Thursday, December 2, 2010

Oh So FrXsh Spotlight Featured Artist: Agallah Don Bishop

  
A native of Brooklyn's Brownsville Projects, Agallah started out as a producer, then turned to rhyming and released a major-label single on East West America/Elektra Records in 1995. In 1997, he produced R.A. the Rugged Man's track "Till My Heart Stops" on the Rawkus Records Soundbombing compilation. A collaboration with Mr. Cheeks of the Lost Boyz followed, although the album the single was to appear on, Wrap Your Lips Around This, was never released. Additionally, there were production stints for the likes of EPMD, Das EFX, Onyx, and Group Home. In 2000, Agallah recorded the Sesame Street-themed single "Crookie Monster," which became an underground hit, and featured production by The Alchemist.
   In early 1997, Agallah teamed up with former EPMD member PMD and formed the hip hop group D.B.D. (Death B4 Dishonor). The other members of the group were Ike Eyes, 215 and Deke O'Malley. The group was short-lived but they recorded a demo album which featured artist Guru of Gang Starr, John Forté, Special Ed, and Lil Dap of Group Home. D.B.D. also released a single entitled "Feel This" which was produced by KRS-One's brother Kenny Parker.
   A friendship with Shiest Bub led to the formation of Purple City Entertainment (also known as Purple City Productions) with Un Kasa, which attracted the attention of Dipset capo Jim Jones. Shiest had been doing promotional work for Cam'ron and Juelz Santana. For the new Purple City project, Agallah was christened "the Don Bishop", with Shiest as "the Emperor." Jones' enthusiasm for Ag's track "Gangsta" garnered the producer/MC a slot on the Diplomats Volume 4 mixtape.
Purple City signed to Babygrande Records in late 2004. The following year, the label released a "greatest hits" collection that culled tracks from their mixtapes.
   Agallah's profile as a solo artist has also expanded in the wake of Purple City's rise, with the release of You Already Know (featuring appearances by Dead Prez and Nappy Roots, with production by DJ Premier and Alchemist) on Babygrande coupled with the release of the mixtape Propane Piff on Koch Records.
His song "Risin' to the Top" appeared in the Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto III video game, on the Game FM radio station. Agallah later teamed up with Rockstar Games to record the soundtrack for Midnight Club 2. Agallah's beats are also in the EA Sports basketball game NBA Live 08.
In mid 2007, Agallah stated in a MySpace bulletin that he was no longer signed to Babygrande.

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