About Garnett

Al Garnett was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where his aunt raised him. Lacking an older brother or role model, Al eventually began to regard his childhood friend Gerald Tucker as an adopted little brother, and the two boys became inseparable. Barely into their teens, Al and Gerald both achieved early success as world-recognized amateur boxers, however they never left their street mind-sets far behind. By age fifteen, both were forced to make a difficult choice: continue their boxing careers and starve, or return to the streets to make money the only way they knew how. Al, who now had a newborn baby to support, decided to put his future as a boxer on hold. Al returned to the streets, hustling to take care of his own.

In 1997, his old friend Gerald Tucker talked Al into accompanying him to Houston, where countless times to immerse himself in the music industry and soak up knowledge from his new mentor, J Prince. By 2001, Al moved permanently to Houston and set up his own Cincinnati-based label: Garnett Entertainment. His cousin served as the sole artist for the label.

With his cousin’s finished demo tape in hand, Al showed up at J’s label Rap-A-Lot to play the tape for him. After hearing it, J felt Al needed some production help and introduced him to mega-producer Tony Draper. During the course of negotiating a production deal, Al and Tony became close friends, and Draper eventually confided that he felt Al’s cousin would never bring Garnett the level of success he knew he was capable of. Anxious to elevate his label to what it needed to be, Al immediately flew Draper to Cincinnati to audition every rapper he knew. After weeks of auditioning, a tape submitted by rapper Tocka grabbed both Draper and Garnett’s attention and Al quickly moved to sign him to the Garnett label.

Returning to Houston with Tocka, Al worked with Tony and had a finished album in seven months. After the recording was completed, Al then turned his attention to packaging the album, hiring some of the most respected names in the industry to help complete his vision. Next, Garnett self-financed an independent U.S. promotional tour with stops in Miami, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Cleveland, Houston, Las Vegas, and several other cities. Although the tour generated major buzz for Tocka and Garnett Entertainment, Al knew he was still missing a big piece of the puzzle without securing a distribution deal. After researching various distribution scenarios, Al took the advice of old friend Rodney Jerkins and met with Paul Ring of Bungalo Records. Ring, whose label is distributed exclusively by industry giant Universal Music & Video Distribution, was an ideal match for Al, Garnett Entertainment, and Tocka.

With the completion of Tocka’s album, distribution in place, and a new partner in Bungalo, Al Garnett has achieved a great deal in a short amount of time. As he begins to select his next producing projects, in Sha’Donna, Cross, Showtime and Tocka’s sophomore project, Al remains committed to his original goal of developing new artists from the vibrant and virtually untapped talent pool of his hometown, Cincinnati.