{[citation needed]}