In the past year Rudy Acosta has gotten more attention for the construction of his home–an ostentatious castle he’s building in Irving Park that’s outraged many of his neighbors–than for his hip-hop label, the Legion. That may be because the label has been all but silent since early 2005, when it put out a disc by local group Do or Die–Acosta’s first release after signing a distribution pact with Warner Music’s Atlantic imprint. The album underperformed, but now Acosta’s gearing up for the Legion’s rebirth. He has a new major-label partner, a raft of fresh signings, a long list of upcoming releases, and all the confidence you could want in a hip-hop impresario–and then some. “We’re about to shock people with all the things we have coming up,” he says. “Trust me, we’re getting ready to dominate.”
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“We had the Kanye West record, we had 1,300 spins a week, we had it in video rotation, we had magazine ads, strong marketing and promotion,” Acosta says. “[Warner Music Group] saw that there was a label out here that knew what they were doing and were making a strong buzz on the streets. There was an opportunity for them to make money–that’s what they’re in the business of. And the way I do things, and with the quality I demand, there was no way I was gonna do business with anybody but a major. Lyor Cohen [Warner Music Group’s head of recorded music in the U.S.] put the best deal on the table, and I took it.”
Do or Die’s album came out a month later, but despite guest spots by West, R. Kelly, and Twista and assists from top-shelf producers like Scott Storch and DJ Quik, D.O.D. struggled, stalling at 40 on Billboard’s album chart with no hits. Acosta blames the disc’s sluggish sales on the label’s inability to keep the disc on the shelves. “We had a bad problem with [Atlantic] undershipping the record,” he says. “We ended up having six different major retailers in Chicago alone that sold out of DOD’s record the first day, and first-week sales are everything. People are only going to go to one store, maybe two stores if you’re lucky. But they’re not going to go to several different places if they can’t find it. They’ll just buy something else.”
New contract in hand, Acosta has an ambitious 18 months mapped out for the Legion. On September 26 he’ll release Belo’s The Truth–the first-ever solo effort from a Do or Die member–followed in October by Ric Jilla’s Certified. Chopped-and-screwed versions of both discs, remixed by Paul Wall, will follow, with debut albums from Cap-1, Turtle Banxx, and Payroll set for early 2007; another Do or Die album is in the can, but Acosta says it won’t be released until late 2007. (Get That Paper, a collection of unreleased Do or Die tracks, came out on Rap-a-Lot in March.) Acosta says that, all told, the Legion has some 20 titles in the works, starting with a new mix tape in DJ Boogie Boy’s “Gangsta Boogie” series, which hits the streets this week.
