One of the originators of the Memphis underground rap explosion and a pioneer of the Dirty South Crunk/Buck style of Hip-Hop popularized by Atlanta artists such as Lil Jon, Al Kapone has blazed into the rap scene with an impressive do-it-yourself attitude.

His fully motivated style landed him a writing/producing job for John Singleton’s “Hustle and Flow”. The soundtrack for the critically acclaimed Paramount/MTV Films movie has nearly 500,000 copies. Kapone’s credits included writing/producing “Whoop That Trick”, “It Ain’t Over (Hustle & Flow)”, and “Get Crunk, Get Buck”. “It Ain’t Over (Hustle & Flow Theme)” also won Kapone the 2006 Critic’s Choice Award.

Building on the momentum of “Hustle & Flow”, Kapone co-wrote two Summer ’06 hit songs for ‘Lil Jon and E-40. “Snap Yo Fingers” was a huge summer hit for ‘Lil Jon and the second single from E-40’s album Ghetto Report Card, “U & Dat” drove to the album GOLD.

This continued success scored Kapone a deal with Virginia-based Red Light Management (Dave Matthews Band, O.A.R., Robert Randolph, North Mississippi Allstars). From there Kapone secured legal representation with Jennifer Justice (Jay-Z, Outkast, Lyfe) to help capitalize on his writing successes. Justice introduced Kapone to urban publishing legend Big Jon Platt (Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kanye West, Usher, Pharell Williams, Snoop Dogg), Executive VP for EMI Music Publishing who signed Kapone to a publishing deal in November 2006.

Moving forward, Kapone will focus on his writing career with EMI and will continue to develop new music and his live show. Recent recording projects have brought Kapone back to the roots of Memphis music. His vision includes a new sound that incorporates the full history of Memphis (Elvis, BB King, Al Green, Isaac Hayes, RL Burnside) with the Crunk energy of the Memphis rap scene (Three-6 Mafia, 8Ball & MJG, Yo Gotti, Project Pat). Expect a new album incorporating this vision later in 2007.