Bishop Lamont

Philip Martin (born October 31 1978 Inglewood, California[] ), better known by his stage name Bishop Lamont, is an American rapper from Carson, California currently signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment record label.

Biography
Martin started rapping at age thirteen. Dr. Dre met Martin while on set filming The Game's music video for "Dreams". After giving him praises on an L.A. radio station, Dr. Dre signed Martin in 2005. Martin was featured in The Source ' s Unsigned Hype section, but he was already signed to Aftermath by the time the issue hit stands.

According to Martin, Dr. Dre said that along with Eminem, Martin is the only other rapper that made him uncomfortable. Dr. Dre said that this is due to his protégé's controversial and political lyrics.

Martin is credited for his numerous soundtrack contributions. He has appeared in the soundtrack for the video game True Crime: Streets of LA. He can also be heard on three EA Sports video games. The tracks "The Best" and "We Got Next" are included in Madden 2007 and NBA Live 2006, respectively. Also, the track "I'm a Soldier" was included in NFL Street 2. In addition, Martin has the title track "Welcome to Havoc", featured in Havoc, a film starring Anne Hathaway.

Martin is also very active in the mixtape circuit. Two tracks, entitled "Do It" (produced by Scott Storch) and "Wartime Is Now", (produced by Dae One, a member of Martin's War Doggz crew) circulated on the Internet. Martin is also prominently featured on Warren G's album In the Mid-Nite Hour album. Martin raps on six of the tracks and sings the hook on another. Martin also has a mixtape called Who I Gotta Kill to Get a Record Deal, Vol. 1 (the mixtape Dr. Dre heard before signing Martin). Together with his War Doggz crew, Martin owns a record label called Vatican Records.

Martin is widely believed to be next prominent protoge to be featured on Dr. Dre's highly anticipated album, Detox much like the role of Snoop Dogg on The Chronic and Eminem on Chronic 2001. Dr. Dre himself confirmed that Martin is to be heavily featured on the album. The Carson, California-based rapper is also working on his debut album, tentatively titled The Reformation which is due out in the third or fourth quarter of 2008. Martin's mixtape/album N*gger Noize was released on March 2 2007. It was mixed by DJ Skee and consists of all original content. On Skee TV, Martin and DJ Skee described N*gger Noize as being a "street album". Martin stated in an interview with WestCoastRydaz.com that after The Reformation and Detox, he will be working on The Impossible Possible which will be entirely produced by Dr. Dre and Scott Storch. The album will be released in 2008.

It has also been reported that Martin is in the studio working for The Reformation with Chris Martin from Coldplay. Planned sessions with labelmates Eminem and 50 Cent are in order. Production credits will include Dr. Dre (who will produce about 5 or 6 songs on the album ), Battlecat, DJ Premier, Scott Storch, The RZA, Damizza, Pete Rock, and others. In a December 2006 interview with Dubcnn, Martin said that The Reformation is 60% completed. He also stated that his album is to be released before Detox. According to Martin, the album will be about "rebellion, revolution, the positive and negative things in life and organized chaos".

Martin will also be releasing two mixtapes called The Pope Mobile and Team America F*ck Yeah with Spend Lott'n & Kim Jung Scrill (hosted by DJ Rafiki). At the same time, he is also working with Black Milk (Slum Village producer) on an album called Caltroit, which will be a collaboration of rappers from California and Detroit. In addition, he also announced he will be releasing Caltroit 2: Metropolis which contains all the extra music that wasn't included in the first release of the Caltroit mixtape. He also said will feature Slum Village, Royce Da 5'9, Talib Kweli and others. .

Albums

 * The Reformation
 * Released: Second quarter of 2008
 * Label: Aftermath/Interscope
 * RIAA certification: TBD
 * Singles: "I Dominate"


 * The Impossible Possible
 * Released: 2009
 * Label: Aftermath/Interscope
 * RIAA certification: TBD
 * Singles: TBD

Mixtapes

 * 2004: Who I Gotta Kill to Get a Record Deal, Vol. 1
 * 2005: Welcome 2 L.A.
 * 2007: N*gger Noize Hosted by DJ Skee
 * 2007: Caltroit with Black Milk
 * 2007: The Pope Mobile
 * 2008: Caltroit Metropolis
 * 2008:  The Collection Plate Hosted by DJ Whoo Kid