The Goldmind Inc.
The Goldmind Inc. is an American record label. It was founded by hip-hop legend Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott. It is distributed through Elektra Entertainment Group and more recently Atlantic Records. The Goldmind Inc. is home to Elliott herself, Tweet and Jessica Betts. It specializes in R&B/hip-hop/soul music.
In 1997 Elliott released her debut album Supa Dupa Fly, making it The Goldmind Inc.'s official entrance into the music industry. The album which was produced by Timbaland spawned four hit singles, the Grammy nominated "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", "Sock It 2 Me", "Beep Me 911" and "Hit 'Em Wit Da Hee". The album featured vocals by Nicole Wray, who was to become Elliott's first artist for The Goldmind Inc. other than Elliott herself.
In 1998 Nicole released her debut album Make It Hot, which was backed by the Timbaland produced smash hit single of the same title and two other minor hits "Eyes Better Not Wander" and "Boy You Should Listen". That same year Elliott was asked to Executive Produce, along with Timbaland, Sylvia Rhone and Merlin Bobb, the soundtrack to the film Why Do Fools Fall In Love (starring Helle Berry, Vivica A. Fox, Lela Rochon and Larenz Tate). The soundtrack featured vocals from Gina Thompson, Destiny's Child, Coko, Busta Rhymes, En Vogue, Lil' Mo, Mel B aka Scary Spice, Mint Condition, The Goldmind's Nicole and the newly signed Mocha and Elliott herself. The soundtrack produced four minor hits "Get On The Bus" performed by Destiny's Child and Timbaland, "No Fool No More" performed by En Vogue, "I Want You Back" performed by Mel B and "5 Minutes" performed by Lil' Mo.
In 1999, after signing another three more artists, Gina Thompson (who appeared on the "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" soundtrack), Danja Mowf and Torrey Carter, Elliott released her second album Da Real World which was originally intended to be called "She's A Bitch". The album was widely embraced by Elliott's fans and fans of the Timbaland sound. The album gave Elliott another three hit singles "She's A Bitch", the number one hit single "Hot Boyz" and "All N My Grill" which featured vocals from Nicole. Gina Thompson, who was originally signed to Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records, produced a hit single featuring Elliott "Ya Di Ya". The song was taken from her sophomore album If You Only Knew, but the album was never officially released.
With the turn of the millennium, Elliott's '"Da Real World" was still burning up the charts. That year saw the debut of Elliott's first male artist Torrey Carter (nicknamed T.C.) with the single "Take That" taken from his debut album The Life I Live. His album suffered the same fate as Gina Thompson's album. Mocha, who contributed vocals to Elliott's "Hit 'Em Wit Da Hee (Remix)", Gina Thompson's "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" and Nicole's debut album, most notably the hit "Make It Hot", was believed to have left The Goldmind, Inc. around this time because her debut album Bella Mafia was never released and remained in the shadows. Danja Mowf of the Superfriendz who was originally signed in 1998 after contributing vocals to Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody (Remix)" and then performing an impromptu rap over the phone, asked to leave The Goldmind because of broken promises that he'd make an album. So with four artist's leaving the label, Elliott began working on her third album, but needed someone to perform background vocals so she gave one of her old friends from her Swing Mob days a call. That friend was Charlene "Tweet" Keys, who was at the time time depressed and penniless and was on the edge of committing suicide the every next day if it were not for that call from Elliott. Tweet credits Elliott as her guardian angel.
2001 saw the release of Miss E... So Addictive. The album was a success and produced four hit singles, the Grammy award winning "Get Ur Feak On", "One Minute Man", "Take Away" and "4 My People". 2001 also saw two tragic events in Elliott's life. The first being her mother Patricia Elliott, who plays a major role in The Goldmind, Inc.'s success, who suffered a stroke, she has since fully recovered, and the second being the death of her very good friend Aaliyah, who introduced the hit making duo Elliott and Timbaland to the music industry with her sophomore album One In A Million in 1996. Nicole was also supposed to release her second album Electric Blue that year but was dropped from the label. She has since then signed with Roc-A-Fella Records.
In 2002 Elliott and Timbaland presented Tweet, with her debut album Southern Hummingbird, which was backed by the Timbaland produced number one hit single "Oops (Oh My)". The album also produced two other singles "Call Me" and "Smoking Cigarettes". In late 2002 Elliott released her fourth album Under Construction which went to two Platinums (all of Elliott's previous albums went Platinum). The album spawned two hit singles, the Grammy award winning and the 7x MTV VMA nominated song "Work It" and "Gossip Folks" and the two radio hit single's "Pussycat" and "Back In The Day".
In 2003, Elliott appeared in the film Honey starring alongside Jessica Alba, Mekhi Phiffer, Lil' Romeo and Joy Bryant. Tweet also made a guest appearance in the film. Both Elliott and Tweet appeared on the film's soundtrack. That same year Elliott released her platinum selling fifth album This Is Not A Test!. Although it did go platinum that album wasn't as successful as Elliott's previous efforts. The two singles "Pass That Dutch" and "I'm Really Hot" did not have a huge impact on radio. Elliott also signed Lil' Brianna also known as Kandy Girl (who appears in Elliott's "Pass That Dutch" music video).
2004 did not see any album releases from The Goldmind Inc. This was because Elliott along with The Goldmind Inc. and Tweet were moved from Elektra Entertainment Group to Atlantic Records. In the late of 2004 Tweet joined Cee-Lo Green and Teedra Moses on the Seagram's Gin Live Tour in promotion of her new single produced by Kwame and Elliott "Turn Da Lights Off".
In early 2005, Elliott's new TV programme The Road to Stardom with Missy Elliott premiered. The show followed thirteen would-be musical artists hit the road with Elliott in a competition to be signed to The Goldmind, Inc. Jessica Betts eventually won the competition and walked away with US$100,000 and a chance to cut a single for The Goldmind. She is currently in the studio recording her album. March 2005 saw the release of Tweet's overdue sophomore album It's Me Again, but because of poor promotion the album didn't sell as well as originally intended and flew off the charts within a number of months after it's release. Tweet is also currently in the studio working on her third album. 2005 also saw the release of Elliott's sixth album The Cookbook. This album saw her departure from her main producing partner Timbaland, who contributed only two tracks. Elliott says the reason for this was to give themselves a break as she felt they were experiencing "writer's block". The album has so far produced one hit single, the Grammy nominated and MTV VMA winning "Lose Control" and another single "Teary Eyed". Her current single is "We Run This". This year there has also been rumours that Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas of TLC has signed on to become one of The Goldmind's artist fans that Elliott will be an executive producer. These rumours have not been officially confirmed.
Artists[edit]
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