Griselda Records fans seem disappointed by the label’s treatment by its parent imprint Shady Records after Eminem posted a rare update to his social media to promote another artist’s project instead of Westside Gunn’s. While Gunn is three projects deep for 2020, his most recent release Who Made The Sunshine was his first to bear the Shady Records logo after the Buffalo artist and his cohorts signed to Eminem’s label in 2017. However, the project blew by without a peep from Eminem’s social channels, which were only sporadically active throughout the summer and early autumn.
In fact, the only two projects that Eminem did posts about were Big Sean’s Detroit II, which released in early September, and featured a verse from Eminem, and The Alchemist’s The Food Villain. Interestingly, neither is a Shady Records release, although Eminem is close with both Sean and Alchemist — the latter of whom is also Eminem’s tour DJ. One fan took note of the discrepancy and commented that it seemed strange (the fan’s exact words were “lol wtf”), prompting a response from Westside Gunn himself, who posted several laughing and shushing emoji.
While Griselda Records is already used to grinding it out for themselves as an independent label, they’d be within their rights to be disappointed by the lack of support from the larger label. Of course, they’re not the first to find themselves in this situation. Although Shady is associated with one of the biggest acts in hip-hop of the 12 acts that have been part of its roster, only four remain. Meanwhile, former Shady artists such as Bobby Creekwater and Stat Quo left the label without releasing any albums at all, while a number of signees including Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf departed after only one release apiece.
It’s probably not a huge deal in the long run if Gunn is laughing about it. Griselda’s established base stands firm in supporting just about everything the label puts out, while the notoriously social media averse Eminem could have simply slipped up — if he even runs his own account in the first place. The project seems to have done just fine without the additional promo, as Who Made The Sunshine debuted at No. 64 on the Billboard 200 and received plenty of positive reviews. Check out Uproxx’s own review here.