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Memphis Bleek Information
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'Memphis' ('M'aking 'E'asy 'M'oney 'P'imping 'H'oes 'I's 'S'imple) 'Bleek' (born Malik Thuston Cox on June 23 1978) is a New York rapper who regularly came in contact with rap legends such asThe Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z during his childhood and has collaborated with artists such as Beanie Sigel, Ja Rule and Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot among others.
* 'Early Recordings'
Memphis Bleek's first main-stream rap vocals appeared on the Clark Kent produced song "Coming of Age" featured on Jay-Z's classic debut LP Reasonable Doubt. Shortly after, Bleek became the first artist signed to Roc-A-Fella Records.
*'The Albums'
"Coming of Age", ironiclly, was also the title of Memphis' debut LP, which didn't create massive records sales and chart-topping singles as his labelmate and peers' albums had. The same was the case of his second LP, "The Understanding", and third, "M.A.D.E", though the latter spawned his largest amount of sales yet (900,000).
*'The 'Get Low' Label & Beef'
In the time between the releases of his second and third albums, Memphis Bleek started his own label, Get Low, which in turn led to the signing of former Junior MAFIA member Lil' Cease. The name of the label has sparked a hip-hop rivalry, or beef, between Memphis Bleek, JT tha Bigga Figga & The Game (rapper), the former of which built an independent record label with the same title.
Memphis Bleek was also caught in the middle of the epic Jay-Z and Nas battle, in which Bleek gained a few enimies, most notably Nas and Mobb Deep. Despite boosting Jay-Z and Nas's careers, the beef did little to help Bleek gain any more popularity than he had already attained.
*'"534" & the New Album'
On May 17, 2005, Bleek released his fourth album titled "534", in refrence to the building he & mentor Jay-Z grew up in, located in the Marcy housing projects of Brooklyn. However, like many of Bleeks previous releases the album suffered in sales, despite decent exposure of the Swizz Beatz produced single 'Like That'.
In Fall 2005, Memphis Bleek told MTV.com that he is recording an album that should be released in early 2006.
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