Established West Coast Blues and Hip Hop Label Relocates to Las Vegas

Kent Entertainment Group has moved its center of operations from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Founded in 1947, Kent Records was the earliest West Coast Label producing major artists such as B.B. King and Tina Turner, Jimmy Witherspoon, Etta James, Lowell Folsom, John Lee Hooker and Rudy Ray Moore (“Dolomite”). Together with its Hip Hop label First Kut Organization, Kent has opened offices and a recording studio in a new business park at Smoke Ranch and Decatur.

“It is clear that Vegas is becoming the entertainment capitol of the World”, says Morey Alexander, Kent’s president who started with Kent as their national distributor out of Chicago in 1958. “You are going to see more studios and more recording industry personnel move here from Los Angeles. Las Vegas is new, wide open and exciting. It’s the place everyone wants to be!”

Kent’s latest success is blues artist John Lee Hooker Jr., whose album “Blues With a Vengeance” won the 2004 California Music Award for Outstanding Blues Album, the 2005 W.C. Handy Award for Best New Artist, and was 2005 Grammy Nominee for Best Transitional Blues Album.

While blues will always be a focus for Kent, First Kut has been at the forefront of the Hip Hop explosion and looks forward to a great future.

After considerable success with the L.A. Dream Team, in 1986 Alexander signed Easy E. and a group called N.W.A., which included Dr. Dre and Ice Cube.

“Managing N.W.A., and getting them airplay was not easy…no one would play them on radio,” Alexander laughs…”then I finally got them air play on K-Day and “Straight out of Compton” rocketed to platinum! The rest is history…” Alexander went on to develop some of the biggest names in the early days of rap, including Mellow Man Ace, Kid Frost, Timmy T., Uzi Bros and the Boo-Yaa Tribe.

This momentum will keep rolling at the new Las Vegas Studio, Heavy Weight Productions, where First Kut has an exciting local Hip Hop project in the making, In Slick and the Shock Mob, formerly out of Los Angeles and now based in Vegas Alexander sees an artist whose talent rivals that of all his former protégées combined.

“This kid is talent personified. In all my years, I have yet to come across an artist like Slick, He writes, produces, mixes, arranges and performs.”

When Slick’s new album Elements of the Game hit the streets on August 30, 2005, it put the Las Vegas Hip Hop scene securely on the map and added a fast lane to the music highway between Vegas and the West Coast.

Slick and other top producers such as Will Roc and Black Rhino will be producing and recording the next generation of Blues and Hip Hop artists at Heavyweight Productions, Kent’s new studio facilities in Las Vegas.

RELEASED in 2005:
Elements of the Game: Slick and the Shockmob
Def Con Zero: Canibus & Phoenix Orion
Blues With a Vengeance: John Lee Hooker jr.
Sweet Home Chicago: (Mike Bloomfield, Charlie Musselwhite, Harvey Mandel)

SOME FORTHCOMING RELEASES:

For 2006 First Kut will release:
Return of the Latin Alliance (Mellow Man Ace, Kid Frost, A.L.T., Cisco)
Angry Samoans (Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.)

For 2006 Kent Records will release:
Blues Treasures (Big Joe Turner, Tina Turner, Phil Upchurch)
Jonesen For Money (Deacon Jones, Edie Money, John Lee Hooker, Gregg Allman, Lydia Pense)

For interviews and more information:
Please phone Morey Alexander (702) 290-7076

Kent Entertainment Group, Inc.
1930 Village Center Cir. # 3-611
Las Vegas NV 89134

EMAIL: morey@kentertainment.com

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