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New Jersey rapper Serius Jones has officially been released from his recording contract with Disturbing Tha Peace/Def Jam records, AllHipHop.com has learned.

The 2005 Fight Klub champion says that while the decision was made around the time of DTP’s renegotiation with Def Jam in March, he only recently received the official clearance to move forward.

Despite the label politics, the rapper is still planning to release his highly anticipated debut Life Is Serius by the end of the year.

“The scenario was built on the fact that I really had a large buzz and a lot of exposure online and throughout the media, exposure that I felt would be capitalized on,” Serius Jones told AllHIpHop.com.

Jones conceded that the initial support and excitement on the part of DTP execs was a determining factor in his signing to the label in late 2006.

“You expect people to pull you into a certain light that they have. [That] is the only reason why I allowed myself to be signed to another rapper essentially,” Serius Jones told AllHipHop.com, referring to DTP label head, Ludacris.

“I thought that they understood how big of a deal Serius Jones was,” the rapper lamented. “But when people are not doing what you think they should, the only option left is just to do it yourself or find another situation. If you can overcome situations like that, it becomes a blessing in disguise because it just makes you understand what a record label is really doing nowadays, which is nothing in terms of building…so it’s like the independent route winds up being the main route for artists these days because it’s these companies, either they don’t know what to do, they don’t wanna do it, or they don’t have the resources to do it the right way.”

Jones has decided to pursue the independent route himself.

He is currently on a promotional tour, prepping for the release of a new mixtape titled Serius Bizness.

The new release, which can be previewed at www.myspace.com/seriusjones, boasts production by Trackmasters and Kwame and appearances by former label mates Shareefa and Bobby Valentino.

The mixtape will serve as the first offering of new music his fans will be hearing since he was originally signed to DTP.

“A lot of the music that y’all have heard online from Serius Jones is three- and four-year-old s**t that other people leaked that they had. When you’re going through legal issues with a company, you can’t release music. Because it does nothing but hurt you. So I really had to kinda starve my audience and my fans by not releasing anything new. But the latest batch of music that I’m gonna put out, you’re gonna hear the difference in quality and my growth as an artist.”