LaFace Records
As with all of her albums, Ciara’s newest record, Basic Instinct, is being released by LaFace Records, part of the Jive Label Group. Her original album, Goodies, was also released by Sho’nuff Records, founded by producer Jazze Pha.LaFace dates back to 1989 when it was formed by the talented production team of Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Babyface (Kenneth Brian Edmonds). The two met when they were performing as part of The Deele, an R&B band from Cincinatti, Ohio. Their label took its name from an amalgamation of their nicknames. Funded by Arista Records founder Clive Davis, LaFace became a hit-making machine for the Urban and Top 40 radio formats. TLC and Toni Braxton were two of the company’s first and biggest stars, but other names also stand out in the label’s roster:
- Current R&B singer Donnell Jones debuted on LaFace with his 1996 album My Heart.
- Outkast has become a big hitmaker for the label ever since their 1994 debut Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.
- P!nk released her first album (2000′s Can’t Take Me Home) on the label before moving to Arista proper for four years. She returned to LaFace with her 2006 album I’m Not Dead.
- Usher released his first three albums (1994′s Usher, 1997′s My Way, 1999′s Live), released 2001′s 8701 on Arista, and returned to LaFace with 2004′s Confessions, and continues to record for the label.
The 2001 switches to Arista are due to LaFace’s dissolution when Reid was appointed Chairman/CEO of Arista. The label was reactivated in 2004 as part of a restructuring of the BMG labels.In the United States, LaFace is now distributed by the RCA/Jive Label Group, which was formed when BMG sold their share in the Sony BMG merger back to Sony in 2008. Sony renamed the BMG Label Group to RCA/Jive Label Group in 2009 and rebranded its Zomba Label Group to Jive Label Group. It sounds confusing (and it is), but after all’s said and done, the music is what really matters.We feel confident that Ciara will stick with LaFace for the foreseeable future, since she’s worked so well with the label in the past. With three classics and one sure-to-be-a-hit already in her catalogue, there’s no point in fixing what’s not broken.