[1] Originally receiving national attention for his appearance on Eminem's track, "Bad Meets Evil", which later launched the duo of the same name in 1999, Royce da 5'9" was cornered by Dr. Dre to join his imprint, Aftermath Entertainment, but he refused to fire his manager.

[6] Completed by October,[citation needed] it suffered numerous delays from December 2000 to November 2001, due to internal conflicts with label Columbia Records.

As a result, in December 2001, Royce da 5'9" was dropped from the label and signed with Koch Records (now MNRK Music Group).

[7] In February 2002, the original version of the album was released promotionally outside of the United States without Royce's personal or legal authority.

[citation needed] Ultimately, Royce had to re-recorded a majority of the album, with tracks removed due to Sony owning rights to the content.