Nipsey Hussle Continues Proud 2 Pay Campaign With Atlantic Deal

Nipsey Hussle's all about the money. The rapper has inked a new deal between his All Money In label and Atlantic Records. The partnership was announced on Monday (Nov. 27), closing out his year on a solid note. For Nipsey, who's one of the biggest independent rappers in hip-hop, this was a major development in his career

Now with a major label behind him, his highly anticipated Victory Lap album—which has been teased since 2013—will finally hit stores and streaming platforms in a major way. The timing and the terms of the partnership aligned with Nipsey's vision so it made sense to sign with Atlantic. "For this project, and just for the future projects, I wanted to raise the platform that we deliver our records on," Nispey tells XXL. "I always wanted to operate at the highest altitude, just in terms of hip-hop and the music. But I felt like the way we went about it and the terms that we came to were really important. And if we had to just stay outside of the system a little bit longer to get the terms that we feel we deserve, we was going to do that."

The West Coast MC also stresses that Atlantic's excellent track record working with rappers' labels helped him solidify his choice. He points out Atlantic Records chairman/CEO Craig Kallman and chairman/COO Julie Greenwald specifically as key people in cementing his decision to sign with Atlantic.

One major point is that Nipsey doesn't see this partnership as a short relationship. He says that he's planning on putting out four projects with Atlantic, the first being his debut album, Victory Lap. There isn't a release date for the LP at this time, but hopefully that comes out sometime early next year. He's also planning on releasing projects for All Money In artists for JStone, Cobby Supreme, Cuzzy Capone and Pacman, among others. Nipsey is also gearing up to release a collaborative project with a rising West Coast rapper sometime in the future.

Even though Nipsey has partnered with Atlantic, he still plans on continuing his Proud 2 Pay campaign. Back in 2013, Nipsey Hussle sold 1,000 copies of his Crenshaw project for $100. Jay-Z even bought 100 copies of the project.

"The Proud 2 Pay thing, we're going to keep that up," the 32-year-old rhymer reveals. "It's going to be outside the traditional platforms [but] it be available every where traditional. Proud 2 Pay, that's something that distinguishes me, that's something that defines me and we're going to keep that going. Really more than anything, that's for the fans that support it. We're going to keep doing special things for them, give them products that's only available to them."

Watch Nipsey open up about his new deal below.

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