Swishahouse

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Swishahouse
Parent company Swishahouse
Founded 1998
Founder Michael 5000 Watts
Distributing label L15 Records
Genre Rap
Country of origin United States
Location Houston, TX

Swishahouse is a Houston, Texas based independent, southern rap record label. Its name was coined by former member Lil' Mario. The name derives from Swisher Sweets. Acres Homes/Homestead/Northside is where many of the current/former artists hail.

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[edit] History

With the help of OG Ron C& Slim Thug, Swishahouse started in the late 1990s in North Houston as a response to the popularity of screwed and chopped music from Houston's south side. Hip-hop fans on the north side wanted to hear their local artists on slowed-down releases. Before he came along, many from North Houston longed for their own sound they could listen to, which at the time, they didn't. Anyone from North Houston was looked down upon if they were listening to music from DJ Screw or South Houston, hence, how Swishahouse slowly began to take form. Due to the infamous Northside/Southside Houston beef, many Northside fans of screw music couldn't listen to Screwed & Chopped. Swishahouse began distributing popular mixtape series such as The Day Hell Broke Loose and Fuck Action (which featured screwed and chopped versions of R&B songs). The huge independent sales of their mixtapes led them to create the motto "Major Without a Major Deal".

Thanks to the success of "Still Tippin'" (a song that was originally featured on The Day Hell Broke Loose 2 in 2003), Swishahouse was able to sign a deal with Asylum Records to gain national distribution. In addition to screwing and chopping Swishahouse's releases, Michael Watts has been commissioned to screw and chop several rap albums such as the Lil Jon's Crunk Juice, Juvenile's "Juve The Great", Dem Franchize Boyz's On Top of Our Game, and Lil Wayne's Tha Carter & Tha Carter II and more.

Watts has been heavily criticized in the past by some Houston rappers for not acknowledging the talent of DJ Screw, even to the point of admitting that he did not like the screwed and chopped style until he himself was convinced to start doing so.

Mike Jones became the first artist to release a major label album with Who Is Mike Jones?, which was released in April 2005 and went on to sell over a million copies. Jones is planning a follow up album, tentatively titled The American Dream, which is slated for release on July 10, 2007. Paul Wall's major label debut, The People's Champ, landed at the top of the Billboard charts at the time of its August release.

During late 2005, Mike Jones left Swishahouse, allegedly after a dispute over money with owner Michael Watts. Jones fired his Swishahouse manager T. Farris and is now managed by Rap-A-Lot Records. However, contracts dictate that Jones still owes albums to Swishahouse, and recently Jones got back on good terms with Swishahouse to distribute albums produced by Jones' Ice Age Entertainment.

Swishahouse finally released it's long anticipated compilation album The Day Hell Broke Loose 3 on October 17th, 2006. It is sold in stores in two different formats: The normal version, which has a red cover, and the Swishahouse Remix (Screwed & Chopped), which has an icy blue cover.



[edit] Current Artists

[edit] Former Artists

[edit] Swishahouse links

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