In 2010, TDE issued Kendrick Lamar's fourth mixtape Overly Dedicated, exclusively to digital retailers, such as iTunes. Four more project's followed route, Jay Rock's mixtape Black Friday (2010), Schoolboy Q's Setbacks (2011), Ab-Soul's Longterm Mentality (2011) and Kendrick Lamar's Section.80 (2011); the latter of which was critically acclaimed and peaked at number 113 on the Billboard 200. The first studio album released to stores and online retailers was Jay Rock's Follow Me Home album, released on July 26, 2011, withTech N9ne's Strange Music. The album debuted at number 83 on the Billboard 200, selling 5,300 copies in its first week.

In March 2012, MTV reported that Top Dawg Entertainment closed a joint venture deal with Interscope Records and Aftermath Entertainment. Under the new deal, Kendrick Lamar's debut studio album, good kid, m.A.A.d city would be jointly released via Top Dawg, Interscope and Aftermath, while releases from the rest of Black Hippy would be released by Top Dawg and Interscope, respectively.^[7] In August 2012, Top Dawg Entertainment wanted to show appreciation to their fans. Doing what they called "TDEFamAppreciationWeek", they released solo tracks from each of the Black Hippy members and a video of Lamar and Q acting out on the tour bus.^[8] Kendrick Lamar was the first to release his major label debut, with good kid, m.A.A.d city hitting stores on October 22, 2012. The album was highly acclaimed and went on to become certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Schoolboy Q subsequently began recording his major label debut Oxymoron, scheduled for a February 25, 2014 release.