Rockland Records
failed vanity label conceived by R. Kelly
Rockland Records is an American record label founded by singer, songwriter and record producer R. Kelly in 1997. It was launched as an imprint of Interscope Records, a division of Universal Music Group. The label signed Chicago-based musical acts including singer Sparkle, hip hop duo Boo & Gotti, and rapper Strings, among others.
The label released just three albums before folding in 2002, following controversy surrounding Kelly's alleged pedophilia, including a sex tape scandal. As of 2025, with Kelly incarcerated in federal prison for multiple sex crimes, Rockland remains defunct with its rights under the control of Interscope Geffen A&M Records.
History
Following the success of his chart-topping single, "I Believe I Can Fly", singer-songwriter R. Kelly founded Rockland Records in 1997, in a distribution deal with Interscope Records, a part of Universal Music Group. The deal was in agreement with Interscope co-founder Jimmy Iovine.
Its artists included singer Sparkle, rap duos Boo & Gotti, Vegas Cats, and R&B boy band Talent, among others. Sparkle was the first and only artist to release an album on the label; her self-titled debut was released in the summer of 1998. Despite various conflicts between Sparkle and the label, her debut album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in December 2000.
“Rockland Records” enters the record as failed vanity label conceived by R. Kelly. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Rockland, Records and failed can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7355459. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1997, 2002, 2025 and 1998.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rockland Records” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.