Lance Rivera

Lance "Un" Rivera is an American film director, film producer, screenwriter, record producer, and music executive.[2]

Lance Rivera
Born
Lance Rivera

Other namesUn
Occupations
  • Film director
  • film producer
  • screenwriter
  • record producer
  • record executive
Years active1994-2014
Labels
  • Untertainment
  • Undeas
Musical career

Career

Lance Rivera began his music career when he met a neighborhood rapper named Christopher Wallace, who rhymed under the name, The Notorious B.I.G. After hearing him perform, Rivera offered to finance his musical career.[2]

Undeas Recordings and Untertainment

In 1994, when Undeas Recordings was created in partnership with co-owner The Notorious BIG and Atlantic Records, Rivera was put in charge of its roster, which included The Notorious B.I.G.'s protégé group Junior M.A.F.I.A., including its core member, Lil' Kim.[3][4] Junior M.A.F.I.A. released only one album under Undeas/Atlantic, 1995's Conspiracy,[5] which went gold in under a month and sustained two singles: "Player's Anthem" and "Get Money"; both of which gained way for Lil' Kim's breakout solo career. That following year, on November 12, 1996, Undeas released Kim's debut solo album, Hard Core, which included the singles, "No Time", "Crush on You" and "Not Tonight". All of which became top-ten Billboard hits and helped the album reached the top fifteen of the Billboard 200 at number eleven.

In 1997, [2][6] Rivera launched another label called Untertainment Records.[7] The label's roster included Harlem rapper Cam'ron and Philadelphia rappers Dutch and Spade of Major Figgas and Charli Baltimore; Cam'ron and Charli Baltimore were signed through Epic Records while Dutch and Spade were signed to Interscope Records. The label's first release was the soundtrack to the 1998 comedy film, Woo. Only Cam'ron released two albums under that label: 1998's Confessions of Fire and 2000's S.D.E.. In July 1999, Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil' Cease released a solo album under Undeas, The Wonderful World of Cease A Leo. Eventually, vice versa, fellow Junior M.A.F.I.A. affiliate Lil' Kim released her sophomore solo album, The Notorious K.I.M., almost a year later in June 2000 (also under Undeas). Despite the Notorious K.I.M. being the final album released under Undeas and it going platinum in under two months,[8] Rivera was in no way involved in this project. After losing Untertainment artist Charli Baltimore, Rivera attempted a comeback in the music business with the release of Major Figgas' Dutch and Spade's collaborative single, "If You Want It".[9] However, after the single failed to chart, the duo's album, For My Family, originally planned for a November 2001 release, was shelved.

Movie career

Rivera transitioned from music to doing movies. He teamed up with Queen Latifah and her Flavor Unit partner, Shakim Compere, to establish Crossover Media, a marketing advertising company. He went on to make his feature film directorial debut with The Cookout (2004), starring Queen Latifah, as well as Tim Meadows, Ja Rule, Eve, Jenifer Lewis, Danny Glover and Storm P in an all-star cast. The film opened on 1,303 screens, and opened at number eight in the box office with a gross of $5,000,900. After seven weeks, it ended with a domestic gross of $11,814,019 and made $195,051 from foreign countries, for a total of $12,009,070 worldwide.[10]

His second film, The Perfect Holiday, released in November 2007 and also starring Queen Latifah (alongside Morris Chestnut, Charlie Murphy, and Gabrielle Union)[11] opened at number six with $2.2 million; The film grossed $5.8 million domestically.[12]

In early 2014, Rivera reunited with Cam'ron (who co-wrote the screenplay) for the production of the direct-to-media film, Percentage, which also co-starred Omar Gooding.[13]

Personal life

1999 stabbing incident

On December 2, 1999, Rivera was stabbed by hip-hop entrepreneur Jay-Z at the release party for Q-Tip's album Amplified at the now-closed Kit Kat Club in Times Square.[14][15] The incident arose over the alleged bootlegging of Jay-Z's album Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter before its release on December 28.[16][17] In October 2001, Jay-Z pleaded guilty to a second-degree assault charge and was sentenced to three years of probation.[18]

Filmography

Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes
2004 The Cookout Yes No No Directorial debut
2007 Life Support No No Yes
The Perfect Holiday Yes Yes No
2008 The Angie Martinez Show No No Yes
2009 Broke & Famous No No Yes
2010 Charlie Murphy: I Will Not Apologize Yes No No
2011 The Cookout 2 Yes No No
2012 Katt Williams: Kattpacalypse No No Yes
2014 Percentage No No Yes

References

  1. "Lance Rivera biography". Tribute.ca. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  2. Jee, Tiarra (1998-08-06). "Un-derstanding Lance Rivera". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  3. "Lance 'Un' Rivera: The Return". 3 September 2004. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  4. "Maybe B.i.g. Wasn't So Notorious After All". Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  5. Allah, Sha Be (2020-08-29). "The Source |Today in Hip Hop History: Junior Mafia's Debut Album 'Conspiracy Theory' Turns 25 Years Old!". The Source. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  6. "Un-Easy Relationship : A Hot Young Rap Producer Says He's Being Dissed by Atlantic". Los Angeles Times. 1997-05-14. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  7. "Rap Entrepreneur Un Joins Epic in Multimillion-Dollar Record Deal". Los Angeles Times. 1997-06-27. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  8. "Gold & Platinum". RIAA. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  9. Reid, Shaheem. "Lance 'Un' Rivera Quietly Begins Releasing Music Again". MTV News. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  10. "Box Office- The Cookout". Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  11. "The Perfect Holiday Variety". 7 December 2007. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  12. "Box Office- The Perfect Holiday". Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  13. Merkin, Alex (2014-04-24), Percentage (Action, Crime, Drama), Electric Republic, Flavor Unit Entertainment, retrieved 2022-02-05
  14. "Rapper Jay-Z admits to stabbing". 18 October 2001. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  15. Ech, Joey (6 December 2018). "Jay-Z Sentenced To Three Years' Probation - Today in Hip-Hop". XXL Mag. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  16. "Top 10 Richest African Americans – 2018 List". The Gazette Review. 27 February 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  17. Forero, Juan (3 December 1999). "Police Arrest Hip-Hop Star In a Stabbing At a Nightclub". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  18. "Jay-Z Gets 3 Years Probation in Stabbing Case". Billboard. 17 October 2001.
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