I received my copy of Gorilla Zoe's "King Kong" today (the Best Buy exclusive edition) and can now confirm that the album was not released by Bad Boy Records.

Bad Boy is not mentioned anywhere in the album booklet or on the front of back covers. The album was released by E1 Music, Atlantic Records and Block Entertainment.

Back in August of 2010, a flier promoting Gorilla Zoe's "King Kong album that included the E1 Music logo - but no Bad Boy logo. However, for that article, Block Entertainment CEO Russell "Block" Spencer confirmed for me that Zoe was still signed to Bad Boy. Shortly thereafter, it was confirmed that he had signed to E1. His status with Bad Boy was, at that time, unknown.

Fast forward to April 2011, when HipHopDX's Jake Paine reported that he was no longer signed to Bad Boy. But, in May, Zoe told MTV's Rob Markman that he was still signed to Bad Boy.


Even so, I had sources in and around the label telling me that he was no longer signed, even if no one wanted to officially go on record publicly. Bad Boy itself has not promoted "King Kong" in any way, shape or form, further adding fuel to that fire. Even so, I wanted to wait to receive the album because that would make it clear and it has.

Gorilla Zoe's time with Bad Boy is marked with success - his first album, "Welcome to the Zoo" reached #18 on the Billboard 200 while his sophomore effort, "Don't Feed Da Animals," peaked at #8. He has 3 legitimate hit singles in "Hood Figga," "Echo" and "Lost," which peaked at #38, #57 and #71 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.

This will conclude our coverage of Gorilla Zoe. He's been interesting to cover and I've always appreciated his humility and general humble nature in interviews and elsewhere. We wish him the best of luck.