S. Samuel
Former Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam artist Teairra Mari has ended her stay at Warner Bros. Records and signed on to join ex-labelmate Young Chris at hitmaker Rico Love's Division 1 imprint.
Details of the singer’s power move became public knowledge Monday (August 15).
Teairra Mari fans may finally get that sophomore album they’ve been waiting for. The R&B chanteuse has departed Warner Bros. Records and signed a new deal with Rico Love’s Division1 label. She made the official announcement on set of the video for “That’s All Me,” helmed by Rico. “Teairra Mari is now part of the Division1 family. She is officially signed to Division1. We got the lights on all over the world,” said the music maestro, who’s written hits for Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Diddy. (Rap-Up)
Mari came onto the music scene in 2005 thanks to help from Jay-Z and Def Jam.
Marí released her debut album on the Island Def Jam-distributed Roc-A-Fella, with full support from Roc-A-Fella head Jay-Z, in August 2005. Though it reached number five on the Billboard 200 chart — despite little in the way of promotion — Maríwas subsequently dropped from her label. She was informed the night of her high-school prom. Later picked up by the Warner-affiliated Asylum label, Marí returned to the charts in 2010 with “Sponsor,” featuring Gucci Mane and Soulja Boy Tell Em. (All Music)
Last December, Young Chris reflected on his decision to sign with Love and denied feeling any doubt before inking the deal.
“Nah, actually I wasn’t,” Chris said in an interview when asked if he was hesitant signing a deal with hitmaker Rico Love. “I thought it would be a good marriage from the gate because [of] how creative he is. Us together, like our chemistry, we bonded right away. I was excited about it. I wasn’t hesitant at all — He’s only one year older than me, so, we can hang out together, [go to the] strip club, do whatever we do. The records come out even better when the relationship is like that. That’s the only thing I was hesitant about, I gotta know him first. It was cool. It’s like my brother man. He definitely [taught] me things that he learned on the songwriting side of things or whatever. When it’s time to get melodic on records. He’s real good at that. That’s what he do. Even if you don’t teach it, you just learn. I’m a good learner from observing. I just sit back, watch and observe from the studio.” (You Heard That New)
Earlier this year, Young Chris talked to SOHH about linking up with Love for his L.I.F.E. (Ladies In Free Everywhere) mixtape.
“[Producer] Rico Love always comes up with great ideas and showed me like, “let’s just do this tape and show everybody.” I had already had a lot of records because I cut a lot of songs for females anyway from the whole [2003 Young Gunz single] “No Better Love” standpoint. That’s my little twist. It’s natural though and reflects my lifestyle. Me and Rico started cutting records for the tape, went to the studio, and just kind of stamped them all out. Everybody was really excited about the freestyles because I had originals already that had never been released. So it all made sense to put it all together and picking the best.” (SOHH Guest Star)
Check out Teairra Mari & Rico Love down below:
