After dropping his major-label debut with the Interscope imprint just last month, Westside Gunn is already parting ways with Shady Records.
The rapper announced his departure from the label on today’s episode of The Joe Biden Podcast. “I’m off Shady. I’m actually a free agent,” the rapper told the show’s host (who has his own history with the label.) And moments after the episode went live, Gunn committed the resignation to page. “I WANT TO THANK the SHADY staff for believing in me early S/O to [Mikael Herard] it was a journey & a great learning experience and to Big [Paul Rosenberg] he’s a man of his word,” Gunn wrote on Twitter (see below.)
Westside Gunn initially signed with Shady Records in 2017, releasing a run of mixtapes that solidified his position in rap’s underground and Griselda as an immutable force. He released his debut proper with the imprint, WHO MADE THE SUNSHINE? in October, featuring Black Thought, Jadakiss, Slick Rick, and Busta Rhymes, as well as his Griselda comrades, Benny The Butcher, Conway The Machine, and Armani Caesar. And while it seems like an unexpectedly early split, fans sniffed out some tension late last month when Gunn appeared to laugh off some criticism of Eminem in a comment section after the Shady Records founder posted in support of Alchemist’s new album, The Food Villain, but not Gunn’s debut with the label.
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