Red Cafe

Jermaine Alfred Denny, (born September 19, 1976), known professionally as Red Café, is a Guyanese-American rapper. He formed the short-lived hip hop group Da Franchise in the late 1990s, who signed with the company Violator and saw local success before his departure in 2001. As a solo act, he signed three ineffective recording contracts with Trackmasters Entertainment, an imprint of Arista Records, Mack 10's Hoo-Bangin' Records, an imprint of Capitol Records, and Motown due to label disputes, company fallouts, and creative differences throughout the 2000s. During this time, he amassed a number of underground mixtapes and singles that were met with regional praise. His debut album, The Co-Op (2007) was released independently as a collaborative project with DJ Envy. He signed with Fabolous' Street Family Records by 2007, and gained further recognition for his 2010 single "I'm Ill" (featuring Fabolous). He then signed with Akon's Konvict Muzik and Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records through a triple-joint venture with Interscope Records to release his 2011 commercial single, "Fly Together" (featuring Rick Ross and Ryan Leslie). Intended to lead his major label debut album ShakeDown, the song and its follow-up singles failed to enter mainstream charts and led to the album's cancellation; he quietly parted ways with the labels shortly after.