Tom Brady liked his track so much that he posted the track on his Instagram.

Photo: Courtesy of the label

If you grew up in the mid-90s to early-00s like me, it was a fun time to be a Hip-Hop fan. Hip-Hop was becoming beautiful, marketable to big businesses, and accepted by wider audiences. The musical genre became more experimental and edgy, drifting away from its harsh-yet-necessary gangster era that gave us groups like NWA. As a community, I think we needed to smile at the club and pop bottles with supermodels to deal with the dire realities of economic disadvantages and racism, and we did it well.

In its early evolution with the prominent rise of what has been referred to as the Hampton Roads music scene came Missy Elliott, Pharrell Williams, Timbaland, The Clipse, The Neptunes, and others, which led to the creation of multiple club bangers like ‘Nothin’ (Remix)’ by Queens-native rapper Noreaga, specifically.

Two months removed from the music video release for ‘Billie Eilish‘, one of Hip-Hop’s oldest major labels, Def Jam Records, announced that it has signed West Philadelphia artist Armani White.

Armani is a dynamic artist who’s bee bubbling underground for a while now and has caught lightning in a bottle with ‘Billie Eilish’, said Balogun. As infectious and urgent as ‘Billie’ is, Armani’s upcoming EP displays an energetic, three-dimensional artist with a unique perspective and an exciting approach to the game. We’re all excited to help him develop, connect with a wider audience, and become the star he’s shown he can be.

In addition to the announcement made by Def Jam’s Chairman & CEO Tunji Balogun, the label plans to release the West Philadelphia rapper’s follow-up ‘Diamond Dallas’ and his debut EP. The music has over a whopping 4.7 million views and counting on YouTube. The record has crossed over 30 million streams in eight weeks and has over 38 billion views on TikTok.

Armani White has been scheduled to perform at Rolling Loud New York on September 23.