Rawkus Records

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Rawkus Records
Founded	1995 (1995)
Founder	Brian Brater Jarret Myer James Murdoch
Status	Inactive
Distributor(s)	Priority Records (1999–2002) MCA Records (2002–2003) Geffen Records (2004) RED Distribution (2006–2007)
Genre	Hip hop
Country of origin	U.S.
Location	New York City

Rawkus Records was an American hip hop record label, owned by James Murdoch, known for starting the careers of many rappers. Rawkus started in 1995 with releases in hip-hop, drum and bass and fun-dustrial (Dystopia One).

Label heads Brian Brater and Jarret Myer then signed some of the top underground talent from the New York area, notably Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Hi-Tek and Company Flow, who went on to define the label's sound. The string of 12" releases and full-length albums that followed helped initiate a resurgence in the New York/East Coast sound. Many of these are considered classics among hip-hop aficionados. During the mid to late 1990s, Rawkus became a dominant label in the underground hip-hop scene, producing a string of gold albums and a platinum album.