Team Embassador

Formed during 2002 in Montclair, NJ, by one-time high-school classmates rapper R-DeLeon (Leon Collins) and singer B-Tizzy (Sheldon Maxwell), Team Embassador set out to produce energetic, broadly welcoming tracks rooted chiefly in the pair’s Caribbean heritage—Collins born in Trinidad and Maxwell in Jamaica. Following the debut volume of their Pirates Mixtape, the group, which clarified that the “e” in Embassador stood for “everybody,” promptly launched EMB Music Group to handle promotion and distribution across the West Indies while also gaining traction in the New York/New Jersey area. Once a solid fan base convinced them the material could sell commercially, R-DeLeon and B-Tizzy pitched their songs to major labels, ultimately securing a distribution deal with Lightyear/EMI that led to the mid-2007 release of the duo’s first full-length album, System Overload, fusing soca, reggae, and dancehall with rock and hip-hop.