IDK Joins Shady & Interscope For All Future Releases

IDK has partnered with Shady Records and Interscope Records for all future releases, confirming his new business connection with Eminem. Interscope announced the arrangement Friday alongside “WELCOME,” his new collaboration with Eminem, produced by J Dilla.

The announcement did not disclose financial terms or the partnership’s duration. In a statement to AllHipHop, IDK traced his connection to the labels back to the records he grew up with.

“When I first started working on this music, I remember looking up at my ceiling and saying ‘thank you’. I was speaking to Dilla because it felt like everything that could have been, in a way, started to clear itself organically. I knew this was an important opportunity and a statement for Hip-Hop itself, IDK said.

“The first rap album I’ve ever owned was 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’. A Shady Records release. The first raps I made it a point to memorize were Eminem raps. I’ve been at it for some time now, so to be at the point in my journey seems surreal. I’m excited for this next chapter in my career,” IDK continued.

In the mini-documentary NO PLAN B, he told Eminem why having support matters after navigating the business himself. “Like this is the first time in my career where I feel like I got a team,” IDK said.

His own catalog stretches back to the Jay IDK era, including 2014’s Sex, Drugs & Homework and the following year’s SubTrap. By 2017, he was recording as IDK on IWasVeryBad, followed by Is He Real in 2019.

Raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland, he built his career through independent projects before partnering with Adult Swim for IWasVeryBad. His Clue label then joined forces with Warner Records for Is He Real?, his major-label debut.

IDK later turned to Kaytranada for the production on 2022’s Simple. The eight-track project brought in Mike Dimes and Denzel Curry as guests.

The exchange puts IDK on the receiving end of the kind of help he has worked to provide other musicians. He and the No Label organization started No Label Academy, a music-business education initiative, in 2020.

Eminem’s history of backing other rappers reaches back to Shady Records, which he founded with Paul Rosenberg in 1999. D12 and Obie Trice were part of that story, while 50 Cent signed with Shady, Aftermath and Interscope in 2002.

The label later brought in Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf, then announced its deal for Westside Gunn and Conway’s solo and joint projects in 2017. Ez Mil joined Shady, Aftermath and Interscope in 2023, another artist Eminem and Dr. Dre signed together.

The five-minute documentary debuted on November 12 on YouTube as a collaborative upload from the two artists.