Angel Luis Aguilar (born May 8, 1974), better known by his stage names Agallah is an American

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

and producer. He was a member of

The Diplomats The Diplomats (also known as Dipset) were an American Hip hop music, hip hop collective formed in the summer of 1997 by childhood friends Cam'ron and Jim Jones (rapper), Jimmy Jones in Harlem, New York City. The group was originally composed of ...

-affiliated group Purple City and he is the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of his label Propain Campain. He was formerly known as 8-Off Agallah. He has ghostwritten songs for many well-known artists. In addition to producing his own music, he also produced tracks for

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after National Football League, NFL and Canadian Football Lea ...

Remy Ma Reminisce Kioni Mackie ( Smith; born May 30, 1980), known professionally as Remy Ma, is an American rapper and songwriter. Discovered by the late rapper Big Pun, she came to prominence for her work as a member of Fat Joe's group, Terror Squad ...

Guru Guru ( ; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''guru'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian religions, Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: tr ...

Rockin' Squat Rockin' Squat ( Mathias Crochon (); born 7 September 1969), also known as Mathias Cassel, is a French rapper, producer and director. He is the founder of Assassin, and co-founder of the Franco-Brazilian film festival Planeta Ginga. He has colla ...

Sean Price Sean Duval Price (March 17, 1972August 8, 2015) was an American rapper and member of the hip hop collective Boot Camp Clik. He was one half of the duo Heltah Skeltah, performing under the name Ruck, along with partner Rock. Early life and edu ...

Saigon Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

, Game Theory, PMD, Das Efx, and

Mobb Deep Mobb Deep was an American Hip-hop, hip hop duo formed in Queens, New York (state), New York in 1990. Consisting of rappers/songwriters/record producers Prodigy (rapper), Prodigy and Havoc (musician), Havoc, they are considered to be among the pr ...

. In 1995, he finished his debut album, ''Wrap Your Lips Around This'', but it was never properly released because the album was shelved. In 2012, ''Wrap Your Lips Around This'' became available for digital download from

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevu ...

and

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

after being unreleased for many years.

History

Agallah was born and raised in the Brownsville area of the

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

borough of

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

. Agallah started out as a producer, then turned to rhyming and released a major-label single on East West America/

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the ...

in 1995. In 1997, he featured on R.A. the Rugged Man's track "Till My Heart Stops" on the

Rawkus Records Rawkus Records (or Rawkus Entertainment) is an American hip hop record label, owned by James Murdoch, known for starting the careers of many rappers. Rawkus started in 1995 with releases in hip-hop, drum and bass and fun-dustrial (Dystopia One) ...

'' Soundbombing'' compilation an underground classic. A collaboration with Mr. Cheeks of the

Lost Boyz Lost Boyz are an American Hip hop music, hip hop group from Queens, New York (state), New York, consisting of Master of ceremonies, MC Mr. Cheeks, DJ Spigg Nice, Pretty Lou, and Freaky Kah, with the latter replacing his father Freaky Tah who w ...

followed, although the album the single was to appear on, ''Wrap Your Lips Around This'', was never released. Additionally, there were production stints for the likes of

EPMD EPMD is an American hip hop duo from Brentwood, New York. The duo's name is an initialism for "Erick and Parrish Making Dollars", referring to its members: emcees Erick Sermon ("E" a.k.a. E Double) and Parrish Smith ("PMD" a.k.a. Parrish Mi ...

Das EFX Das EFX is an American hip hop duo. It consists of emcees Dray (also known as Krazy Drayz, born Andre Weston, September 9, 1970) and Skoob (also known as Books and Boogie Bang, born William "Willie" Hines, November 27, 1970). They named them ...

Onyx Onyx is a typically black-and-white banded variety of agate, a silicate mineral. The bands can also be monochromatic with alternating light and dark bands. ''Sardonyx'' is a variety with red to brown bands alternated with black or white bands. ...

, and

Group Home A group home, congregate living facility, care home (the latter especially in British English and Australian English), adult family home, etc., is a structured and supervised residence model that provides assisted living as well as medical car ...

. In 2000, Agallah recorded the ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

''-themed single "Crookie Monster," which became an underground hit, and featured production by The Alchemist. In early 1997, Agallah teamed up with

member PMD and formed the hip hop group D.B.D. (Death B4 Dishonor). The other members of the group were Ike Eyes, 215 and Deke O'Malley. The group was short-lived but they recorded a demo album which featured artist

Gang Starr Gang Starr was an American Hip-hop, hip hop duo, consisting of Houston-born record producer DJ Premier and Boston-based rapper Guru (rapper), Guru. Gang Starr was at its height from 1989 to 2003, and is considered a widely influential MC-and-pr ...

, John Forté,

Special Ed Edward K. Archer (born May 16, 1972), known professionally as Special Ed, is an American rapper and producer. Ed is perhaps best known for the songs "I Got It Made", "Think About It" and "I'm the Magnificent" from his debut album '' Youngest in ...

, and Lil Dap of

. D.B.D. also released a single entitled "Feel This" which was produced by

KRS-One Lawrence "Kris" Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (; an abbreviation of "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone") and Teacha, is an American rapper from the Bronx. He rose to prominence as part of the ...

's brother Kenny Parker. A friendship with Shiest Bub led to the formation of Purple City Entertainment (also known as Purple City Productions) with Un Kasa, which attracted the attention of

Dipset The Diplomats (also known as Dipset) were an American hip hop collective formed in the summer of 1997 by childhood friends Cam'ron and Jimmy Jones in Harlem, New York City. The group was originally composed of Cam'ron, Jim Jones and Freekey Ze ...

capo

Jim Jones James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader, preacher and mass murderer who founded and led the Peoples Temple between 1955 and 1978. Jones and the members of his inner circle planned and orchestrat ...

. Shiest had been doing promotional work for

Cam'ron Cameron Ezike Giles (born February 4, 1976), known Mononym, mononymously as Cam'ron, is an American rapper. Beginning his career in the early 1990s as Killa Cam, Giles signed with Lance Rivera, Lance "Un" Rivera's Lance Rivera, Untertainment, a ...

and

Juelz Santana LaRon Louis James Sr. (born February 18, 1982), better known by his stage name Juelz Santana, is an American rapper and member of now-defunct hip-hop group, the Diplomats (also known as Dipset). He is best known for his appearances on group coho ...

. For the new Purple City project, Agallah was christened "the Don Bishop", with Shiest as "the Emperor." Jones' enthusiasm for Ag's track "Gangsta" garnered the producer/MC a slot on the ''Diplomats Volume 4''

mixtape In the modern music industry, a mixtape is a musical project, typically with looser constraints than that of an album or extended play. Unlike the traditional album or extended play, mixtapes are labeled as laid-back projects that allow artists mo ...

. Purple City signed to

Babygrande Records Babygrande Records is an American independent record label based in New York City, founded by Chuck Wilson. Babygrande is distributed by The Orchard and represented by the Creative Artists Agency in Hollywood. History Babygrande Records wa ...

in late 2004. The following year, the label released a "greatest hits" collection that culled tracks from their mixtapes. Agallah's profile as a solo artist has also expanded in the wake of Purple City's rise, with the release of '' You Already Know'' (featuring appearances by

Dead Prez Dead Prez (stylized in lowercase) is an American hip hop duo composed of M-1 and stic.man, formed in 1996 in New York City. They are known for their confrontational style, combined with lyrics focused on both militant social justice, self-de ...

and

Nappy Roots Nappy Roots is an American alternative Southern rap group. The group met in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1995 while attending Western Kentucky University. They have worked with Rob Run Corleone of Empire Distribution. On the South Rituals mixt ...

, with production by

DJ Premier Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), known professionally as DJ Premier (also known as Preemo), is an American record producer and DJ. He has been frequently lauded as one of hip hop's greatest producers by publications such as '' ...

and

Alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

) on Babygrande coupled with the release of the mixtape ''Propane Piff'' on

Koch Records MNRK Music Group (pronounced "monarch"), formerly known as Koch Records and Entertainment One (eOne) Music/Records, is an American independent record label and music management company based in New York City. It was formed in 1987 as a music div ...

. His song "Risin' to the Top" appeared in the

Rockstar Games Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Foun ...

' ''

Grand Theft Auto III ''Grand Theft Auto III'' is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It was the first 3D game in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series. Set in Liberty City, loosely based on New York City, the story follo ...

'' video game, on the Game Radio FM radio station. Agallah later teamed up with Rockstar Games to record the soundtrack for Midnight Club 2. Agallah's beats are also in the

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

basketball game ''

NBA Live 08 ''NBA Live 08'' is the 2007 installment of the ''NBA Live'' series by EA Sports. It was released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Windows and PlayStation Portable. This is the first ''NBA'' video game to include all three ne ...

'' and ''UFC Undisputed''. In mid-2007, Agallah stated in a

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

bulletin that he was no longer signed to Babygrande. In 2012, Agallah featured on rapper/producer

Danny! Daniel Keith Swain (born August 18, 1983), known mononymously as Danny!, is an American rapper, record producer, singer, and composer. Swain rose to prominence after his debut performance on ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'', where he premiered h ...

's seventh studio album '' Payback''. Agallah can be seen featured in a number of videos with fellow Propain Campaign member PopOff, including the "Make It Out" video. One of a number of PopOff music videos produced by Vertex Media, a Hollywood-based film production company. In 2023, Agallah album "Endangered Species Protocol" was given 4 out of 5 stars by music journalist Keith "Youngin" George II in the entertainment platform ProMediaBank. Agallah released "Endangered Species Protocol", on March 1, 2023 on his label Propain Campain distributed by

Empire_Distribution Empire Distribution, Records and Publishing Inc. (stylized as EMPIRE) is an independent American record label, distribution and publishing company founded in 2010 by Ghazi Shami. Based in San Francisco, EMPIRE has offices in New York, London, ...

. In November 2024, veteran hip-hop artist and producer Agallah The Don released his album Black Rich Port, featuring collaborations with artists such as Tragedy Khadafi, Grea8Gawd, M-Tundra, Young Amsterdam, and Jamalski. The project showcases Agallah's dedication to preserving authentic hip-hop culture. To bring his music to life visually, Agallah has partnered with emerging filmmake
Tyler Harrison
of Thriving Era. Their collaboration includes the official music video for "What Diddy Gone Do?" and "Supply & Demand," produced by Agallah and directed by Harrison.They also worked together on the video for "Soundbwoy Dead," further cementing their creative partnership. In early 2025, Agallah teased upcoming work by releasing a snippet of "Black Rich Port 2" during a visit to Puerto Rico, indicating his ongoing commitment to his craft as a master producer and recording artist.

Discography

Solo albums

* ''Wrap Your Lips Around This'' (November 21, 1995, EastWest) (as 8-Off) * ''You Already Know'' (2006, Babygrande) * ''Agalito's Way'' (2015, Propain Campain) * ''Bo: The Legend of the Water Dragon'' (2016, Propain Campain) * ''Agnum Opus'' (2017, The Order Label) * ''Ag Al Ghul - No Mercy For The Weak (2018, The Order Label)'' * ''Live At Your Own Risk (2019, Propain Compain)'' * ''Fuck You: The Album - (2020, Propain Campain)'' * ''Francisco Blanco'' (2021) * ''Agstalgia'' (2021) * ''2021 (2021, Propain Campain)'' * ''High Level Art'' (2021) * ''High Level Art 2 - Blakeside Galleria (2021, Propain Campain)'' * ''The Year Of The Tiger (2022, Propain Campain)'' * ''Black Rich Port (2025, Propain Campain)''

EPs and mixtapes

* ''Da Mixtape Iz da Album'' (2001) * ''Show Up'' (2002) (as 8-Off Agallah) * ''Doomsday'' (2004) * ''Propane Piff'' (2006, Babygrande/Koch) * ''Cakemix'' (2006, Propain Campain) * ''Fuck a Purple Chain'' (2007) * ''F.A.M.E.'' (2008, Propain Campain) * ''Agobama The President'' (2008) * 09 Is Mines'' (2009, Propain Campain) * ''Forever Fire The EP'' (2012, Propain Campain) * ''Agallah Presents Propain Campain Mixtape'' (2012, Propain Campain) * ''The Red V'' (2013, Propain Campain) * ''Propain Campain Presents Agallah The Instrumentals Vol.1'' (2014, Propain Campain) * ''The Life of Don Francis (Prelude To Agalito's Way)'' (2014, Propain Campain) * ''Past and Present'' (2014, Propain Campain) (with The Alchemist) * ''Don Status'' (2015, Propain Campain) * ''Flight of the Cranes'' (2015, self-released) (with DirtyDiggs) * ''3-Day Theory'' (2017, The Order Label) (with Duke WestLake) * ''Aggravated'' (2020, self-released) * ''Black Anarchy Music'' (2020, Propain Campain) * ''Darona'' (2020, Propain Campain) * ''Darona 2'' (2020, Propain Campain) * ''2021'' (2021, self-released)

Singles

* "Ghetto Girl" (1995, EastWest) (as 8-Off) * "Alize for Dolo" (1996, EastWest) (as 8-Off) * "Crookie Monster" (1999, Game) * "Rising to the Top" (featuring

) (2002, Game) (as 8-Off Agallah) * "Imagine Your Life" (featuring

Monie Love Simone Johnson (born Simone Gooden) (born 2 July 1970), better known by her stage name Monie Love, is an English rapper, actress, and radio personality known for her singles during the late 1980s and the 1990s. Love is a radio personality for u ...

) (2002, Street Level) (as 8-Off Agallah) * "New York Ryder Music" (2006, Babygrande) * "Club Hoppin'" (2006, Babygrande) * "Coat of Arms" (featuring

Planet Asia Jason Green (born October 24, 1976), better known as Planet Asia, is an American rapper from Fresno, California. He is prominent for being one half of the now reunited Hip Hop duo the Cali Agents and is currently a member of the groups Gold Cha ...

Rasco Keida Brewer (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as Rasco (a bacronym for "Realistic, Ambitious, Serious, Cautious, and Organized"), is an American rapper. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Rasco became associated with hip hop in California. ...

& Tristate) (2013, Propain Campain) *"Slavery" (2016, Propain Campain)

References

External links

* {{Authority control American hip-hop record producers Living people Rappers from Brooklyn Underground rappers 1974 births 21st-century American rappers Five percenters Record producers from New York (state) People from Brownsville, Brooklyn East West Records artists