Loon has departed his long term recording home of Bad Boy Entertainment and founded an upstart company, Boss Up Entertainment, the Harlem rapper said.
Loon told AllHipHop.com that he felt it was simply time to move on from his present situation and strike out on his own as a business man.
“I want to definitely make sure people understand this: I’m not your angry, frustrated artist that just wants to get out of dodge. It’s not that type of situation,” he said. “The past four years haven’t been in vain, even though I didn’t attain the success that I wanted to out of my solo project. I’m just really ready to start my own team.”
When released, the rapper’s self-titled debut moved only 80,000 copies the first week, despite strong radio airplay with “How You Want That,” which featured Kelis and cameos and writing credits on the hits “I Need a Girl Pt. 1” and “I Need a Girl Pt. 2.”
The rapper said that he ultimately wanted to have more control over his career.
“I didn’t really want to be the nagging artist,” Loon said. “Like constantly pulling on dude’s coat [Sean “P.Diddy” Combs] like, ‘Yo, remember me, remember me?’ Me being a contributor to [Bad Boy’s success], it’s only right that any man in his right mind—any man’s that’s confident and secure with himself—is definitely gonna want to take that same intuition to make themselves rich or put they self on that pedestal.”
In 1998, Loon hooked up with Mase’s Harlem World Collective and recorded their album The Movement.
Loon signed with Arista in 1999 and shortly thereafter his contract was transferred to Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment, where he wrote for Black Rob, Faith Evans and others.
“Without being harsh or nasty…like I’ve said, I’ve been loyal for the past four years. I’ve never jumped in front of the camera, or in front of Puff,” he continued. “I’ve played my position. And it worked out. We all got our shine, we all got our money, and now it’s time to take it to the next level.”
With Boss Up, Loon revealed the he wanted to develop a team of workers and executives to actually follow the example laid out by Combs.
“I’m just excited about that move right now. I learned a lot from him,” Loon said. “I just feel like I’m at a point where I can use those things to benefit me now. This is something I could just harness on my own and make it happen. And then I can broker– at that point– with all the close friends that I have…all the top execs in this business. Then I can save up for the next day and just talk some real business about getting some real money.”
Last February, Loon was charged with attempted murder, after a security guard was stabbed during a release party for Lil Jon & The Eastside Boys’ adult DVD series.
Loon posted $1 million dollars bond and proclaimed his innocence relating to the incident.
The charges were dismissed in September due to a lack of evidence, when the victim nor eyewitnesses could identify who actually stabbed the guard.
