This week, the Golden State Warriors took entertainment to the next level. Blending music and sports, the Bay Area basketball team announced a groundbreaking new project – a record label.
Golden State Entertainment makes the Warriors the first and only NBA team with its own record label, and its debut release, “For The Soil,” dropped last week. The album features tracks from some of the Bay Area’s most popular exports, including E-40, Too Short, Saweetie, G-Eazy, Goapele, LaRussell and Larry June.
The album came just in time for the NBA’s All-Star festivities, which were held last weekend in San Francisco. P-Lo, a Filipino-American rapper who produced “For the Soil,” performed during an NBA All-Star tipoff party on February 13. The lifelong Warriors fan has been tapped by the organization before: He rode his convertible as part of the Warriors championship parade in 2022.
About Golden State Entertainment’s debut release
“For The Soil” is a nine-track album which officially made its way onto Spotify on February 12. P-Lo contributed to all nine tracks on the album, and he began work on Golden State Entertainment’s inaugural release last summer. In fact, P-Lo spearheaded the launch of Golden State Entertainment in 2022 – serendipitously, months before the Warriors’ championship victory.
The whole business comes together thanks to David Kelly, the Golden State Warriors’ Chief Legal Officer. Kelly’s impressive resume – which is perfect for the job – includes a law degree and a stint in the music industry as Capital D of the Chicago rap duo All Natural.
The Warriors partnered with EMPIRE, a distribution and publishing company, to release “For the Soil” and its eventual successors. While several NBA teams have partnered with musical artists – from Jay-Z to 2 Chainz to DJ Khaled – over the years, Golden State is the only team with its own designated record label.