Al Kapone

Background

Al Kapone was born Alphonzo Jerome Bailey on November 5, 1975, and is from South Memphis. He began writing lyrics in sixth grade. He first performed as Ska-Face Al Kapone, a name taken from the 1932 film Scarface, and later dropped "Ska-Face" to avoid confusion with the Houston rapper Scarface.

Early Releases

Unlike many Memphis rappers of the early 1990s who worked in the cassette underground, Al Kapone pursued commercial releases from the start. As a teenager he put out "Lyrical Drive-By" (1992, 3 DDD Records), and his debut album Street Knowledge: Chapters 1–12 (1992, Prophet Entertainment/Outlaw Records) charted on Jet magazine's Top 20 albums list. Red Bull Music Academy notes that his first album's masters were stolen and that Street Knowledge had rock influences, and that his sound settled by 1994's Sinista Funk. Other releases include Pure Ghetto Anger (1994, Outlaw), Sinista Funk (1994, Basix Music), Da Resurrection (1995, Brutal Records), What Cha Got? (1997) and Memphis to the Bombed Out Bay (1998), the last two on his Alkatraz Productions. He co-founded several labels, including Outlaw Records, 3 DDD and Alkatraz Productions, and worked often with producer SMK and with Gangsta Pat and Radical T.

Hustle & Flow and Later Work

Goin' All Out came out on E-40's Sick Wid It Records (dated 2002 by Wikipedia and 2003 by the Memphis Flyer). In the 2000s he also released the Memphis Drama compilation series and wrote on E-40's "U and Dat" and Lil Jon's "Snap Yo Fingers."

He wrote "Whoop That Trick" around 2001 for club shows. Director Craig Brewer used it in Hustle & Flow (2005). On the soundtrack (Grand Hustle/Atlantic), Al Kapone is credited as writer and co-producer of "Whoop That Trick," co-producer of "Hustle and Flow (It Ain't Over)," and writer and producer of his own "Get Crunk, Get Buck." He also has a cameo in the film. Starting around the 2011 NBA playoffs, Memphis Grizzlies fans took up "Whoop That Trick" as a chant, and he has performed it at Grizzlies games since. He later released "Memphis Pride" (2012) and "M's Up!" (2014).