No, Kembe X Didn’t Sign With TDE

Since TDE founder and namesake Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith announced a pair of unknown new artists on his roster, simply titled “John Doe 1” and “John Doe 2,” the Internet’s been ablaze with guesses as to who he was referring to. And while Lance Skiiiwalker was recently revealed to be one of them, it was actually Kembe X, the TDE-affiliated emcee out of Chicago, who initially came to most folks’ minds.

Kembe made sense for a lot of reasons, none bigger than the fact that he’s been managed for years by Top Dawg’s son and ScHoolboy Q’s manager, Anthony “Moosa” Tiffith. It’s more than just an affiliation, his business has been managed, at least in part, by TDE and the label heads have likely played a significant behind-the-scenes role in developing Kembe as an artist over the last couple years. The relationship has never been a secret, which helps explain he came to mind when Top Dawg announced his set of John Doe artists at the beginning of the year.

So, when Kembe tweeted out a photo of himself wearing a chain with the label’s logo alongside another tweet simply saying “TDE,” the rumors of an official signing went viral instantly, until Top Dawg partially refuted such thought with a couple tweets of his own saying “Jus woke up n found out I signed Kembe X” and that nothing is official until it comes directly from him.