Suspens Recording (referred to as “SR”) has been in existence since December 1998 when it was started right out of a basement apartment in the Germantown area of Philadelphia by a very young MC/producer with a vision & talent by the name of Suspens along with a young lady by the name of MiiMii who believed in Suspens & felt that with her business mind and personality she could help bring his vision to life. Suspens had already been working with several artists as a producer and mentor so MiiMii jumped right in with the business tactics such as, incorporated the company & so forth, while Suspens got a lawyer to draw up a production contract so SR could sign artists; and just like that everything was legit.
Suspens learned how to produce & a lot about the music business from his mentor Kenny Lee (RIP) whom he help co-found the group 215 Asasinz. This group had a hit song in Philadelphia & the tri-state area by the name of “Guaranteed Hot Shit.” But unfortunately Suspens became very ill & almost past-away before the group could record a whole album; consequently, while he was in the hospital the group broke-up and Kenny Lee moved to Florida.
In 1997 when Suspens recovered he used this opportunity to start his own thing. So once he hooked up with MiiMii things began to move forward and swiftly. MiiMii found an investor and Suspens' lawyer got him a pressing & distribution deal with a new company called FOCUS located in Beverly Hills. SR pressed up some vinyl of himself and all of his artists to promote to the DJs, while FOCUS pressed up the CD singles and placed them in the store nationwide for the consumers. At this time, Suspens had also recorded a full length LP entitled “Payin Dooz” which painfully never reached the shelves. Unfortunately, as fast as all of the positives sprung, the negatives occurred just as fast: their main investor went to jail, Focus went out of business & to-top- it-off some jealous punks robbed Suspens for his music equipment.
Being no stranger to regrouping Suspens purchased a building outside of Philadelphia and bought better equipment. Now with no distribution Suspens and his artist concentrated on doing shows. In 2002, with the help of long time friend Cool DJ Frank SR attracted the attention of an A&R from MCA Records by the name of Ty Cambell. Although he didn't sign Suspens or any of his artist, mainly because Suspens Recording didn't have a substantial sales history due to the fall of FOCUS, he introduced them to Nasty-Nes to assist with them getting some national exposure.
Nasty-Nes took an instant liking to Suspens & MiiMii and began promoting their artist Tha Boy Leed's single “Summer Time” within the college radio circuit both nationally and in Canada. “Summer Time was a huge success and it reached #2 on the college charts by the end of the summer. This promotion contributed with the sales of their complilation CD from “S.R. Allstars which was sold out the trunk, at shows and in Mom & Pop stores on consignment.
Next-up-to-bat was the youngest gangster rapper on SR by the name of Kar-Lethal Brigante'. Kar-Lethal recording two mixtapes back to back which created a tremendous buzz for SR within the Miami region due to the hosting of the projects by DJ Irie of 99Jamz & the Miami Heat. This caught the attention of Suspens' former 215 Asasinz group member Trice who decided to step-in with both financial & directional support. As a result of this, they began making trips to Miami to network, and pleasingly everyone was more than helpful & receptive to the music, unlike in Philadelphia.
Eventually, Suspens & MiiMii got sick of traveling back and forth from Philly to Miami and decided to move the label to South Florida. Meanwhile, Suspens completed his own mixtape “Suspens The Don vs Lil Jon” (North Meets South) hosted by DJ Entice of 99Jamz & the Miami Dophins to create a buzz for himself as an artist and to keep the buzz going for the label. In addition, he completed his album “Frum Da Mussl” which will be released independently on SR.
As of December 2008 SR will have been in existence for 10 years, far from fly-by-night and going nowhere. Throughout this time SR has put out several projects on tape, vinyl & CD that are still in demand and still selling to this day.
