Nasir “Nas” Jones and Peter Bittenbender created Mass Appeal Records in 2014. The New York City-based label entered into a new deal with The Orchard, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment.
According to reports, The Orchard will provide the Mass Appeal artist roster with distribution, marketing, sync licensing, data analysis, advertising, rights management, radio promotion, and other services.
Many of Nas’s albums – such as 1994’s Illmatic, 1996’s It Was Written, 2001’s Stillmatic, and 2002’s God’s Son – came out via Sony Music’s Columbia Records. The Queens-bred emcee later signed with Def Jam Recordings.
“This is a full-circle moment for me,” said Nas about his partnership with The Orchard. “To come back to Sony Music with my own label is a major milestone.”
The Hip Hop legend added, “We see this multi-phase initiative as an opportunity to continue to push the culture forward, educate, and inspire. It’s what we do it for, I couldn’t be more excited.”
"We see this multi-phase initiative as an opportunity to continue to push the culture forward, educate, and inspire. It’s what we do it for, I couldn’t be more excited.” – Nas
Welcome to the team, @MassAppealRecs 🍊 https://t.co/VJb2LYFSb6
— The Orchard (@orchtweets) May 26, 2021
Since its launch, Mass Appeal Records has released projects like Run The Jewels’ Run The Jewels 2, Pimp C’s Long Live the Pimp, J Dilla’s The Diary, and Dave East’s Survival. Nas’s Nasir, The Lost Tapes 2, and the Grammy-winning King’s Disease are under the company’s umbrella as well.
“Nas, Peter, and the Mass Appeal team have built an invaluable community that supports and cultivates artist creativity,” said Brad Navin, CEO of The Orchard. “As a company and strategic partner, The Orchard will continue to empower and reinforce their creative vision, and help all artists under the partnership expand their global reach.”
The Mass Appeal brand is not only cultivating music. Nas and Mass Appeal COO Sacha Jenkins are curating Showtime’s Hip Hop 50 series which will include digital shorts, unscripted shows, documentaries, and additional programming that will celebrate the 50-year anniversary of Hip Hop culture.
“There are so many more stories. I’m opening up with this, but Hip Hop 50 is a multi-tier initiative, created by Mass Appeal [in partnership with CBS Viacom], and we built this platform to ensure the anniversary of Hip Hop is celebrated in a real iconic way, and that everybody should be involved with this,” explained Nas.
