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Lance Rivera

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Lance Rivera
Born
Lance Rivera

Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.[1]
Other namesUn
Occupations
  • Film director
  • film producer
  • screenwriter
  • record producer
  • record executive
Years active1994–2014
Musical career
Labels
  • Untertainment
  • Undeas

Lance "Un" Rivera is an American film director, film producer, screenwriter, record producer, and music executive.[2]

Career

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Lance Rivera began his musical career when he met neighborhood rapper Christopher Wallace, who performed under the name Biggie Smalls. After hearing him perform, Rivera offered to finance his musical career.[2]

Undeas Recordings and Untertainment

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In 1994, Rivera and his business partner, The Notorious B.I.G. founded Undeas Recordings. Rivera received a cash advance of US$200,000 from Atlantic Records to launch the label. An eighth of the budget was allocated towards the debut studio album of Junior M.A.F.I.A., which was formed the year prior.[3][4][5] Junior M.A.F.I.A. released their only album under Undeas/Atlantic, Conspiracy in 1995.[6] The album received gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America in less than a month and spawned two singles: "Player's Anthem" and "Get Money"; both of which gained way for the breakout solo career of its core member, Lil' Kim. The following year, on November 12, 1996, Undeas released Kim's debut solo album Hard Core, which included the singles, "No Time", "Crush on You" and "Not Tonight". Both became Billboard Hot 100 top ten hits and helped the album peak at number 11 on the Billboard 200.

In 1997, [2][7] Rivera launched his successor label, Untertainment Records.[8] The label's roster included Harlem rapper Cam'ron, Philadelphia rappers Dutch and Spade of Major Figgas, and Charli Baltimore; Cam'ron and Charli Baltimore were signed through Epic Records while Dutch and Spade were signed to Interscope Records. The label's first release was the soundtrack to the 1998 comedy film, Woo. Only Cam'ron released two albums under the label: 1998's Confessions of Fire and 2000's S.D.E.. In July 1999, Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil' Cease released a solo album under Undeas, The Wonderful World of Cease A Leo. Fellow Junior M.A.F.I.A. affiliate Lil' Kim released her second album, The Notorious K.I.M. (2000) the following year in June—also under Undeas. Despite the album being her final album released under Undeas and receiving platinum certification in less than two months,[9] Rivera was in no way involved in the project. After losing Untertainment artist Charli Baltimore, Rivera attempted a comeback in the music business with the release of Major Figgas' Dutch and Spade's collaborative single, "If You Want It".[10] However, after the single failed to chart, and the duo's For My Family album, originally planned for a November 2001 release, was shelved.[citation needed]

Movie career

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Rivera transitioned from music to working in film. He teamed up with Queen Latifah and her Flavor Unit partner, Shakim Compere, to establish Crossover Media, a marketing advertising company. He went on to make his feature film directorial debut with The Cookout (2004), starring Queen Latifah, as well as Tim Meadows, Ja Rule, Eve, Jenifer Lewis, Danny Glover and Storm P in an all-star cast. The film opened on 1,303 screens, and opened at number eight in the box office with a gross of $5,000,900. After seven weeks, it ended with a domestic gross of $11,814,019 and made $195,051 from foreign countries, for a total of $12,009,070 worldwide.[11]

His second film, The Perfect Holiday, released in November 2007 and also starring Queen Latifah (alongside Morris Chestnut, Charlie Murphy, and Gabrielle Union)[12] opened at number six with $2.2 million; The film grossed $5.8 million domestically.[13]

In early 2014, Rivera reunited with Cam'ron (who co-wrote the screenplay) for the production of the direct-to-media film, Percentage, which also co-starred Omar Gooding.[14]

Personal life

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1999 stabbing incident

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On December 2, 1999, Rivera was stabbed by hip-hop entrepreneur Jay-Z at the release party for Q-Tip's album Amplified at the now-closed Kit Kat Club in Times Square.[15][16] The incident arose over the alleged bootlegging of Jay-Z's album Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter before its release on December 28.[17][18] In October 2001, Jay-Z pleaded guilty to a third-degree assault charge[19] and was sentenced to three years probation.[20]

In an early 2023 interview with DJ Vlad, Rivera claimed that Jay-Z falsely took responsibility for the stabbing, clarifying that the rapper did not commit the crime towards him.[21][22]

Filmography

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Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes
2004 The Cookout Yes No No Directorial debut
2007 Life Support No No Yes
The Perfect Holiday Yes Yes No
2008 The Angie Martinez Show No No Yes
2009 Broke & Famous No No Yes
2010 Charlie Murphy: I Will Not Apologize Yes No No
2011 The Cookout 2 Yes No No
2012 Katt Williams: Kattpacalypse No No Yes
2014 Percentage No No Yes

References

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  1. ^ "Lance Rivera biography". Tribute.ca. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  2. ^ a b c Jee, Tiarra (1998-08-06). "Un-derstanding Lance Rivera". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  3. ^ "Un-Easy Relationship : A Hot Young Rap Producer Says He's Being Dissed by Atlantic". Los Angeles Times. May 14, 1997.
  4. ^ "Lance 'Un' Rivera: The Return". 3 September 2004. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  5. ^ "Maybe B.i.g. Wasn't So Notorious After All". Archived from the original on December 27, 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  6. ^ Allah, Sha Be (2020-08-29). "The Source |Today in Hip Hop History: Junior Mafia's Debut Album 'Conspiracy Theory' Turns 25 Years Old!". The Source. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  7. ^ "Un-Easy Relationship : A Hot Young Rap Producer Says He's Being Dissed by Atlantic". Los Angeles Times. 1997-05-14. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  8. ^ "Rap Entrepreneur Un Joins Epic in Multimillion-Dollar Record Deal". Los Angeles Times. 1997-06-27. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  9. ^ "Gold & Platinum". RIAA. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  10. ^ Reid, Shaheem. "Lance 'Un' Rivera Quietly Begins Releasing Music Again". MTV News. Archived from the original on March 3, 2015. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  11. ^ "Box Office- The Cookout". Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  12. ^ "The Perfect Holiday Variety". 7 December 2007. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  13. ^ "Box Office- The Perfect Holiday". Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  14. ^ Merkin, Alex (2014-04-24), Percentage (Action, Crime, Drama), Electric Republic, Flavor Unit Entertainment, retrieved 2022-02-05
  15. ^ "Rapper Jay-Z admits to stabbing". 18 October 2001. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  16. ^ Ech, Joey (6 December 2018). "Jay-Z Sentenced To Three Years' Probation - Today in Hip-Hop". XXL Mag. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  17. ^ "Top 10 Richest African Americans – 2018 List". The Gazette Review. 27 February 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  18. ^ Forero, Juan (3 December 1999). "Police Arrest Hip-Hop Star In a Stabbing At a Nightclub". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  19. ^ "Rapper Jay-Z Pleads Guilty to Assault, Gets Three Years Probation".
  20. ^ "Jay-Z Gets 3 Years Probation in Stabbing Case". Billboard. 17 October 2001.
  21. ^ "Lance "Un" Rivera says JAY-Z did not stab him during 1999 incident". The FADER. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  22. ^ Brown, Preezy (2023-05-22). "Lance "Un" Rivera Confirms Jay-Z Didn't Stab Him During 1999 Club Incident". VIBE.com. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
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