Crooked I

Fun Fact: The name "Crooked I" comes from the malt liquor beverage St. Ides, whose logo has a crooked letter "I" on the label. The "I" also stands for Intriago, an adopted gangster moniker common amongst hip hop MC's like Nas (aka Escobar) and The Notorious B.I.G. (aka Frank White).

Claim to Fame: Before he became his own boss, he was also signed to Virgin Records, and most notably, Death Row Records, where he spent four years working under the infamous Suge Knight.

Dominick Wickliffe, better known by his stage name Crooked I, is an American rapper from Long Beach, California. Crooked I is currently CEO of his own record label, Dynasty Entertainment, and Senior Vice President of Treacherous Records. Before starting his own label, he was also signed to Virgin Records and Death Row Records.



Around the age of seventeen, Crooked I started an independent record company called Muscle Records with professional football players also from Long Beach, Chucky Miller and Leonard Russell. It's not known how many songs were recorded, and the music recorded during this period still remains unreleased to this day. This is when he caught the attention of Noo Trybe/Virgin Records, and landed his first record deal in 1995.

Crooked I originally got his start appearing on compilations released by Big C-Style's record label, 19th Street Records, such as 19th Street LBC Compilation and Straight Outta Cali. He also appeared on the soundtracks to movies such as Ride and Caught Up, where he collaborated with Snoop Doggy Dogg, Tha Eastsidaz, and The Luniz. At the time, Crooked I was still signed under Noo Trybe/Virgin Records, who handled distribution for 19th Street Records. Business was going good, but for unknown reasons, Virgin Records decided to get rid of their urban division, otherwise known as Noo Trybe, and Crooked I was out of a record deal. Daz left Death Row Records to run DPG Records independently, but rather than go with Daz, Crooked was trying to figure out his options.

Crooked I also had talks of signing to Dr. Dre's Aftermath imprint, but Dre wanted to release Chronic 2001 and Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP before releasing Crooked. He also had talks with other major record labels who wanted to sign him, but they too were waiting for Dr. Dre's Chronic 2001 album to be released before they would consider signing another West Coast MC. It was around this time that Crooked I re-negotiated the original deal he had with DPG Records/Death Row Records as a solo artist deal with just Death Row Records.

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