Black Cover
The Black Cover Is the OG...Period. Awol Records didn't have an exclusive distribution contract with SMG (Solar Music Group). A lot of people don't realize that SMG was a label, but they were more specifically functioning as a distribution company then/at the time of the Black cover release. They were just a distribution company to Awol Records. Another thing is that this album says/has a copyright date of 1994, even though it really came out a whole year earlier. It came out in late winter/early spring of 1993. SMG is notoriously known for putting out albums from 1 to 2 years before the copyright date that is printed on their CD's. A Good example of this is "The Click - Down And Dirty" Album. That album came out in Late summer/Fall of 1992, but it says 1994 on it too. Honestly, I don't think that SMG had their distribution license yet/at that time... or they were doing some tax evasion type of stuff. I really don't know why they do this but there is a reason for back dating their early catalog. I just don't know why. Most of you guys wouldn't know about their backdating copyright dates unless you were listening to these album when they truly first came out. Most of you guy's parents wouldn't have dared to allow you to listen to Gangster Rap back then and most of you guy's were babies or didn't live in the US/was even up on Gangster rap. Remember that I said most, NOT all of you. I had C-Bo since it first dropped. The Click - Down and Dirty, B-Legit - Tha Savage, D-Shot - Shot Calla and etc. all came out way before their copyright date that is printed on their albums. Don't believe the copyright dates on any of SMG's early catalog nor their late catalog, because they started printing years in the 2000's in their later catalog, even though they came out in the '90's. I don't know what's up with SMG and why they do that type of shit, but they do. Now back to C-Bo. C-Bo and Awol Records had a non-exclusive contract for distribution through SMG. Once they finished their first run of the Black Cover with SMG, they started looking at other distributors. The first only distribution company that they they hooked up with was "Coast 2 Coast" Distribution. When they started to distribute through "Coast 2 Coast", they decided to revamp their artwork. This is when the album turned to the Orange Cover and the Tray card with C-Bo and James T Smith Jacking somebody on it. If you also have this 2nd/Coast 2 Coast Distributed release you'll see that they say, "Special Thank to St. Charles At SMG & To everybody else who gave support. Much Love", which is basically saying that they/Awol Records still respected SMG even though they're no longer their distribution company. Apparently the Coast 2 Coast Distribution didn't for whatever reason, so the eventually went back to SMG. If you have both Coast 2 Coast and SMG's Orange C-Bo albums you'll see that SMG made a few changes to the back insert/Tray Card and the inside of the Front Insert as well. Basically when Awol Finished their first run with SMG, they decided to give their album a fresh new look and they just ran with it when they got back with SMG. Also The SMG Orange version is Blurry vs. the clear brand new look on the Coast 2 Coast Orange version. Coast 2 Coast Orange version is so clean that you can see the pixels in the print and the picture is brighter, not dark like the SMG Orange version.
OG = Black Cover
1st Re-Release = Orange "Coast 2 Coast"
2nd Re-Release = Orange "SMG"
Also, when you're deal with any of SMG's catalog, please remember that they have and always will fuck up the copyright dates. Most of their albums have come out years before the copyright date that is printed on them.
I can post pictures of these later if you would like.
