ANTRA RECORDS

Antra Records was a division of Antra Holdings Group, LLC formed in 1997. In its statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Antra Music was to "produce, acquire, license and distribute high-quality recorded music...focus[ing] on urban music including hip-hop, rap and rhythm and blues. On March 13, 1998, A&M Records formed a partnership with Antra Records, a rap record label managed by recording artist Kurupt's (Ricardo Brown) Wall Street Records in Philadelphia, PA. Antra would also have offices in Los Angeles as part of the arrangement.

"A&M was to be responsible for signficant periodic contributions toward the joint venture's operating budget for expenses associated with new recording albums produced by the joint venture's recording artists. The joint venture was to cover significant costs of promotion and production that Antra would otherwise have to bear alone."

Antra signed Young Assassins, Drex, Slop and Slip Capone, however no products from these artists were released through A&M. Antra also planned to work with two other A&M parterships, Ice Cube's Heavyweight Records and Shaquille O'Neal's T.W.Is.M. on Three the Hard Way. The only Antra and A&M recording to be sold was Kuruption!, a double compact disc with one disc each reflecting East and West Coast influences. The edited CD was released on October 20, 1998 and the parental advisory version on December 23, 1998. Kuruption sold over 300,000 copies.

In late 1998, A&M's parent company PolyGram was bought by Universal Music Group. A&M "terminated the joint venture and transferred all of its rights in agreements with Kurupt and Baby S to Antra while retaining exclusive ownership of all rights to recordings made prior to the termination." In terminating the agreement, "Antra transferred to A&M all of its interest in the joint venture's limited liability company; A&M paid Antra $725,000; A&M transferred to Antra all of its rights in the joint venture's agreements with Kurupt and Baby S but retained exclusive ownership of all rights to recordings made prior to the termination; and A&M disclaimed any rights to several artists previously submitted to the joint venture by Antra."

SOURCES:
http://www.antramusic.com (defunct website)  U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Securities Registration   Billboard magazine articles  Antra Records employees