Known during his late teens and early twenties as Rockie, Rich quickly matured as an artist and released numerous solo and collaborative projects during the early and mid-2010s. Among the releases were Not Quite, the Heights series, King Kong and Godzilla (with Innerstate Ike), and To Make a Long Story Short. Though Rich raised his profile significantly when he toured with Joe Budden in 2015, his career received a greater boost in 2016, when he crossed paths with Birdman at Miami's Hit Factory studio. The Cash Money co-founder was so impressed by what he heard from Rich that he eventually added the rapper to the label's Universal-distributed roster. Rich quickly got to work on his full-length debut for the label. The result, Balance, arrived in August 2017. ~ Andy Kellman