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| Grapetree Records | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1993 |
| Founder | Knolly Williams |
| Defunct | 2003 |
| Distributor(s) | Diamante Music Group |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Location | Austin, Texas |
Grapetree Records was a record label founded by Knolly Williams. It was active from the early 1990s to the early 2000s. [1]
In 1988, Knolly Williams was anxious enough to avoid the temptations inside Los Angeles to spend a summer in Austin, Texas working for his uncle. Although he had given up his dreams of rap stardom as part of his commitment to Christianity, he allowed himself to write verses he deemed "poetry" but suspiciously resembled lyrics.
According to Williams, the path toward founding a Christian rap label followed God's giving him the name "Grapetree." Biblically speaking, Williams says the name represents a combination of people that were about to be destroyed (grapes) and the fully restored state of man in Christ (trees).
After getting his GED, starting college, and working a series of Austin-area graphic design and retail management jobs, Williams decided to launch Grapetree in 1993 with his first release as Rubadub, Reflections of an Ex-Criminal. His second release, Mind of a Gangsta, wound up setting the tone for the upstart company.
By then, Williams had signed a distribution deal with Diamante Music Group, a mid-size distributor that handled retail accounts for more than 40 Christian indies. Three years later, Grapetree stood as the coalition's bestselling label, with each Grapetree release averaging 10,000-25,000 units. At that point, Grapetree was releasing as many as 30 albums a year. To Williams' surprise, finding the label's talent wasn't difficult. Grapetree artists routinely found other MCs disenfranchised by street life on the road and turned them on to Williams. By 1995, Williams brought his wife onboard full-time and quickly began amassing a staff.
In 1999, Grapetree signed a lucrative distribution deal with EMI, the parent company of Capital Records.
Grapetree was featured on ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, Newsweek and in over 300 newspapers worldwide. The company grew to become the largest independent label in Central Texas and the world leader for the genre, with over one million CD units sold. However, by 2001, the music industry had suffered a severe blow with the onset of digital downloading. And, like the high-tech industry, sales came to an almost stand-still. After 12 profitable years, the bottom fell out of the business when the music industry switched to "digital". The situation worsened quickly, and before long, Williams was facing default and possible foreclosure. Fortunately, he and his wife Josie had built enough equity in their home to be able to sell, without having to bring money to the table. The experience of nearly losing their home, however, left Williams reeling—and gave him a perspective that he would carry with him into a new career in real estate.
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