Wendy Day

2011-10-01T17:14:00.001-07:00

I've just set up two new blogs through my websites. They are a blog where I'm posting ALL of my articles (in one place so there aren't 5 article archive sites with articles, just 1....and that blog is:

www.rap-coalition.com

And then I've set up a personal blog where I talk about life and music industry stuff (everything BUT articles I've written)...and that blog is:

www.WendyDay.net

Also, my new eBook dropped today and you can get it here:

Amazon.com Widgets

2010-01-15T13:06:00.000-08:00

This will appear in the February Issue of Don Diva Magazine:

The Ever-Changing Rap Music Business
By, Industry Veteran Wendy Day (www.WendyDay.com)

2009 marked the end of a decade and there were many changes that occurred in the music business.

When Don Diva called and asked me to write about the changes I’ve seen over the last 10 years, I started writing this before I even got off the phone. It’s easy to write about something you live and are passionate about. In fact, it almost wrote itself. I’ve been in the music industry for almost 20 years now (March 2010 marks the beginning of my 19th year) and there are very few people left who started back when I did or who’ve been in it as long as I have. I chalk that up to the continual changes and to insanity—ya gotta be a little nuts to stay in this industry any length of time. Especially the folks like me who do this for the love, and not solely for the money!

Since The Dawn Of Hip Hop

Before I talk about the changes over the past decade, there are two changes that have occurred over the past two decades that I need to mention first: the music and the industry people. The music went from being an art form in the 80s and 90s, to being a business. When Hip Hop began in the late 70s and early 80s in the Bronx, it was art. Artists made music to express themselves, tell stories, and entertain fans. And although artists today also do the same thing, the motivation has changed drastically. Artists rarely make music today solely to entertain fans, express themselves, or tell stories. Almost all well-known artists try to make music that is marketable, fits a radio format, and will sell to the masses thereby bringing revenue and income to the artist. It went from being an artform to big business. Many years ago Chuck D said “Rap is the CNN of the Ghetto.” Today, it’s the new dope game—everyone is trying to hit a lick and make a quick buck in the music industry, it seems.

This change in the music (from art to commerce) also brought about a change in the people working in the music industry. The industry originally went from people outside of the artists’ community pimping them to people inside their community pimping them. At one time, the folks coming into the music industry to work were people who loved the musical art form, lived it, and wanted to be surrounded by it. Qualified workers were attracted into the fray. This changed in the 90s, bringing in people who saw the music industry as a “come up.” It became an industry with a low barrier to entry (meaning you didn’t need any special training or knowledge to work in the music industry) and where anyone could believably proclaim themselves a specialist or authority within any area of the industry (marketing, promotions, etc). Access replaced aptitude. It went from being fun to being the cut throat, over crowded, greed driven business that it is today.

Spreading The Wealth

In the 90s, I watched (and helped) the music industry shift from being centered in NY to giving access to many other areas of the country (L.A., the Bay Area, Chicago, Houston, New Orleans, Detroit, Atlanta, etc). The music went from being lyrically motivated (artists used to HAVE to have, and prove, their skills) to being motivated by sales (measurement of success was whether an artist could sell Platinum as opposed to lyrical skill). It became a multi-billion dollar business by its height in the early 2000s.

That geographic change also changed the discovery of artists and distribution of music from national through the Major Labels, to regional through independent labels. This is when Rap-A-Lot, Cash Money Records, No Limit Records, Swisha House, etc, sprung up and began to make money and gain fame. Even in NY and L.A., the major labels began to sign production companies like Bad Boy and Death Row to focus on urban music. As long as they brought in more money than they spent, and let the Majors continue to own all the masters, it was all good. Even when wars broke out.

Change Gon’ Come

And then things began to change in the past decade, and the change happened pretty quickly. The internet came along, increased in popularity, and by the height of rap music sales, the labels were complaining about all of the free downloading and swapping of the music through outside web based companies like Limewire, Kaaza, and Napster. This also affected software companies and the film industry, but not like it impacted the music industry since what was being “stolen” was only 3 or 4 minutes in length per song...by the millions. As bandwidth got wider in the internet world, the problem increased due to the ease of downloading. Instead of labels embracing downloading and figuring out how to monetize it, they fought it. Unsuccessfully. Fans were happy to take songs for free because it was common knowledge that their favorite artists weren’t being properly compensated for it anyway.

The internet also leveled the playing field. At one time, the only way to “get on” in the music industry was through a major label based in NY or Los Angeles. They were the gate keepers who allowed access to the industry because they controlled the distribution and the radio promotion, so either an artist had to make a connection with a label employee to get a deal or they had to sell a large amount of their own CDs regionally and attract a record deal from a Major label (or a successful middleman label or production company that already had access like Bad Boy, Death Row, DTP, Grand Hustle, etc).

The Playing Field Is Leveled

The internet allowed any artist the opportunity to upload their music to a website or social networking site and reach their fanbase and consumers directly without going through a Major Label’s distribution system. This was especially attractive to many artists without any funding opportunities. With an influx of artists coming into the marketplace, there was an even larger absence of how the industry worked or how to market and promote music successfully. It seemed easy and was treated as such. In reaction, up cropped unsavory people ready to prey on that ignorance, and lack of proper funds—the “get a deal” websites, the marketing and promotion websites, the Ning social networking websites for “members only,” the A&R evaluation websites, the producer websites that help you sell your beats, the consultants, etc.

This past decade has allowed many artists to flex their entrepreneurial skills and become their own independent record label, uploading mixed CDs, EPs, and singles to the web and building a buzz. Hundreds of thousands of websites, MySpace pages, and eblast companies sprang up to give these new artists access to the fans. Ancillary companies sprang up everywhere to help market, promote, distribute, and educate artists about the new frontier—the internet. People with no experience and no track record were jumping into the fray because they had computer knowledge or ability to reach artists through the internet. Internet sites were hiring people on the fringes of the music business because they needed authorities on urban music but couldn’t tell who was who.

People who believe they have talent or who think it’s easy to succeed have come into the marketplace in droves. The mindset that music is free began to prevail—not only free to own through downloading, but free to market and promote. Poorly financed “record labels” began to spring up and sign artists to “deals” because they felt they could make money digitally without spending any money (or spend limited money). The focus became to look for one hit that could make them millionaires overnight. Artists signed to those companies in droves hearing affiliations with major labels like Universal and Asylum, for example. Some folks took songs to radio to land deals (for a fat fee whether the deal came or not). There was a rebirth of “one hit wonders,” especially coming out of Texas. The legitimate labels began avoiding Texas artists for fear that they’d only get one hit wonders, thereby hurting all artists in that region.

The Splintering Effect

The internet also leveled the playing field with the industry. No longer were the key players behind the scenes people with a track record of success, people with trained skills, or people that the industry chose to “let in.” Through the internet, anyone with a healthy email list or some blogging skills could post their ideas and opinions online and attract followers to their opinions. The music industry went from a gatekeeper basis (an inner circle of a few choosing who to let into their circle) to a popularity basis (whomever had the largest following on the internet became accepted in the industry). An entire blogging culture sprung up, and gossips like Sandra Rose, Nicole Bitchie, and Media Takeout, and urban news sites like AllHipHop, HipHopDX, and SOHH took the places of importance of XXL, Vibe, and Source magazines because they could spread information quickly. Sensationalism also found a place in Hip Hop with sites like World Starr Hip Hop and Vlad TV, and artists soon learned that if they do scandalous stuff on video, they will get millions of views within days. Fame began to rule the music industry as artists vyed for reality shows thinking it was the next get rich scheme, only sharing too much information with fans and pushing them away in disgust.

Until the blogging sites and websites popped up, fans had to wait til the next month to get news, new music, reviews, and gossip--and only in printed form. In today’s instant internet culture, we can almost find out that Keiysha Cole is pregnant the day she conceives the child, or we can hear the latest Young Buck/G-Unit dis the second Buck finishes recording. Also, the magazines were based in NY for the most part, as were the staffs, so the bulk of coverage seemed to center around NY artists and lifestyle. The internet opened the coverage up to the world, so now the artists and topics covered are more international and chosen by whomever controls the websites—so information is no longer based solely in NY. The sales now reflect that shift.

The downside of this easy access is that the bloggers are not trained in journalistic skills or ethics/integrity, nor are they backed by large corporations with legal departments that reel in the inaccurate content. These folks can pretty much say whatever comes to mind no matter who it affects. They also don’t have access to the bigger, more famous artists, so they write mostly about the newer and local artists, thereby splintering (and scattering) the coverage even further. They feed off of each other regurgitating the same information overloading viewers—the rush to be first outweighs the need to be accurate. The popularity of Blogs and Websites also changed the overall point of view in general from News to Opinion. So an industry that once had less than a hundred artists in circulation, now has thousands with everyone giving their own opinion about them. This is far too many for fans to absorb so they tend to tune out most of the superfluous information.

This same scattered approach also affected promotions and marketing. Gone were the days of people accessing music through one or two local radio stations, a handful of TV stations or video shows, and a few magazines. Now to advertise and promote, artists and labels have to reach potential consumers wherever they’re getting their news, information, and relaxation—and these fans could be playing video games, surfing any one of millions of sites on the internet, listening to terrestrial radio, satellite radio, or internet radio, etc. The ways to reach potential fans has become too fragmented, and therefore too expensive, to use for marketing and promotions purposes. Magazines began to shut down because they couldn’t afford the lost advertising dollars. TV shows switched to reality TV format because they were cheaper to film and had a “trainwreck” quality of viewership, as their viewer base (and therefore advertising income) reduced. The most scandalous and extreme seems to attract the most attention (see “Balloon Boy” for proof of this). The downside of this need for extreme measures to attract attention is that it often makes the urban music industry feel like the WWE.

Cash Rules

As recording equipment became cheaper and more widely available to the masses, the amount of rappers, singers, and producers increased. This over saturated the marketplace with music. Anyone could now make music inexpensively and upload it onto the internet. The quality of the music began to decline. The industry went from thousands of potential artists to hundreds of thousands of potential artists (as evidenced by the number of rap MySpace pages). As the necessity to be lyrically skilled disappeared, anyone could call themselves a rapper. The ability to develop a buzz switched from skill to funding. Anyone with an investor could promote themselves alongside successful artists. Where lyrical skill once made an artist stand out, now image and adlibs were the stand out features for many rappers.

Cash became king in the past decade—people began to buy their way into the industry both on the artist side and the label side. It became a joke amongst industry people how those without money had talent, and those with money had no talent. More and more unsavory people were coming into the music business with the intention of getting a share of that money, and the old adage “a fool and his money are soon parted” became the norm in this industry. With this new influx of people, it was hard to tell who was real and who wasn’t, so the instances of people getting jerked out of money soared and continue to soar today.

Anyone spending money at a club or spending money on wrapped vehicles and flyers became a target for folks trying to get a check from them. I watched D Boys give industry folks $125,000 in a duffle bag to guarantee record deals that never materialized. I watched a shady Atlanta radio promoter take $45,000 in cash and not secure one radio spin for an indie label. An indie label had a bunch of DJs on “payroll” for years to play records that never came out. A consultant set up a label and helped them spend over a million dollars to sell less than 1,000 CDs with no distributor in sight. A small distributor allegedly put mixed CDs by well known DJs into Best Buy and forgot to pay them til they got sued by the DJs and the Major Labels—and it appears Best Buy still sells those CDs despite the cease and desist letters while the indie retail stores selling legitimate mixed CDs got shut down by the Feds. Gotta love this past decade!!

Today, anyone can walk into any industry event and pass out business cards saying they are a manager, or a promoter, or even that they own a record label, and they will be treated almost the same as Chris Lighty (a real manager), Alex Gidewon (a real promoter), or Jason Geter (a real label owner)—three people with extremely long, proven track records of success. Anyone with good game can bullshit and get over easily in this industry, and most do. And rather than starting a business based on seeing a need and filling it, most people band wagon jump. When they see someone doing something, they take that same idea and run with it. Anyone with internet access can be a Blogger or own an Urban Website. Anyone with a $200 iFlip can run a website or DVD Magazine. Anyone with an email list can have an eBlast service, and anyone with access to a free Bridge line can offer conference calls. Anyone with access to a handful of DJs can start a DJ Crew. Anyone with access to a venue can set up an industry seminar or conference. Truth is, anyone who can see someone else doing anything can jack their idea and replicate it, and there seems to be no downside or consequence for this action. On a positive note, anyone with access to any of these things, who is willing to put in the time and hard work and build something real, can easily stand out in this industry. Whether or not they can make money from it is the question…

Greed Took Over

With major labels desperate for revenue, and desperate to have things go back to the way they were (an impossible dream), they cut expenses by firing key staff members or squeezing out staff with track records of success and experience, replacing them with new people who were willing to work for less money. As money became harder to find, and as the labels were downsizing (meaning salaries decreased while workload increased), many enterprising label employees began to make money on the side by signing artists willing to give them a kickback or a percentage of their careers. This changed the artists getting signed from a talent basis to a financial incentive basis. This meant that the artists coming into the labels’ pipelines were there only if they were willing to take less money, do a shady side deal, or sign a 360 Deal with the label. Talent no longer mattered. The attitude amongst labels was that artists are a dime a dozen and if one artist won’t agree to this, some other artist certainly will. And they did.

This greed spread into every area. Producers became a dime a dozen and were asked to give up a share of their ownership in the publishing in exchange for placements. Some management companies, like Roc Nation, made it a prerequisite to be placed on one of their artist’s albums that the producer has to give up a percentage of their publishing for the placement—even producers with Platinum hits under their belts. The albums have become about who benefits financially instead of making the best music possible.

Many of the labels only use producers that they have on staff to produce albums because they want a bigger ownership financially. For example, Young Jeezy albums (my favorite artist) have a plethora of CTE owned producers on each album so that CTE can collect the lion’s share of the publishing and income. The radio singles seem to be well known established independent producers, but the album filler seems to be mostly CTE staff producers. This is the new music business model and neither CTE nor Roc Nation are the only companies taking a bigger share of the pie as the price for doing business with them—they are actually the norm. Could this possibly be why sales are so low in the rap music industry? Is the music suffering from this need for ownership instead of using the best music possible? After all, it’s a business today, not an artform. The industry is run on a need for ownership and money (greed) instead of displaying the best talent. Capitalism at its finest….

In the middle of this decade, the Major labels changed the recording contracts that it offered artists. The standard deals went from artists getting a 12% to 15% share of the pie after they paid everything back out of their small share, to “360 Deals.” These oppressive deals take a percentage of everything that the artist earns while signed to the label. In 2005, I stopped doing deals with labels because the deals became so oppressive for artists. I’ve even seen Atlantic Records refuse to work an already signed artist until he agreed to convert his contract to a 360 Deal—a worse deal for him, even though his leverage and popularity had increased in the marketplace. His lawyer advised him to do so, as well.

Once used to a healthy profit margin that afforded grand lifestyles for those at the top of the food chain, the major labels became disgruntled as sales dropped while they missed the boat on less profitable digital sales. Taking on the role of dinosaurs fighting for survival, they tried everything from stopping the new digital revolution, to fighting it, to suing it, to band wagon jumping too late. Nothing worked for them. And they still haven’t learned from their mistakes—they still continue to fight the ways the consumers want to receive their music, even though they are willing to pay for it.

So to justify their continuing existence, the labels decided to take an even larger share of the pie from the ONLY aspect of the equation that they controlled—the artist (or the “content” provided for digital download). Back in the day, labels took roughly 88% of the pie while giving the artists 12% of the money AFTER the artist paid back everything spent on them from that 12% share. In exchange for giving up the lion’s share of the sales, the labels always told the artists that they’d make 100% of the touring. Any show money, was the artist’s to keep! Not today!!!

When the shit hit the fan financially for the labels, they decided to tap into the show money, and all other streams of income for the artists, as well. After all, if your profit margin is made smaller, you need to eat more of everyone’s income to keep the fat cats at the top, and the stock holders, happy. Most 360 Deals share in endorsement income (15% to 30% depending on the artist), performance income (10% to 30% depending on the artist), merchandising income (20% to 50%) and Film/TV money (15% to 40%), and as has always been the norm: 50% of the publishing income (ownership in the actual music and lyrics).

How do labels justify taking an even BIGGER share of the pie from artists? They complain that they are doing all of the developing, investing, marketing, and promoting. Their argument is that they believe in the artist when the artist has nothing, and they feel that assuming the lion’s share of the risk should result in sharing in a lion’s share of the profit. If the label is developing and building the artist to a level of super stardom, they feel they have the right to share in a percentage of everything that super stardom affords the artist. So if they drive the artist platinum, they feel they should get a piece of the tour that came from the fame the label helped the artist build, and a piece of the endorsement deal or film income that came from the fame that the label helped build. I guess I could see this argument better, if I actually agreed that the labels did their jobs well of building artists. No 360 Deal to date, has resulted in an artist becoming a SuperStar.

40 Is NOT The New 30

A major shift this past decade has been in demographics. The age of the fans has changed. They’ve grown up into other types of music than rap. Urban music is no longer the mainstream center that it once was. It got old and uncool. Hell, the bulk of our rap stars are older than 30 years old!! Jay Z and Puffy turned 40 this year. And even though their lyrics say that 40 is the new 30 (LOL), that’s the age of the average rap fan’s Dad! Who wants to follow a star that looks like somebody’s Dad!? We don’t have new younger Rap Stars replacing the older Rappers yet other than Soulja Boy. While sales have proven there still is a market for Jay Z, it’s not what it once was. We need a new crop of rap stars that are able to deliver what the mass audience wants….whatever that is. The folks controlling the music industry are all as old as the rappers. When I came into this industry at 30 years old, I was often the oldest person in sight. Today, the industry is made up of folks 30+. How can someone so far away from teenagers in age know what a teenager wants to buy? They are still the bulk of the music buying public. And the folks running most of the labels are my age or older! No wonder the music industry is so out of sync with the youth.

So, while sales have declined in urban music, the artists have been treated worse than ever. They’ve been asked to give up a larger share of their already limited income, and the labels rationalize this by the fact that there are more artists than ever to choose from. Talent doesn’t enter into the business decisions as it once did, or as it should. The music has suffered because it has been created to fit established radio formats (which are bought and paid for through payola) rather than made to be creative and artistic. Artists are controlled through money and financial incentives, and are quickly replaced when they don’t conform. Greed has taken over the industry and artists’ mindsets (most, not all), and drives the current urban music industry. The barrier for entry has been lowered and allows anyone with access and a business card a way in to make his or her share of the pie—usually without delivering what was promised. This industry is very shady and the majority of people can not, or do not, deliver what they promise. And it’s aging quickly.

Yet all in all, it is a fame based industry where glamour seems to reign supreme. People continue to want in and are willing to do anything to get in. It’s an industry that is built on smoke and mirrors and hype and sells dreams for profit. And the truth is, I can’t imagine doing anything else in the world than being right here in the middle of it all, trying to do what’s right and make sense of it.

In the past decade, overall, I’ve seen things grow exponentially worse even though the access has opened and the playing field has been leveled with the internet. I believe the key to on-going success in this music business economy is two-fold: 1) We need to get rid of the old guard—fire everyone who has played a part in getting us to this point, and start over. Everyone! We need to set the standard of doing good and fair business with a consequence for those who get excessively greedy or who jerk people. Those of us in positions of power for years are too set in our ways and remember the days of huge income too readily and we need to be replaced by folks with no expectations and who are willing to embrace the future no matter what it brings. And 2) we need to bring it back to the music and deliver what the fans want, how they want to access it, and what they are willing to pay for. With the internet it’s even easier to tap into research and development of the music and deliver what is needed and wanted. If it’s a customer based business, we need to treat it as such. The artists need to be talented and compensated fairly for what they bring to the table. Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift, and Susan Boyle have proven in 2009 that people will buy what they want to buy—by the millions. In the next decade, let’s give them what they want, shall we? Before the music completely dies.

2009-11-30T07:38:00.001-08:00

SCAM AFTA SCAM: A TRUE STORY

OZONE investigates how a new breed of greedy artist managers and booking agents, led by Gucci Mane’s representatives, are sucking the blood out of the music industry.
by Julia Beverly (this article also appears in the upcoming print edition of OZONE Mag)

To continue reading in PDF format with images (recommended)
http://www.ozonemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/ScamAftaScamArticle_lowres.pdf
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To comment on this article, http://www.ozonemag.com/2009/11/30/scam-afta-scam

“Johnnie [Cabbell] is the grand vampire,” proclaims legendary Chicago-based promoter Godfather. For over twenty years, Godfather has been promoting concerts through his company Star Power Entertainment Group. He estimates his losses from bad business deals with Johnnie Cabbell and Debra Antney to be nearly $100,000. “I don’t work with Johnnie anymore,” he states emphatically. “He sucks the blood out of you.”
As the CEO of Hitt Afta Hitt (otherwise known as HAH), Johnnie Cabbell is Gucci Mane’s exclusive booking agent and also manages Bankhead rapper Shawty Lo. Johnnie’s “partner in crime,” Godfather says, is Debra Antney, who describes herself as Gucci Mane’s “business partner and manager.” As CEO of Gucci’s So Icey Records and the management company Mizay Entertainment, Antney also oversees the careers of OJ da Juiceman, Nicki Minaj, and others. Multiple promoters from across the country allege that Cabbell and Antney have collaborated to defraud them collectively of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

THE SO ICEY TOUR

Scheduled for at least 12 cities in July 2009, the So Icey Tour was supposed to feature OJ da Juiceman, Nicki Minaj, and the headliner, Gucci Mane. It sounded promising. Gucci’s buzz was at an all-time high. He had just returned home from prison a few months earlier to ecstatic crowds at “Welcome Home Gucci” parties throughout the South. His artist/protégé OJ had been steadily building a buzz of his own and helping to keep Gucci’s name alive by flooding the streets with mixtapes and fresh material. They were both hot commodities. And in an industry nearly void of female artists, up-and-coming emcee/sex symbol Nicki Minaj was quickly building a name for herself, strengthened by her affiliations with Lil Wayne and Gucci Mane. The timing seemed perfect.

But by all accounts, the “tour,” organized by a Carolina-based promoter named Shannon Marshall, was a mess and fell apart almost immediately. None of the artists showed up for the first two Florida dates (July 4th & 5th), leaving veteran promoter Mr. CC (who, like Godfather in Chicago, has been successfully promoting concerts for over 20 years) with losses of over $140,000. He claims that nearly half of that money, around $70,000, is in the hands of Cabbell/Antney, who refuse to return the deposits or reschedule his dates.

On July 19th, 2009, midway through the scheduled tour dates, Soulja Boy tweeted, “My nigga Gucci back in jail. Free Gucci.” (right) Rumors quickly spread that Gucci had again violated the terms of his probation and was back in jail (or rehab). Although Gucci’s management and label denied the rehab rumors and it’s still unclear exactly where Gucci was in mid-July, it’s clear where he wasn’t: He wasn’t on the So Icey Tour. Of the 12 scheduled tour dates, OZONE has confirmed that at least six, but probably more of these shows (Jacksonville, FL; Pompano Beach/Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Louisville, KY; Chicago, IL; Baltimore, MD; and Detroit, MI) never happened, leaving furious promoters demanding refunds.

That’s a less than fifty percent success rate. “People get fired for those type of numbers in baseball,” laughs Baltimore attorney Paul W. Gardner, of the Gardner Law Group. Gardner spoke to OZONE on behalf of his client, who also lost “a significant sum of money” by booking the So Icey Tour for a stop in Baltimore on July 18th, the day before word of Gucci’s alleged re-incarceration leaked on the ‘net.

“[About] four days before the event, [Cabbell/Antney] said that [Gucci] might not show up,” says Gardner. “Later we found out it was because he was in some sort of rehab facility.” Gardner declined to reveal the exact amount of the deposit, but based on other promoters’ experiences, it is reasonable to assume his client’s total losses were in the range of $40,000-50,000.

When Gardner’s client attempted to reschedule the date, So Icey suddenly changed their story. “They said, ‘How can we reschedule something we don’t have the [deposit] for?’” he laughs. It’s a theme that is repeated over and over in other promoters’ stories: after months of contracts, wire transfers, and conversations, Cabbell/Antney suddenly played dumb, either pointing the finger at each other or hiding behind a complex web of multiple contracts with middlemen.

The So Icey Tour dates were officially contracted through two other entities: reputable New York-based booking agency Ujaama Entertainment, and the much less reputable third-party agent Shannon Marshall. Both of them apparently kept a small percentage of the deposits as a booking fee before sending the bulk of the funds to Cabbell/Antney, presumably to secure all three artists. Because of the complicated paper trail, most of the various promoters’ attempts to legally retrieve their deposits have been difficult and thus far unsuccessful.

“I’m not sure if it’s on purpose,” notes Attorney Gardner, “but [the way the contracts are written up] are very nasty and sinister. It’s multi-layered. From a legal standpoint, when someone does something wrong to you, you can sue that person. Person A sues Person B; laymen understand that [concept]. But the problem arises when a middleman is included and the person on the backend does the harm. Person A has to sue Person B to get to Person C, but in this situation, Person B’s contract says ‘You can’t sue me.’ With the [So Icey Tour] contracts, Person A is the promoter. Person B is Ujaama [and/or Shannon], Person C is Johnnie, Person D is Deb, and E is the artist.” For this reason, he explains, proceeding with a lawsuit is both a difficult and costly endeavor. “Because of the difficulty of the third-party situation, I have to prove which party has the money,” he explains. “Or maybe it’s all of them.”

Complicating the matter even further, the agents’ contracts state that they cannot be sued in the event of a breach of contract. Although this clause is standard in most booking contracts where the agent is only a broker for the artist, Gardner advises his clients to cross it out before signing. “You can’t do business with people you can’t sue,” he says. “It’s legally impossible.”

Ujaama’s attorneys have advised them not to comment on the matter due to pending litigation. Shannon Marshall, who did not return numerous calls for comment, appears to be in hiding. Most of the promoters interviewed have not been able to reach him at all since the cancelled tour dates. “I guess Shannon was a guy that got caught up with them thinking they were good businesspeople over there at Mizay Entertainment and found out they weren’t,” theorizes Godfather. “They were double-booking shows and Johnnie was taking all the deposits.”

Unanimously, the disgruntled So Icey Tour promoters say their money vanished into the hands of Cabbell and Antney. Although the initial deposits were wired to Ujaama, most of the promoters have seen confirmed wire transfer receipts that verify the money ended up in Antney’s bank account. Many have done business with Ujaama for years and never experienced similar issues. “I’ve dealt with Ujaama [before] and never had a problem, so if they say they [sent] the money to the next person, I tend to believe them,” adds Attorney Gardner, who compares the scenario to the sleight-of-hand shell game (left) practiced by street magicians. “It’s like being on the beach and watching the guys with the coconut shells. We just don’t know whose hand is on the coconut.”

“I’ve had a great relationship booking artists with Ujaama for over ten years and I really didn’t wanna get into a legal battle with them. [In the past,] if [an artist] didn’t show up, Ujaama promptly refunded my money. But this? This is a nightmare,” says a frustrated Mr. CC. “I’m out so much money right now that I don’t have a choice. Legally, I have to sue Ujaama. Then Ujaama has to sue Shannon, who disappeared, and then Shannon’s gotta sue Gucci’s management.”

Godfather, while emphasizing that his Ujaama representative Dave Nelson is “a good dude,” blames the fiasco on Cabbell/Antney. “[Ujaama] did a good job of trying to sit down and work the [So Icey Tour] situation out, but [Johnnie and Deb] didn’t want to. If you had $300,000 in deposits, would you want to ‘work it out’?” he asks. “Who’s going to come down to Atlanta and mess with an old lady and go to jail? That’s why you have to sue [Deb]. Everybody else is suing her too.”

Attorney Gardner agrees that hundreds of thousands of dollars appear to have vanished. “The one [deposit] my client sent was a significant sum, and if you multiply that by a 10+ city tour, that’s a hefty bill they have to return. Somebody has the money and can’t repay it,” he reasons. “I don’t know if it’s Johnnie, Deb, or Ujaama. We don’t know how deep the rabbit hole goes, but what’s in the dark always comes to light. If my client decides to sue, we will get to the bottom of it. Multiple defendants always end up telling on each other.”

MODERN DAY SLAVERY

While it’s clear that Ujaama, Shannon, Cabbell, and Antney all received a piece of the So Icey Tour pie, it’s unclear how much – if any – of the initial hundreds of thousands of dollars in show deposits actually went to the artists. It appears that none of it went to OJ da Juiceman or Nicki Minaj, and it’s questionable how much the headliner Gucci received, if any.

Chicago-based John Mosley of Power Move Promotions, a.k.a. John Doe, believes Gucci received little or nothing of the upfront deposits. Since 1997, Mosley has been successfully promoting events in Chicago, Miami, and Atlanta with artists like R Kelly, Jeremih, Twista, Too Short, Gorilla Zoe, and Plies. He partnered with Godfather for the Chicago So Icey Tour date. Although he didn’t reveal the source of his information, Mosley claims that Gucci is locked into a 360 deal with So Icey/Asylum/Warner, and a good portion of the initial show deposits goes to the label, So Icey, which Deb controls. “Gucci Mane is a slave, man,” says Mosley. “Call him and ask him how much of the [show deposits] he’s actually getting.”

360 deals, which are the norm in today’s digital music world, guarantee record labels a percentage of their artists’ revenue from many different sources, including touring. A high-ranking executive at Warner Music Group wouldn’t disclose the exact terms of Gucci Mane’s deal, but did confirm that 360 deals are now standard. “All new [record] deals are inclusive to everything [including a percentage of show monies]. It’s a full-fledged deal,” says the exec. If true, it would appear that large portions of the show deposits (the 50% upfront) are being pocketed by Cabbell and Antney, and the artists themselves don’t get paid at all until they actually show up for the show and receive the back-end money – which could explain why Cabbell/Antney don’t appear to be too concerned if the shows actually happen.
Another source familiar with 360 deals at WMG doubted that Warner itself would have received a portion of the show deposits, stating that the artists’ performance revenue isn’t closely monitored by the major label.

Regardless, “I’m sure Gucci never saw any portion of the deposit,” insists Attorney Gardner. “The artist [only] gets the back end when he shows up [to the show]. I’ve seen it [in other situations]. The label tells the artist, ‘You have fees.’ It’s just business. If Gucci owes them $10,000 for bottles or flights or jewelry, they’re gonna take 100% of what’s owed out of the [deposit].”

FEDERAL FRAUD

The most sinister element of the scenario is the fact that it appears Antney/Cabbell continued accepting show deposits throughout much of the Fall 2009, fully knowing that Gucci would not be able to leave the state of Georgia. They allegedly told one promoter that they were simply “hoping” the judge would clear Gucci Mane’s legal obligations.

According to Attorney Gardner, conspiracy to commit federal fraud (which can bring both civil and criminal charges) “involves two or more people coming together to fraudulently take someone’s money.” Accepting deposits and signing contracts for show dates that legally cannot happen is fraud, and money has been wired across state lines, potentially making it a federal offense.

Taking it a step further, Gardner implies that Gucci himself could be liable for criminal fraud charges, even though he didn’t personally sign the contracts. “The state [of Georgia] already has Gucci [imprisoned], and the Feds are licking their chops to get him on something,” notes Gardner, who is also advising his clients to demand that artists personally sign booking contracts in addition to their management. “If you want to hire Gucci Mane, there should be one page with Gucci Mane’s signature saying, ‘I know about this date, and I agree to be there.’ Tie him into it legally.”

Attorney Gardner notes that both he and his client had previous dealings with Deb, before her stint as Gucci Mane’s manager, which were “extremely positive.” So although his client is not currently pursuing criminal charges, Gardner adds, “I wouldn’t play with it [if I were them]. I’d say Johnnie, Deb, and Gucci need to meet and figure out where the money is, [because] any attorney that really wants to spend some time on this could make things interesting for them.”

PITTSBURGH, PA

Even if Gardner’s client chooses not to go that route, it appears that Pittsburgh attorney Jim Cook, who represents promoter William Marshall of B. Marshall Productions, is preparing to “make things interesting” for Deb and Johnnie. Marshall, along with his partner Derrick Brown of Rock Star Entertainment, invested nearly $50,000 for two Gucci Mane dates that never happened. Their pending lawsuit alleges that “[Radric ‘Gucci Mane’] Davis/Cabbell/Antney have continued to book shows, take money from other associates & clients, refuse to return deposits or lost promotion expenses, and reschedule show dates, although they are/were aware that Gucci Mane is not allowed to leave Georgia..thereby committing a state and federal fraud.” In addition to a civil lawsuit on behalf of Marshall, Cook is threatening to turn the case over to the Pennsylvania Attorney General and the FBI for investigation into criminal fraud charges.

In June 2009, Marshall wired $27,500 to Hitt Afta Hitt and So Icey Entertainment to book Gucci Mane for a show on August 22nd, 2009. He also spent an additional $13,500 to begin promoting the show and secure the venue. About a month later, in mid-July, Marshall heard the rumors of Gucci Mane’s imprisonment and immediately contacted Johnnie and Deb, concerned about his $41,000 investment.

On August 5th, Deb and Johnnie assured Marshall both verbally and in a written letter on HAH letterhead (below) that the show was “in good standing” and would proceed. They also offered similar assurances to G. Rowell, an associate of Marshall’s in Washington D.C. who had another upcoming Gucci Mane show. Based on these guarantees, Marshall continued spending money to promote the event. Just two days before the scheduled date, he was notified by Deb that Gucci Mane would not attend. She refused to return his $27,500 deposit or cover any of the $13,500+ he lost promoting the show.

“At no time would Cabbell/Antney explain Gucci Mane’s confinement or restriction or the length thereof, and both were aware that Gucci Mane could not make the Pittsburgh or DC show dates when they issued the letters [on August 5, 2009],” Marshall’s pending lawsuit continues.

Several weeks later, Marshall was issued a new contract for a rescheduled date and guaranteed a video drop to help salvage his reputation in the city. Video and/or audio drops are typically used by promoters on radio or TV commercials to prove to local fans that the show is legitimate (for example, “Hey, this is Gucci Mane, and I’ll be in Pittsburgh on November 7th!”) After two months of waiting for the video drop, which was never received, Gucci was again a no-show for the rescheduled date.
“Why are [they] continuing to book shows and Gucci Mane doesn’t have movement yet?” asked Godfather, during our interview in late October. “What if the judge says no when he goes to court?” It appears Cabbell/Antney continued scheduling dates for Gucci, including Birmingham, AL, Chicago, IL (Nov. 19th), Lakeland, FL (Nov. 28th), and Houston, TX (Dec. 27th), even as he was legally unable to leave the state of Georgia.

And as it turns out, the judge did say “no.” On November 12th, 2009, Gucci was led away in handcuffs from a court hearing and sentenced to twelve months in prison (he may only be required to serve six months; his lawyer, Dwight L. Thomas, is optimistic and told MTV News that Gucci could possibly be released as soon as the first of the year with good behavior).

The second paragraph of Marshall’s contract with Hitt Afta Hitt explicitly states, “In the event that Artist fails to appear, 100% of the show money is guaranteed to be refunded to the Purchaser.” But despite the written guarantee, as of press time, Marshall has not been refunded the $27,500 deposit that Cabbell/Antney have held for over six months, not to mention the money he lost on promotion, the credibility he lost as a promoter, and the money he could’ve made had he invested those funds elsewhere.

FLORIDA

Around the same time B. Marshall sent his Pittsburgh deposit, Florida promoter Mr. CC of Mr. CC Productions (right) says he wired $105,000 to the Shannon/Ujaama/Cabbell/Antney collective to secure three consecutive dates on the So Icey Tour - July 4th (Pompano Beach), 5th (Jacksonville), and 6th (Orlando). According to Mr. CC, his contract with Shannon Marshall – who then had contracts in turn with Ujaama, Cabbell, and Antney - stated that the total $55,000 fee was all-inclusive, meaning that CC was not responsible to pay additional travel expenses (OZONE was not able to obtain copies of these contracts and was therefore unable to verify the specifics of the travel arrangements).

On July 4th, says Mr. CC, “I spoke to Shannon the evening of the [first date] and he said [the artists] were on their way.” He never heard from Shannon again and the artists never showed up. Frantic, he tried to contact Ujaama, So Icey, and Hitt Afta Hitt – and the following day, no one showed up for the second date either.

By the time Mr. CC finally got in touch with Johnnie, he says, word had spread that Gucci and co. were no-shows for the tour dates. “[Johnnie] told me the artists didn’t come [to Jacksonville and Pompano Beach] because we didn’t send them travel money,” reveals Mr. CC, who says that his reaction was one of shock. “’Travel?!? My contract doesn’t say anything about travel. It’s all inclusive. It’s stated specifically in our contracts!’ They said my contract [with Shannon] was wrong.”

Johnnie told him the only way to make the Orlando date happen was to send $10,000 – that same day – for travel expenses. To salvage his name, Mr. CC paid the $10,000 immediately and Gucci and OJ did perform in Orlando on July 6th (but no Nicki Minaj – Johnnie refunded Mr. CC only $3,000 for Nicki’s no-show, while during the same timeframe, he was charging promoters upwards of $7,500 to book her). The previous no-shows, CC says, seriously hindered the turn-out. “We lost $30,000 in Orlando,” he sighs, noting that the local crowd didn’t think the artists were coming. “Those other two Florida no-shows directly affected the Orlando date.”

“Johnnie and Deb admitted that they did receive the [deposits] for all three dates. No one ever called me [prior to the shows] about travel [expenses],” insists Mr. CC. “Not once. They had all my information and nobody called me, so I had no idea [that travel was an issue].”

Between the $30,000 loss in Orlando, the $35,000 Jacksonville deposit, the $35,000 Pompano deposit, and an estimated $40,000 he spent securing venues, radio commercials, flyers, and other forms of promotion, Mr. CC calculates his losses to be over $140,000. And on top of that, he alleges that Johnnie personally robbed him of an additional $5,000. “I said, ‘Look, man. I just need those two makeup dates because I’m out a lot of money. I’ll deal with the travel,’” recalls CC. “He said if I sent him a $5,000 [booking fee], he would work it out for me. He didn’t work it out, and now he refuses to refund my $5,000. He’s lost his damn mind, because I’ve never heard of that in my life. Holding money for a booking fee for an event that never happened?”

CC even agreed to pay the additional $10,000 travel fee per date, even though he says it wasn’t included on his initial contract, just for the opportunity to try to recoup some of his losses. “I just want my damn dates!” he exclaims. After months of getting the runaround from Johnnie, who insisted that he would reschedule, the story suddenly changed. “Now he’s blaming it on Ujaama and Shannon. He’s saying, ‘We didn’t get paid for travel, so it’s a breach of contract. We don’t have to give you back your money.’”

“I guess I have to do a lawsuit that includes everybody,” sighs Mr. CC. “I have to go after all of them for my money and let the judge decide who’s gotta pay. Somebody’s gotta pay for damages – potential earnings and the losses I incurred while going through all of this.”

JOHNNIE CABBELL

Cabbell told Atlanta newspaper Creative Loafing, which briefly investigated the fraud allegations, “I’ve been doing business since 2002, and I never [before] had a problem with any promoter.” But OZONE found plenty.

“If any promoter deals with [Johnnie Cabbell], [it’s because] they just don’t know. I’m not gonna do business with him ever again. I’m done,” says Mosley. Several promoters didn’t want to speak on the record to avoid “burning bridges” or damage pending dates, but many have a negative impression of Cabbell as a businessman. One word that kept coming up over and over again: “disrespect.” And phrases like, “I just don’t like his attitude.”

At worst, Johnnie Cabbell is conspiring with Debra Antney & co. to commit federal fraud. At the very least, he’s a liar, according to promoter Jesse Peak (left).
“That whole camp is fucked up. Johnnie is someone who continually tells you he’s gonna do something and then doesn’t do it. He promised me 200% support [on my show],” says Peak, who followed up a successful Plies show in Orlando by booking Gucci Mane in New Orleans in May 2009. In early 2009 when he sent a deposit for Plies [to his booking agent Coach], he promptly received a phone call with a voice drop, an email with eight pre-recorded studio drops, and met Plies at a local radio station to film a video drop for promotional TV commercials.

Impressed with Plies’ camp and their professionalism, he then contacted Gucci Mane’s agent expecting the same courtesy. “I told [Johnnie], ‘This is what I expect from you.’ He promised me radio drops as soon as I sent my deposit. They promised video drops so I [paid extra] to book TV commercials,” recalls Peak. But after sending his $21,000 deposit, weeks went by with no response. Finally, HAH directed him to the Mizay/So Icey office, where he also spent several weeks calling with no response.
“Once Johnnie gets your money it’ll be at least a week before he picks up his phone again,” concurs Godfather, who also never received drops for multiple Shawty Lo shows before his attempted Gucci Mane booking. “Johnnie must be busier than damn [Barack] Obama,” snorts Mr. CC. “I have to call eight or ten times before I can get him on the phone, and he’s always ‘busy.’”

According to Peak, his show’s turnout suffered without drops to add credibility to the promotion. “The city of New Orleans thought it was a fake [Gucci show], just some bullshit, because I didn’t have any [drops].” Also, when he brought the balance of $17,500 cash to Gucci Mane’s road manager G-Boy on the day of the show, he was told that he had to pay an additional $3,500 for travel or Gucci Mane would not perform. Peak’s contract does state that he was responsible for travel – however, he claims that So Icey/Hitt Afta Hitt never told him the cost or details of the travel even after repeated calls to their offices inquiring.

Some people have successfully booked shows through Cabbell. “We haven’t booked Gucci Mane, but I haven’t had any issues dealing with Johnnie Cabbell or Hitt Afta Hitt when I’ve booked Shawty Lo through them,” states Amy Jurkofski of Atlanta-based booking agency The Music Group. Tallahassee, FL promoter Willie McKenzie, who booked Gucci Mane to perform at Florida A&M University’s homecoming this past October, received his deposit back (from a third-party booking agency, not Hitt Afta Hitt) when Gucci was unable to perform due to his legal troubles.

If there’s one thing Johnnie has done right, it’s lock down a niche in a previously untapped market. While Hollywood actors and actresses have a wide selection of agencies to choose from and New York-based acts or major pop/R&B artists are often represented by established agencies like the William Morris Agency (WMA), ICM Talent, or Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the recent explosion of Southern rap left a void waiting to be filled. At least in Atlanta, Cabbell helped fill that void by representing many of the smaller acts that sprang up.

“Johnnie came to me for advice on how to do [bookings],” says Coach of Florida-based Direct Connect Entertainment, a reputable agent who has been booking shows for over 15 years. Currently, Coach is Plies’ exclusive booking agent (pictured at left together). “I’m not saying I trained [Johnnie], but I kinda lectured him on the business when he first started out,” Coach recalls. “And as far as what he does [now] I’m not 100% pleased, and he knows that. He’s never put me in a bad position, but I’m hearing stories from other people saying that he has. He’s never done me wrong, I guess because of his respect level for me or because he knows I wouldn’t tolerate that type of behavior.”

Pittsburgh promoter B. Marshall agrees. “[Johnnie] does a lot of deals with dope boys because he knows they won’t go the legal route. He wouldn’t try to pull some of these moves on [someone like well-known Atlanta promoter] Alex [Gidewon of AG Entertainment] because he won’t get away with it.”

Some of Cabbell’s affiliates defend him. “I think [Johnnie’s] reputation comes from being a hard-nosed businessman,” says South Carolina DJ Chuck T. “He’s known for having crazy ass riders… but he’ll bring in one of the lesser-known groups he fucks with and have them open up. So basically you get a good deal on booking artists but at the expense of bringing one of his new artists and paying for their shit.” Marcus “Rip” Rippy, of Hoodrich Entertainment, echoes the same sentiment. “I’ve seen Johnnie at work and I can understand why some people could feel the way they do. But the truth is that he goes hard for his artists. They are his top priority.”

California-based DJ Nik Bean (left) disagrees, arguing that Johnnie’s bad business practices hinder his artists more than help them. Billing himself as “LA’s Mixtape King,” Nik Bean has toured with Cali up-and-comer Glasses Malone and worked with many other West Coast favorites like Daz, Kurupt, and Nipsey Hussle. Prior to the BET Awards in June 2008, Nik says, he contacted Shawty Lo to inquire about doing some work with him as a DJ.

“[The experience] changed my perception of [Shawty Lo],” says Nik, bitterly. “I liked his music but [dealing with Johnnie] made me question him. Like, ‘Why are you doing business with this guy?’ I can’t say anything bad about Lo, but I’m not doing no more business with Johnnie, period, point blank. And I’ll make sure he can’t do business out here [in L.A.].”

As Shawty Lo’s manager, Cabbell asked Nik for a favor. “[Johnnie] was like, “We’re gonna be out there [in L.A.] for the BET Awards. Set something up for me; get me some money,” recalls Nik. “I made some calls and got the ball rolling on a situation for him to make some show money.” As other promoters got involved, Nik sensed things getting too complicated and backed away. “I was supposed to get some money off the show but the situation got too sticky. I saw too many sharks in the tank, so once I realized I was gonna get screwed, I’m not a professional booker, so I just said ‘fuck it.’”

Johnnie agreed to “make the situation right” with Nik by promising him a Shawty Lo verse for his digital album. Shawty Lo got his money for the LA show Nik set up, but Nik never got his verse. “I had everything ready,” recalls Nik. “I had Glasses Malone do the hook, and we put the beat together. We left an open verse for Shawty Lo. The song was custom-made for him, ‘Concerns of A D-Boy,’ right up his lane. Johnnie promised me, ‘I got you. No problem,’ and I assumed that since he’s Shawty Lo’s manager, it was official. I didn’t think people would do business like this; it just didn’t make sense to me. I would think an artist of that caliber would have the sense to have a decent manager.”

After the BET Awards, four months passed. Nik called Johnnie’s phone repeatedly only to hear, “Yo, I’m in a meeting.” “He kept bullshitting me; I heard the same thing four or five times,” says Nik. “I could smell the bullshit from a mile away. How many ‘meetings’ could you have?”

Nik never received the promised verse. “I told Johnnie, ‘Don’t ever come back out here [to L.A.],’” Nik recalls. “It’s not a [physical] threat, but I meant, ‘Don’t try to [break] no records here.’ There’s other people in the game like [him] too. I guess I’m too nice. If I ever get wind of Johnnie trying to work a record out here, best believe I’m gonna try to shut that shit down.” While it might appear a minor incident, Nik felt personally insulted. “I was so mad because I helped him make money in my city. It’s disrespectful and foul.”

Personally, I’ve had my share of problems with Johnnie. The first was a feature I booked for Shawty Lo for an independent label. Johnnie quoted me $10,000 and I set up the deal for $12,000. I sent the record and the paperwork to Johnnie’s email and waited several weeks as he continually assured me that Shawty Lo would get the verse done. When I later learned that Johnnie had contacted the artist directly after seeing their name on the paperwork and charged them $12,000 for the feature, pocketing my commission, I confronted him. He claimed to not know that it was the same feature I had set up – even though I had emailed him the record three weeks prior. I reluctantly gave him the benefit of the doubt and let it slide.

Then, I booked Shawty Lo to host a party at Las Vegas nightclub Prive on a Monday night with Johnnie’s explicit assurance that he would perform two songs from the DJ booth to satisfy the club’s expectations for the event. I was awakened at 5 AM East Coast time on the night of the event to a conference call/screaming match between Johnnie, the club’s manager, and one of the club owners – a huge mess which went on for hours until Shawty Lo calmly took the phone from Johnnie and agreed to fulfill the requirements of the date. Problem solved. The manager is supposed to fix things for the artist – not the other way around.

Diamond, who was a standout member of the group Crime Mob (represented by Cabbell) before launching her solo career, feels that Deb, not Johnnie, is primarily to blame for the bad business. “I’ve heard of [promoters] having situations with Johnnie, but when I was dealing with him, he was about his business. I haven’t had problems with him myself. It’s about 50/50. I know some people that don’t fuck with him and some people that do fuck with him,” says Diamond. “But I don’t deal with Deb at all and I don’t wanna ever deal with Deb. I’ve heard her attitude is fucked up and her business is fucked up. I’ve never heard anybody have anything nice to say about Deb.”

DEBRA ANTNEY

Often confused as Gucci Mane’s “auntie” because of her last name, Debra Antney is actually not a blood relative of the rapper. She is, however, the mother of up and coming So Icey rapper Waka Flocka Flame (pictured at right together). 49-year-old Deb made the unlikely transition from a non-profit organization called Rah Rah’s Village of Hope and popped up on the scene as Gucci Mane’s manager after bonding with him at a charity event a few years ago.

And yet even with a background in non-profit and charity organizations, many people who’ve dealt with her question her integrity. “[Deb] is the ringleader behind the desk,” says Godfather. “She’s got everybody by the nuts. She’s robbing everybody over there [at So Icey/Mizay], and Johnnie is her partner in crime.”

Some evidence appears to corroborate this. Although most of the promoters’ anger is directed at Cabbell, it appears that bad business practices existed in the So Icey/Mizay camp long before Cabbell/HAH got involved in March 2009. A high turnover rate within both entities and poor communication between the two appears to have only complicated the existing problems.

ROCKFORD, IL

A year ago, in the fall of 2008, Gucci Mane’s asking price was $15,000 plus expenses. Illinois party promoter Yungwaun (left) booked him through So Icey/Mizay for $17,500 plus expenses – a premium rate for a holiday performance. Gucci was scheduled to perform in Rockford, IL on Halloween (October 31st, 2008). Yungwaun sent a $10,000 deposit along with several thousand dollars for travel, secured a venue, and began spending money advertising the show.

“No one ever [contacted me] to let me know that he wouldn’t make the date,” he says. On September 12th, 2008, a month and a half before Yungwaun’s scheduled show, Gucci appeared in court for a probation violation hearing. Various websites reported that Gucci, who had been convicted of assault in 2005 and sentenced to probation, had failed to meet his required community service hours (he was required to serve 50 hours a month and had only clocked in 25 hours over a three year time period). In addition, he had reportedly tested positive for ecstasy, marijuana, and alcohol during a random drug test. The judge revoked one year of his probation and sent him to jail.

Concerned, Yungwaun contacted So Icey/Mizay to find out the status of his show deposit. Severe Green, a So Icey employee, told him that it was not her responsibility to handle his show because the original person he dealt with at the company had already taken a commission and no longer worked there. After repeated inquiries, Severe assured Yungwaun that the show would move forward as planned and advised him to continue promoting, but he was skeptical. “My investor said, ‘No one’s gonna come because [they know] Gucci is locked up,’” says Yungwaun. “It’s all over the internet.”

Two weeks before the scheduled date, he was officially notified that Gucci Mane would not be attending. Naturally, he wanted his money back. But So Icey/Mizay refused to refund Yungwaun’s $10,000 deposit, first claiming that the “force majeure” clause in the contract released them from the obligation. According to Wikipedia, force majeure is “a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, crime, or an event described by the legal term “act of God” (e.g. flooding, earthquake, volcanic eruption), prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their obligations under the contract.” Clearly, Gucci Mane popping pills, smoking weed, failing to do community service, and therefore returning to prison on a probation violation does not qualify as an “act of God” (continues Wikipedia: “force majeure is not intended to excuse negligence or other malfeasance”).

So Icey/Mizay held Yungwaun’s money for over six months. When Gucci Mane was finally scheduled to be released in March 2009, he says, “[Gucci] was so booked up [So Icey] wouldn’t even tell me when he was getting out.” Instead of scheduling a make-up date at his initial contracted price of $17,500, So Icey/Mizay tried to sell him a date for $30,000. “They told me I couldn’t get a date unless I paid the [difference of $12,500],” recalls Yungwaun. “I told them they must be out of their mind, because I had a contract.”

After months of back and forth, Yungwaun, who could not afford the $30,000 price tag, reluctantly accepted his deposit back – minus a $500 commission. “They kept the commission for a show that never happened!” he laughs bitterly. “They held my money for six months! They had $10,000 just sitting there. Plus I had [paid for] commercials and flyers. I lost the potential to make money; I could have made more [money] off the show than I spent.”

Around the time of Gucci’s release from prison in March 2009, So Icey/Mizay handed over the booking responsibilities to Cabbell and Hitt Afta Hitt. Due to a combination of factors (including OJ’s buzz, a slew of Gucci Mane mixtape material floating around, and an overall slump in the music business) the street demand for Gucci Mane had risen during his incarceration. According to simple economic theory, a combination of high demand and low supply (because of his unavailability) equals an increase in price. So during the span of his 6-month incarceration, Gucci’s asking price magically rose from $15,000 to over $40,000. And instead of honoring the previous contracts that had never been satisfied, So Icey/Mizay allowed Johnnie to double or even triple the original prices.

“There’s no way I would have charged [the promoters] more,” says Coach. “For their inconvenience, they should be charged the same price [as their initial contract] or even given a discount. When an artist fails to show, not only is the [promoter’s] name and character at risk, but [the promoter] has incurred a lot of advertising expenses. The radio money, the flyer money, the street team, the venue rental…he’s not gonna get any of that money back. So there’s no way he should have to pay more, because he already lost [money] the first time the artist didn’t show. The booking agent’s responsibility is to get all the money that was sent [for the deposit] returned.” Beyond that, Coach says, the promoter would have to sue the artist directly for breach of contract to attempt to recover funds lost on promotional expenses. “Some [promoters] have won [additional monies in a lawsuit] for damages when the artist couldn’t give a legitimate excuse for not being there.”

CHICAGO, IL

Less than a hundred miles away, promoters Godfather (right) and John Mosley (below right) experienced similar drama when they teamed up to bring Gucci Mane to Chicago, IL in the fall of 2008. Their contract was for $15,000. Since Gucci Mane was incarcerated on the date of the scheduled show, So Icey/Mizay promised to reschedule. Mosley estimates that he had to call So Icey at least 200 times before they finally confirmed a make-up date.

After the make-up date was confirmed and they had been advertising for four weeks, Godfather says, Cabbell suddenly tripled the price. “[Johnnie] called and said someone else wanted the date [for a higher price],” Godfather recalls. “I don’t care that his stock went up. That’s why you invest. I lost over $15,000 [on the deposit and promotions] and they held my deposit for a whole year!”

Johnnie threatened to book a show with another promoter in the same city if they didn’t agree to match the offer. “We were only supposed to owe $8,000 [on the back-end to So Icey/Mizay],” confirms Mosley. “But Johnnie got involved and said he was getting thousands of calls [for shows in Chicago] from promoters who want to give him $40,000, and we’re gonna have to match those offers, even though we already had a contract!”

Cabbell refused to honor the $15,000 contract, saying that Gucci was hot in the market and deserved more. Laughs Mosley, “Right! I made him hot in the market! They played his records on the radio because we spent so much money [promoting his show] with the station.”

To avoid losing the date to another promoter, Godfather and Mosley ultimately agreed to pay Cabbell $42,500 for Gucci Mane, plus a $10,000 travel fee – a total of $52,500, plus the money already gone down the drain on advertising and venue rental fees. Why did they continue spending money rather than demanding their deposit back? “I’ve been promoting shows for 20 years and in this market I have a reputation to uphold,” explains Godfather. “My name means more to me [than money].”

Almost a year after sending their initial deposit, the show finally happened in May 2009 and 5,000 people showed up. According to Godfather, it was the biggest show Gucci Mane has ever done (right) [as the headliner] to this day. Mosley says there was plenty of bad blood in the city from his previous no-show. “People were threatening [Gucci’s] life,” he recalls. “The things we went through even getting him into [Chicago] and on stage alive were ridiculous.” The promoters were able to recoup their previous losses (and, one would assume, turned a hefty profit).

Several days later, Johnnie called Godfather and offered him a date on the upcoming So Icey Tour. “He told me, ‘I apologize. Let’s do another date to make it right.’ He tricked [us]. He told us he had a tour coming and he was gonna show me some love,” recalls Godfather. In retrospect, he snaps, “If this is ‘love,’ I don’t want nooooo love from him ever again.”

Godfather and Mosley agreed to book a date on the So Icey Tour for $55,000, which was scheduled to take place on July 24th, 2009. They sent a $35,000 deposit for the artists, a $5,000 booking fee which went directly to Cabbell (“Johnnie thought I was trying to go around him [by dealing with Ujaama] and said I couldn’t do another show unless I sent him $5,000 cash,” alleges Mosley), and $10,000 for travel. But after wiring over $50,000, the promoters learned that all three of the artists on the So Icey Tour were booked on their date in various other cities – so they were forced to push the date back a week, to August 1st. “Johnnie just completely lied [to me],” says Godfather. “On top of that, he knew Gucci was scheduled to take a drug test three weeks before my show and he was high as a kite.”

“I found out Gucci was in jail on Twitter,” laughs Godfather. “Johnnie never called, management never called [to tell me he wasn’t gonna make my show]. Soulja Boy said on Twitter [on July 19th] that Gucci Mane was in jail, and I know him personally, so I was asking him not to say that because he was killing my ticket sales in Chicago.” Nicki Minaj, Godfather adds, was also posting “free Gucci Mane” on her Myspace and Twitter pages less than two weeks before their scheduled event. Meanwhile, Johnnie reassured Godfather, “Gucci is straight. He’ll be at the show,” but never sent the promised drop. Shannon stopped returning calls altogether.

Less than a week before the show, Godfather says, they suddenly changed their tune. “Johnnie is like, ‘Aw, man, I don’t know [if Gucci will be able to come].’ Then he says, ‘We’ve got a bunch of deposits. How do we know we have your [money]’? I’m like, ‘What?! We’ve been talking for months! I’ve got all kinds of contracts! So now you’re trying to say you don’t have my money?’ Deb plays like she doesn’t know what’s going on and hangs up.”

So Godfather retraced the paper trail: Ujaama received the initial deposits. Ujaama in turn wired money to Shannon, who then deposited the money with Deb. “I have definite confirmation that Johnnie and Deb have my money,” says Godfather. Having spent over $50,000 plus promotional expenses, with less than week before the show, he says, Deb or Johnnie didn’t answer the phone for three days. Finally, he reached them by calling three-way through one of Gucci Mane’s bodyguards and sent copies of all the contracts, paperwork, and receipts proving that the money was transferred to Deb’s account. According to Godfather, at that point Deb finally admitted, “I don’t know if Gucci can make that date.”

“This is four days before the event!” exclaims Mosley. “When we advertise an event in Chicago, we blow it up. No one has it on lock like we do. We’ve been promoting for six weeks. 100,000 flyers, [SMS] text blasts, Facebook [invites]. Gucci Gucci Gucci! Gucci’s coming! And four days before the event, they’re telling me he’s got legal problems. Are you kidding me?”

The next day, just three days before the show, Deb demanded an additional $3,500 “security fee” that was never previously discussed and was not included in the contract or rider. They threatened a no-show if the fee was not paid. “Johnnie said my show wouldn’t happen unless I [paid for] more security. He threatened me and my business partner!” Godfather says, incredulous. “At that point, I told him, ‘Fuck you. I don’t care if any of y’all come. It’s embarrassing now.’”

“[Calling a promoter at the last minute with additional charges] is not standard practice for a booking agent,” says Coach. “Everything should be on the contract. Nothing should be added on [verbally] unless somebody defaults on the agreement that’s already in writing.”

With Gucci Mane’s status in limbo, Godfather then learned that no funds from his initial deposit had been used to secure OJ da Juiceman or Nicki Minaj, even though all three artists were supposed to perform. He took matters into his own hands and booked OJ through a local Chicago artist who had a relationship with the rapper, spending an additional $12,000 and getting a studio drop from OJ to continue promoting the show. Nicki, who was on the road with Lil Wayne’s Young Money crew on the America’s Most Wanted Tour for most of the summer, did not attend the show.

On the day of the scheduled Chicago date for the So Icey Tour (right), Godfather was informed that Gucci wouldn’t make it either. “Of the three artists I booked on the tour, OJ was the only one who came, and I had to pay him [an extra] $12,000 to salvage the show!” he exclaims. At the end of the day, Godfather estimates they lost over $90,000, including $8,000 for security, $5,000 on advertising and over $46,000 in ticket refunds that Ticketmaster issued to unhappy patrons because of Gucci Mane’s failure to appear. “I didn’t get a dime back from the ticket office,” laments Godfather. “We put signs on the door saying ‘Gucci will not be here,’ and we still got 3,500 people in there, but we had to give all that money back,” sighs Mosley. “[The fans] blamed us, saying we were false promoting. DJ Pharris had to get on the radio [in Chicago] and let people know it wasn’t our fault.”

“[The promoter] should definitely get their money back if the artist can’t fulfill the contract. Without a doubt,” says Coach. “It’s just like a [UPS] delivery. If you agreed to do a show for a certain amount and now you’re unable to do the show, you have defaulted. If [UPS] promises to deliver something and they don’t, for any reason, the bottom line is they didn’t deliver. It doesn’t matter if the tire was flat or the driver was sick or the weather was bad. The fact is, you had an agreement to deliver, and you didn’t.”

As of press time, Godfather says his $35,000 deposit has not been refunded. Godfather says that he also lost the $5,000 Johnnie pocketed as a booking fee for a show that never happened, as well as the $10,000 travel fee and $3,500 last minute security fee for artists who never arrived. “They haven’t even tried to give me my money back or reschedule the show,” says Godfather. “Getting my money back would be cool, but I want them to reschedule a date with me so I can try to save some face with the radio station. These are people who I’ve known for 20 years, and [the no-shows] ruined my name with the station, fans, and artists. I have to do a make-up show with the radio station to save face with the Program Director.”

It also hampered Godfather’s ability to continue promoting shows in his market. “All the venues here talk to each other. Even though I had no fights and people got their money back [from the Gucci Mane tickets], they still question letting me get venues. I’ve never experienced anything like this,” he adds. His credibility and reputation, he feels, are priceless.

While Johnnie and Deb refused to refund Godfather’s money or reschedule his August date, they accepted a Gucci Mane show deposit from one of his competitors, Chicago promoter Mark Yukon (that show, scheduled for November 19th, 2009, also did not happen).

“Gucci Mane can’t come to Chicago unless I okay it,” declares Godfather. “They all know it. He knows it, his security knows it. He knows his squad is messing up, so it’s on him. He can’t come here unless he works it out with me, so he’s pretty much dead in the market. The radio is gonna stop playing his record and everything. I’m a part of the reparation squad for Johnnie Cabbell’s overcharging. OJ [da Juiceman] is a good guy, but Gucci has signed his life over to Johnnie Cabbell.”

Booking back-to-back shows in the same city with two different promoters is another favorite trick of Cabbell’s. When a savvy promoter requests an exclusivity clause be included in the contract, which normally prevents an artist from performing anywhere in a certain radius for 30 days prior or 30 days after the show, HAH’s carefully worded “exclusivity clause” reads, “artist(s) are not permitted to perform two weeks before or two weeks after the date above at the listed venue,” a loophole which could technically permit Cabbell to book the same artist at two competitive venues on the same street, in the same city, on the same day.

“That’s not something I would do out of respect for the promoter I’m doing business with. You’re going to cause both people headaches,” says Coach. “That definitely shouldn’t be happening at all and that’s one of [Johnnie’s business practices] that I disagree with. I know promoters that have had real bad episodes with [Johnnie] and are displeased.”

THE VAMPIRES

Godfather feels that Cabbell’s shiesty business practices have rubbed off on other up-and-coming booking agents. Combine that with the desperation of the recession and it’s an ugly formula. “There’s a lot of guys like Johnnie now. People in Young Jeezy’s camp are doing the same thing,” mentions Godfather. “[Jeezy’s booking agent] Asha is now following standard Johnnie Cabbell practice: they call you a week before the show and threaten to not show up if you don’t send an additional $5,000 or $10,000 for travel [or security]. Then you have a choice: either cancel it and [forfeit] all the money you put into it and disappoint [the fans], or go ahead and take that $5,000 or $10,000 hit because you’ve already sold thousands of tickets. These new dudes like Johnnie are spreading venom to the managers and killing the smaller promoters. I’ve known Asha for years, but she just turned into a vampire last year. $10,000 for travel!? He’s not using jet fuel to get here. He’s using regular gas [for his tour bus]!”

“Travel buyouts” seem to be one of the vampires’ favorite ways of sucking every last drop of money out of a promoter. After Orlando, FL promoter Dawgman (left) sent in a deposit to book Shawty Lo through Cabbell in Spring 2008, in addition to the artist’s fee, he learned that he was also required to spend $4,000 on a “travel buyout” instead of booking flights himself. Johnnie explained that the fee was high because their travel agent was purchasing “refundable” tickets for the entourage, and because Shawty Lo needed to fly first-class (which is always refundable).

But on the scheduled date, Shawty Lo never showed up, and Dawgman was forced to issue refunds to his patrons to salvage his reputation in the market. During separate phone calls to the promoter and the promoter’s assistant, Cabbell and Shawty Lo’s road manager Jay provided two different reasons for Lo’s absense - one claimed he was in the hospital, while the other said he was attending an aunt’s funeral. Of the seven round-trip flights that were supposedly purchased with the $4,000 travel buyout, only three of those people showed up (the road manager and two entourage members). When the date was rescheduled, Johnnie threatened a no-show if Dawgman didn’t again pay a $4,000 travel fee. So what was the purpose of paying extra for “refundable” tickets if they weren’t really refundable? And more importantly, where did that initial $4,000 go?

“Johnnie is trying to pocket money everywhere,” complains Mosley. “He gets it any way he can get it, and he never leaves [Atlanta] to deal with the problems [on the road]. He’ll send the road manager [like Gucci Mane’s G-Boy, Shawty Lo’s Jay, or OJ da Juiceman’s Big Sam] out there to deal with the problems.”

Any hot artist with records getting regular radio spins (like Shawty Lo, back in Spring 2008) is generally working at least 3-4 nights a week – meaning that each of those three or four promoters is paying a high “travel buyout” for round trip travel. Multiply that $4,000 by 3 or 4 and if you’re really only paying one-way expenses – from each city to the next (if the artist even shows up), and you can see how it could become profitable. Let’s say Johnnie charges four promoters $4,000 each for travel expenses for Shawty Lo to go out on the road for four consecutive dates (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, for example) and only spends $10,000 on travel. Who do you think is pocketing that extra $6,000?

Mizay and So Icey seem to have gotten wise to this additional source of revenue early on in their relationship with HAH, insisting that all travel and hotel be handled through their office for Gucci Mane and OJ da Juiceman shows instead of through Johnnie. Similarly, they demand that promoters pay a high fee upfront which is wired directly to them. Traditionally, for most bookings, an “all-inclusive” artist fee means that all flights, hotel, and ground transportation is included – unless otherwise specified. But So Icey/Mizay often require a “travel buyout” and then later inform the promoter that there is also an additional “hotel buyout” due, plus ground transportation, which must also be booked through them at a premium rate. The HAH contracts generally only vaguely define the travel expenses, leaving room for “the vampires” to tack on thousands of dollars in additional fees at the last minute.

Kym Hall of Royal Pair Entertainment booked OJ da Juiceman to perform in Orlando, FL on Saturday, November 21st, 2009, and although ultimately pleased with his performance, she expressed exasperation with the Mizay/So Icey booking process and feels that they skimmed off the travel money. She claims Jamie Dixon, her So Icey representative, refused to divulge any of OJ’s basic travel information (such as when his flights were arriving, so she feared he would be a no-show) and refused to show her any receipts documenting the actual travel costs.

In addition to paying the “travel buyout” for the flights, So Icey demanded a large sum (which Hall feels was excessive, but declined to disclose the exact amount) for a “hotel buyout,” stating that OJ must be placed in a four-or-five star hotel, but refused to tell Hall where he was staying. “The only reason we found out where he was staying is because [OJ had] an ‘incident’ at the hotel and we had to go over there,” explains Hall. It turns out that Mizay/So Icey had taken her large lump sum “four-or-five star hotel buyout” and placed OJ at the SpringHill Suites Maitland, a three-star hotel at best which can be purchased online for around $80. Hall says she is demanding to see receipts and insisting that So Icey refund the difference between the amount of her “hotel buyout” and the actual amount they paid for the hotel (good luck, Kym).

BURNING BRIDGES

In the January 2009 issue of Atlanta-based Street Report Magazine, the editor General addressed his issues with Deb in his editorial (below) stemming from an OJ da Juiceman no-show at a Street Report event at Club Frequency. According to General, Deb had promised OJ’s attendance in exchange for advertising in the magazine.

“One of the 2009 topics is burning bridges and breaking your word to sell your soul for the almighty dollar,” wrote General. “What’s up to OJ da Juiceman (Chevron Shawty) for keeping the streets on fire in the A and getting to the money. I also want to add that you are a grinder and the streets are loving you but the flip side to that coin is ‘WOW’ when it comes to your management grinding just as hard as you? Debbie we are talking about you so therefore we are not going to do it like the rappers do it by subliminally sneak dissing. You know what I am talking about with the December 10th Club Frequency situation…”

General continued addressing OJ later in the editorial, adding, “A rapper can be hot today and glacier frozen like the titanic the next. So have that street/business meeting with your camp and tell them the minute that they lose focus of becoming that fucked up word in the game, that shit follows you no matter what business that you are in and people are whispering about it now but they are just keeping shit quiet is kept until they are positioned to voice their say so. Keep getting your money Juice and remember that every move is a calculated step, but your management can lose my number because their word is in the same book as George W Bush (I don’t trust what is being said to me) and for the record, I am not trying to assassinate your character (Debbie) by telling people not to deal with you. Everybody can fuck with you as far as I am concerned but I know not to fuck with you because you lied to me directly and it was not a third party lie. Street Report Magazine doesn’t want any bargains from you. Send over some ad money not a conversation. Aye!”

Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of Street Report Magazine’s bad experience when I made a similar deal with Johnnie and Deb in May 2009 to trade an advertising package in OZONE for a free OJ da Juiceman show.

After fulfilling our part of the agreement, we here at OZONE shopped around for a venue and finally settled on Club Libra in Atlanta. As the Libra representatives sat in my office prepared to sign the contract, I called Johnnie and Deb to let them know we had secured a location. Johnnie told me that OJ would not perform at Club Libra because they had “issues” with the club. After much discussion I reluctantly agreed to keep looking. Less than three weeks later, a commercial began playing on Atlanta radio for - guess who? - OJ da Juiceman performing live at Club Libra! Rather than giving OZONE the free date we had agreed on, Johnnie apparently went around me and booked the date himself.

I suppressed my urge to curse him out, opting instead to try to peacefully resolve the situation. I shopped around for an alternate venue and closed a deal with Freelon’s Nightclub in Jackson, MS, for OJ to perform on August 8th, 2009. Johnnie sent me a signed contract confirming that the OJ show was paid in full as per our advertising agreement. As per the contract, we (OZONE and the promoter) were obligated to pay $3,500 for travel and there were no additional funds due for the show. The promoter wired the travel money to So Icey/Mizay several weeks prior to the show. The contracts were signed by myself, Johnnie, Deb, and the promoter in June.

Almost two months later, on the afternoon the day of the show, Johnnie and Deb called me on 3-way demanding that I pay an additional “security fee” of $3,300 or OJ wasn’t going to leave Atlanta – a fee which had never been mentioned or discussed at all during the month and a half that our contract had been in place. It was also never included on our paperwork. OZONE had fulfilled our obligations and now Johnnie and Deb were refusing to fulfill theirs. Deb claimed she didn’t know the Jackson date was my show, pointing the finger at Johnnie and saying it was his fault. I told them I wasn’t going to pay an additional $3,300 for a “free” show and whatever miscommunication had happened was between the two of them, and they needed to figure it out immediately. A few hours later, Johnnie told me, “We worked it out,” saying that he and Deb had settled their miscommunication and OJ’s tour bus was leaving Atlanta, headed for Jackson.

At 11 PM the night of the show, as a line of fans eager to see OJ formed at the club, I was still 45 minutes outside the city. OJ’s road manager Big Sam went to Freelon’s and told the club owner that if they didn’t receive $5,500 cash immediately (including $500 overtime for their driver – another additional fee that was never discussed and was not our responsibility) they had been instructed by Johnnie and Deb to leave town immediately. Without $5,500 cash, OJ would not perform at OZONE’s “free” show. So here I was faced with the choice that so many other promoters have had to make: cancel the show, ruin my relationship with the promoter and the promoter’s reputation, and fight Johnnie and Deb in court for $10,000 (the value of the advertising package)? Or move forward and only fight them for $5,500?
Similar to the So Icey Tour contracts, the OZONE contract with Johnnie involved multiple parties, so going the legal route would probably also mean suing a long-time client and friend (Freelon’s) because of Johnnie and Deb’s fraud. I later learned that OJ and Big Sam had no idea what was really going on, didn’t know that I was even involved with the show, and were simply following Deb and Johnnie’s instructions.

THE GOOD OL’ DAYS

When established artists like T.I. and Lil Wayne first started doing nightclub shows years ago, they were reasonably priced. “They earned their way up the ladder, and they have stronger foundations because of it,” explains Coach, who recalls booking T.I. for $1,500 or $2,000 in the early days and Lil Wayne for $10,000 when he was touring with Sqad Up and already had two albums under his belt. “They made solid movement all the way up the ladder until they’ve reached this point [where they command six figure show prices], and I can respect any artist that is willing to go out and work from the ground up.” Johnnie is certainly not the only booking agent to charge exorbitant prices for an artist with one hit record, but it’s one thing he is infamously known for – resulting in a short lifespan of many artists he has represented (where are the Shop Boyz, of “Party Like a Rock Star” fame? Fabo? D4L? Crime Mob?).

Nicki Minaj, for example, has a strong buzz, but doesn’t have an album out yet. Jesse Peak inquired about booking Nicki for a BET Hip Hop Awards afterparty in Atlanta in October 2009 but quickly changed his mind when her former manager Cortez directed him to Hitt Afta Hitt. “They were shooting out dumb numbers like $12,000 plus I’ve gotta pay a travel fee, even though she was already scheduled to be in Atlanta,” says Peak. “When an artist is represented by Hitt Afta Hitt, it discourages me from booking them because I know exactly what to expect from them: They say whatever you wanna hear to get your money, and once they get your money, you can’t get a call back.”

Mosley laughs while offering some words of advice to artists considering Hitt Afta Hitt representation: “You’ll have better luck diving off the Sears Tower.”

“A lot of artists are overpriced, and that hurts their career,” explains Coach. “If an artist is really overpriced and a promoter takes a risk on him and loses badly, when the artist tries to make a comeback the promoter is gonna say, ‘I did you when you were hot and I lost, so I’m definitely not gonna do you when you’re cold.’ So when you put the artist’s price up so high just because they’re new and the demand is high but they haven’t been proven, you’re risking their career longevity. These artists today get one single and they want $7,500 for a show. They haven’t been tested. The single may be hot, but the promoters lose money. Some might win, but most lose. And [as a result] the artist’s careers are short-lived. Very short-lived.”

D4L frontman Shawty Lo (left) is a perfect example of this phenomenon. “I don’t get requests for Shawty Lo [now],” says Coach. “In my opinion, he should have been charging less than [he was] at his peak. It would have made him a much more viable product today if he had been at a lower price when he was really hot. More people would’ve had accessibility to him. He would’ve been in more venues; more promoters would have been successful with him and would’ve had a better opinion of him. When [a promoter] loses, it leaves a bad taste in their mouth as far as that artist afterwards. Not saying that they lost at every show, but there were some where the price was just too high.”

Godfather is even more direct. “[Johnnie] killed Shawty Lo; destroyed his career,” he confirms. “[Shawty Lo] can’t get shows now because of his relationship with Johnnie. Johnnie overcharges and double-books. [Shawty Lo] was battling with T.I., the so-called King of the South. How were you on his level and then you fell from grace that fast? It’s because [Johnnie] was overpricing him, [charging] $40,000 or $50,000 for a guy with two songs, then doing no-shows, then threatening you with the $5,000 booking fee. He took his price past what he was worth and he fell off quick. [Now] I wouldn’t give [Shawty Lo] $1,000 to go anywhere. That’s not personal on Lo, it’s Johnnie. And he’s gonna do the same thing to Gucci [Mane’s career]. I didn’t deal with him on D4L because they had so many no-shows. No one wanted to book them anymore and they fell off. Anyone he touches, he kills their career. He’s bad, man. He’s a very shiesty businessman.”

On the opposite end of the spectrum, artists like Lil Boosie and Webbie and legends like Too $hort and Uncle Luke have consistently toured throughout the country, putting on good shows and hosting parties at a reasonable price. The cost is fair and the demand is still strong. In turn, the promoters are able to turn profits and bring these artists back time and time again, contributing to their career longevity.

“Boosie and Webbie get [booked] for a lot of shows because their price is good enough that promoters can make a profit,” agrees Coach. “There’s two people involved: the artist and the promoter. In the end, both people should be happy. I don’t think it should just be one guy coming to get all the money and going home happy, while the promoter lost all his money and he’s unhappy. [Promoting shows] is a risk, but there should at least be the opportunity for the promoter to make some money if he does it correctly. If the artist’s price is too high, the promoter doesn’t have the opportunity to make money.”

SHOWMANSHIP

With all the hype surrounding Gucci Mane’s 2009 shows, you’d think the price tag would be worth it. For $40,000 or more, you should get a well-rehearsed, energetic, exciting sixty minute performance and the fans go home satisfied, right?
“Gucci’s show is garbage,” says Yungwaun. “I saw him perform in Milwaukee. He doesn’t move, he just stands there.” Comparing Gucci Mane’s performance to other in-demand rappers of a similar genre like Plies or Young Jeezy, agrees Jesse Peak, is laughable. “[Gucci’s] show is shitty. He doesn’t have much showmanship at all. If you pay somebody that kind of money, you think they’re gonna get down [and put on a good show]. He comes to shows high as a kite and he just doesn’t do anything. He sits on a stage like he’s in a booth and raps into the mic. That’s it.”

“I wouldn’t book Gucci Mane again even if the tickets were pre-sold out,” emphasizes Peak. “I wouldn’t pay him anything. He’s not worth it. I was completely disappointed with the whole experience. I wish [Gucci] luck, but I hope Johnnie don’t ever come to one of my parties.”

IN CONCLUSION

To be fair, there’s always more than one side to a story, and Deb and Johnnie’s side is not represented here. But when a dozen promoters in different cities with no prior affiliation are interviewed separately and all tell the same infuriating tales, chances are there’s some truth to it. Although I too have been bitten by the vampires to the tune of $5,000, that amount is pennies compared to some of these promoters’ alleged losses, and I have made every attempt to be reasonable and objective in my reporting.

As they became aware that their dirt was being dug up, Deb and Johnnie tried valiantly to slander my name (hateful email blasts about me containing baseless insults), damage my credibility (recording highly unprofessional online “conference calls” with racial accusations), and scare me (attempting to sue me and get an emergency injunction for “defamation of character”) away from investigating these fraudulent activities. I did not reach out to them for comment because I doubt it would be a productive conversation for anyone involved. Johnnie even attempted to file a warrant for my arrest when I commented on Twitter that he rapes promoters. I think this article contains sufficient evidence to prove that fact, and telling the truth is not a crime.

“What Johnnie is doing ain’t right, and it’s dangerous because you’re dealing with people’s money,” says Mosley. “I respect promoter’s money,” concludes Coach. “I don’t think [Johnnie] respects promoter’s money.”

The solution to all these problems, it would seem, would be for management to put more effort into keeping Gucci sober and free, and less effort into taking deposits for show dates he can’t legally attend.

“I can’t see how [artists] would want to put their trust in someone like [Johnnie],” laments Nik Bean. “Gucci Mane obviously needs new management. Everybody’s talking about ‘Free Gucci Mane’ when we really should be saying, ‘Gucci Mane needs to get a new manager.’ Why’s he doing all this time [for failure to meet community service requirements]? They’re supposed to be managing him and his time.”

Unlike Gucci, Lil Boosie, who began serving a reported 2-4 year jail sentence in November 2009, did not leave behind a slew of angry promoters. Courtney Scott of Trill Management, who handles Boosie’s show bookings, explains that they “slowed down” on Boosie’s dates as soon as they became aware of his legal troubles. They returned three promoters previous deposits, Courtney says, adding, “We made a conscious decision as a management team to prepare for the fact that he might [have to go to jail]. People kept offering to book dates, but we just didn’t take their deposits. We told them we can’t accept it, because he has to go to court.” This seems to be a much more logical management strategy than the get-as-much-money-as-possible-now-and-worry-about-the-consequences-later mentality exhibited by Cabbell and Antney.

Mike Jones (not the rapper), who handles marketing for the clothing store chain DTLR, sponsored Godfather’s Gucci Mane no-show in Chicago. “It’s [all about] the fans, man. You can’t blame them for wanting to see their favorite artists,” he reflects. “I was at the show [where Gucci was scheduled to appear] and it was just a bad look. Some fans don’t even care if you perform. They just wanna see you and take pictures with you. When you don’t even show your face, it’s just bad for business. It’s about the fans; the consumers.”

“Y’all see what’s happening in Chicago on CNN and the news [with so much violence]. It’s Beiruit out here,” finishes Mosley. “People can’t afford to jack off $50 or $60. To play with people’s money and emotions, it’s not a good look. All that money is going somewhere.” Jones vividly recalls tearing down the Gucci Mane promotional posters from his stores, one by one. “I don’t even wanna be affiliated with Gucci Mane anymore. I don’t wanna see anything with his name on it,” he vents. “The word up here [in Chicago] is, ‘Man, I wouldn’t touch Gucci Mane’s show if Jesus was hosting it.’ Real talk.”

Now that Gucci is gone again for at least six months, most of the promoters just want to cut their losses and get their initial deposits back. “Cash is king in this recession. Rescheduling a show isn’t even a possibility for at least eight months, [and that’s] assuming Gucci behaves himself and gets out early on good behavior,” explains Attorney Gardner.

Although Gucci’s previous 6-month incarceration increased his demand, this time around, things could easily go the other way and cool down his buzz like it has for many other rappers (Mystikal, for example, is out of sight, out of mind). “When he does get out, who’s to say he’ll even be relevant at that time?” questions Gardner.
But as long as Gucci, OJ, Nicki, Waka, and the rest of the So Icey artists continue making hot music, the streets will continue demanding their appearances and promoters will continue to book them. Gucci has found a way to make lemonade out of lemons, turning his legal troubles into the theme of his upcoming album, The State vs. Radric Davis (left). At the end of the day, though, the artists’ management is supposed to be working for them, not against them, and all the fraud allegations can’t be good for business. “This is how empires fall,” says Mosley. “It’s going to come back on them.”

When confronted with the accusation that her and Cabbell’s actions have not only been unethical but also criminally fraudulent, at least in the case of Marshall’s Pittsburgh no-shows, Antney defended herself to Creative Loafing. “The only thing you have is your name, and if you ruin your name, you ruin everything,” she says. At least we can all agree on that. //

If you have experienced similar problems as the promoters interviewed in this article, please contact me at jb@ozonemag.com.

To comment on this article, http://www.ozonemag.com/2009/11/30/scam-afta-scam.

2009-10-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

What is Prison?
By, Frank Berryman

PRISON IS:

A place where u write letters and can' think of anything to say...

A place where u wait for letters that come less and less often...

A place where u gradually stop writing altogether.

A place where u lost respect for the law because you see it raw, naked, twisted, bent, ignored, and blown out of porportion to suit the people who enforce it...

A place where it is proven that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

A place where u wait for a visit that doesn't happen...and although u know the real reason, u have to accept the lies.

A place where u learn that nobody needs u...u r forgotten man, and the world goes on without u...

A place where u discover that all of the talents and abilities u have r worthless, for u r a man in blue.

A place where u receive your divorce papers and u learn the meaning of the words 'TIL DEATH DO US PART',...for to the outside world u r a dead man.

A place that doesn't exist in the minds of friends, for they cannot put it on an envelope, nor can they find it in a car...

A place that exists only in a time warp, for u r only rememberd in past tense...and that's probably appropriate, for u can see no future.

A place where days blend into weeks, months merge into years, and eons pass without feeling the touch of a human hand unless it is raised in anger...

A place where a kind word and an affectionate touch r only dim memories.

A place where basic humanity is ignored, discarded, and eventually forgotten...

A place where men r stripped of their clothes as well as thier dignity, and herded like the beasts society believes them to be.

A place where u go to bed early, even when u are not tired; u walk in circles, even though u have nowhere to go; and u pull the covers over your head, even though u r not cold.

A place where escape is possible, but only through reading, dreaming,or just plain going mad.

Can a man survive prison and resume a useful life? If he can overcome the degradation that is heaped upon him, society will continue to remind him that he is tainted.

Does he deserve what he got? Of course! And smug society can be assured that it has done the right and proper thing. Unti........circumstances, errors, accidents, or mistake in the judical system flips the table and they find themselves in the shoes of the man in the cell next door!!!!!

2009-07-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

(This was shamelessly stolen from Jeff Chang's Blog at www.Cantstopwontstop.com because it was too brilliant not to share with y'all....sorry Jeff, I love you!!!)

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
The Death of Vibe And The Future Of Magazines :: A Roundtable with Alan Light and Raymond Roker

Vibe’s death yesterday sparked conversations across the blogosphere about the future of magazines, especially the kind many of us most care about–urban culture and music magazines. I wanted to surface one of them here.

It began with a Twitter post that reposted to my Facebook account. Here was that original post (re-rendered into something resembling proper english).

Jeff Chang: I could live with a smaller media landscape–but we need that middle between 1m+ circulation mags and circs of less-than-100,000 zines back.

And who should reply but Alan Light.

Alan was one of my first editors at Vibe. (He actually did me the favor of sinking a horrible Tribe Called Quest piece I did, easily the worst interview I ever did…a long story for another time.) Alan started at Rolling Stone and went on staff there from 1989 to 1993. He moved over to become Music Editor at Vibe in its inaugural year and took over as Editor-in-Chief the following year, where he worked until 1997. He edited Spin from 1999-2002, then broke out to start a new magazine called Tracks.

Tracks is a really interesting story. It launched with independent capital in November 2003 with a circulation of about 150,000. It targeted readers from 30-50, a bit of an older audience, more white than not. This group was thought to be the holy grail of the dying music industry–they were folks who actually still bought music. The writing got better, they started moving more urban (Prince was on the cover at the time of “Musicology”) and they built an audience, doubling their circulation.

But by April 2005, they folded. The magazine industry had shifted dramatically. The middle–as in all media and entertainment industries, hell, in American society–could not hold.

Let’s pick this up where Alan responded:

Alan Light at 1:00pm June 30
you have no idea how right you are…well, ok, you have some idea. but take it from one who’s been there – it has become almost impossible to make that model work. which is awful, because it’s obviously the most interesting place to be.

Jeff Chang at 1:33pm June 30
Damn Alan. That hurts to hear from you because I know you know this better than anyone else. I’m sure in fact it hurts you more.

Alan Light at 1:35pm June 30
no more, no less – we’re all out here together. but you isolated the exact right issue, in all types of media. you can be mega or you can be niche, but very difficult to play in between. magazines, movies, music…all the same drill.

Jeff Chang at 1:54pm June 30
Yes. How do we get it back? My first gut instinct is stronger anti-trust enforcement, but that’s just one side of it. Plus how does one begin to reverse consolidation? After all it’s a global thing. I worry we come out of the depression and the big are still bigger and still stepping on or casting long shadows over the seeds of the new stuff. You all have any ideas?

Jeff Chang at 10:40am July 1
(crickets) Haha! Oh well, fam, we all stay grinding.

Alan Light at 10:43am July 1
All you say is correct – but it’s a market issue more than a legislative one. On the one side, it’s too expensive to produce “old” media without sufficient ad/sponsor base, and on the other hand – though we love the democratizing part of “new” media – until it can be monetized, how does a single outlet get enough visibility to feel like it has any impact?

Jeff Chang at 10:56am July 1
Alan, is there any middle ground at all to be found? Is it possible to concoct a web/print model that can diversify income beyond ad/sponsor revenues? E.g. For what it’s worth, and forgetting how I feel about it for a second, most of the mags I know in the high10K/low100k circ realm have become quasi- or real marketing agencies.

Alan Light at 11:01am July 1
I honestly don’t know – can anyone point to an example of such a business that’s working? I didn’t get enough time or runway with Tracks to really learn any conclusive lessons. And that was pre-web-takeover, anyway.

Another question someone asked me yesterday that I couldn’t answer: Who’s winning? Who in the media space, print or web, is gaining any ground at all?

Jeff Chang at 11:04am July 1
I guess I think of magazines like URB, The Fader, and Juxtapoz, and Swindle as businesses that are working. But again, there are a number of ancillary units working there aside from the content work. All of them have massive marketing arms. Juxtapoz is part of the Upper Playground clothing/street art business. Swindle is part of Shepard Fairey’s empire.

But yeah, media qua media? Not so much…

Alan Light at 11:07am July 1
if anyone sees this who works with any of those, please chime in. but my understanding is that the magazine parts of those companies do not make money – but rather are a good investment in terms of visibility. as a kind of calling card for the rest of the operation where the profits are. Raymond? Andy? You guys out there?

And here’s where my man Raymond Roker, my very first editor-in-chief at URB Magazine jumped in.

Since 1990, Raymond has built URB from a free tabloid newsprint broadsheet into a magazine whose circulation is now 50,000. “But,” he says, “I believe that the model for 2010 is smaller still. And with more direct to consumer distribution. The newsstand market will continue to deteriorate and be hostile to indie mags. The decline of big titles make it even tougher for the newsstand business, so real estate could be harder to find. Plus, I don’t believe in the lowest common denominator of the newsstand marketplace. I’d rather go directly to potential readers.”

In order to survive, URB has branched into marketing in a big way over the past decade, now offering these services, according to Raymond: “creative direction, Web promotions, custom media/custom publishing, music consulting, viral video production and seeding, experiential marketing.” The website relaunches next month. Back to our conversation…

Raymond Leon Roker at 11:27am July 1
I agree with Alan for sure, the model is not workable in its current state. Just look at Paste–a “perfect” model in terms of great audience, good advertisers, and plenty of bells & whistles (CD, added value programs, sponsored events, etc). And look at Vibe now–how does *that* not work anymore?

The advertising model is broken because not enough marketers believe in it from a traditional (read: old media) vantage. They don’t believe in the metrics of it or the effectiveness. Except in massive terms a la Oprah, In Style, etc. And even that at aggressive CPMs, more akin to Web numbers.

The Web promises (in theory) a perfectly delivered demo with measurable metrics and perfect data. And the CPM efficiency is akin to the largest mags in many cases.

So…

Raymond Leon Roker at 11:32am July 1
The ways us smaller print brands have a chance is to become boutique agencies. Filter, Cornerstone/Fader, BPM, et al, everybody is in the agency game. The magazines become the branded company pitch. A measure of credibility and clout.

But as print continues to melt away, in the eyes of clients and under the weight of constantly increasing production costs, some of these brands may drop their mags too.

The assumption is that magazine brands, if they walk away from print, can’t survive. That hasn’t been proven one way or another yet. But IMO, the only way they will is by becoming media marketing companies instead. Ones where content and marketing blur (hello ASME). But the standalone magazine model died years ago.

Alan Light at 11:34am July 1
there’s a pretty key “(in theory)” in there – all this is true about the web but are even the larger web outlets able to monetize effectively? what is Pitchfork’s business?

I will tell you what will drive me crazy until my grave – when Vibe came up for sale a few years ago, why would nobody major step in and grab it? It was a total category leader, virtually unchallenged in a desirable space, and had an 800K circ with absolutely no spending behind it – one push by a real company and it’s a million without breaking a sweat, plus a brand built to extend beyond the pages. Why did it not even get a long look from one of the big publishers?

Raymond Leon Roker at 11:37am July 1
I can’t a answer why the big publisher’s didn’t look at it. Unless they ultimately didn’t understand or believe in “ethnic” media. That’s the only answer I can fathom given the numbers and apparent opportunity.

Jeff Chang at 11:45am July 1
Uh first off what’s a CPM? And to both of you, I feel like we moved from a mini-consolidation phase–Spin + Vibe merging–to a VC phase. Are either of those to blame for Vibe’s closing?

Jeff Chang at 11:46am July 1
And I note the irony of looking at VIbe as ‘ethnic media’ when the urban category was invented by Black marketers and other marketers of color to get beyond that box…

Alan Light at 11:51am July 1
First, publishing is a terrible place for VCs to be, the return is too slow and too gradual. And are there other examples of consolidation other than Vibe/Spin?

And FYI, I don’t know how these numbers developed over the years, but in the years I was at Vibe it was amazing how close a 50/50 split we had in black/white and in male/female readership. Which was a bit of a problem until sales team were able to convince people it was a strength.

Jeff Chang at 11:58am July 1
Re: that’s so telling on the ad tip. And so when Wicks Group bought Vibe the writing was on the wall?

Alan Light at 12:00pm July 1
who knows? i mean, i guess there was cause for concern if, as i said, no magazine companies wanted in. i can’t comment on the state of things as of time of sale, long after i was gone.

Raymond Leon Roker at 12:04pm July 1
CPM = cost per thousand. Sorry. Term for what a marketer is paying per thousand people/eyeballs reached. The lower the better, for them.

Jeff Chang at 12:07pm July 1
So what do we all do now?

Jeff Chang at 12:08pm July 1
After all this, I won’t be offended if the sound now is of (crickets).

Alan Light at 12:08pm July 1
from my end? i don’t miss being in the editor’s chair right now, so i am spreading my bets and working various projects in various media and very happy with the juggling act.

Raymond Leon Roker at 12:25pm July 1
We embrace the new. Don’t lament too much on the past. There will always be old media support groups and once URB’s archive site goes live, you can relive the rave scene virtually

But today, it’s about social media, shared content, multiple distribution channels and creative financing.

Good night and good luck.

2009-05-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Classic!!!

The XXL Editors received this letter from Louis Vuitton concerning the May 2009 cover of Rick Ross.

Dear Editor:

We were dismayed to see the cover of the May 2009 issue of XXL Magazine, which features a photo of Rick Ross wearing a pair of sunglasses prominently featuring counterfeit Louis Vuitton trademarks. Because the photo has generated considerable confusion among your readers and Louis Vuitton customers among others, we feel it is important to clarify several points.

The first is that the sunglasses Mr. Ross is wearing were not made by Louis Vuitton, and in fact, are counterfeit. Louis Vuitton did not grant permission to Mr. Ross or to whoever did make the sunglasses to use our trademarks. The second is that no affiliation, sponsorship or association exists between Rick Ross or XXL and Louis Vuitton. The third is that counterfeiting is illegal.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to correct the confusion.

Sincerely,
Michael D. Pantalony, Esq.Louis Vuitton Malletier
Share:

2009-05-01T23:54:00.001-07:00

Former Drug Kingpin, Ricky Ross, Returns To Society A Better Man

For Immediate Release...Texarkana, TX...On Monday, May 4th, Freeway Ricky Ross will finally be released from prison after serving 20 years for being a “drug kingpin.” The real Ricky Ross over saw a Los Angeles based multi-state drug operation in the early 1980’s, which earned upwards of $2 million dollars per day at its height. After L.A.P.D. set up a sting operation to bring him down (The Freeway Taskforce), Ricky finally turned himself in, weeks after a rogue police officer attempted to set him up and murder him in an alley. Ricky was sentenced to prison and released in 1996. After 6 months, his former cocaine distributor, who was working for the CIA (unbeknownst to Ricky), asked Ricky for a favor—it turned out to be a set up, and in 1996, Ricky Ross was sentenced to life in prison for orchestrating the purchase of over 100 kilos of cocaine from an undercover federal agent.

Ross’ sentence was later reduced through appeals and after a series of explosive articles by the late Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Gary Webb. Webb wrote a three part series titled “Dark Alliance” for the San Jose Mercury News, which investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras who had allegedly smuggled cocaine into the U.S. that was then distributed as crack cocaine into Los Angeles and funneled profits to the Contras. Webb also alleged that this influx of Nicaraguan supplied cocaine sparked and significantly fueled the widespread crack epidemic that swept through urban areas in the US. According to Webb, the CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of drugs into the U.S. by the Contra personnel, and further alleged that while Ricky was sentenced to a harsh prison term, his Nicaraguan cocaine distributor was placed on the payroll of the CIA.

That news series turned into the best-selling book, “Dark Alliance,” that blew the lid off of the alleged CIA complicity in the importation of cocaine into the US, creating the exceptionally profitable, and damaging, crack cocaine epidemic spread through many inner city neighborhoods. Congressional Hearings, in the late-90s, found the book’s facts to be true.

As Ricky Ross’ story reads like a page-turning novel or a blockbuster film, it has inspired rappers to name themselves after him, style themselves after him, and even retell his stories as their own exploits, gaining international success. Although a pawn in a bigger scheme, Ricky realized that the damage done to inner city neighborhoods was unacceptable. He has devoted himself to making a difference in his community by teaching financial literacy to urban youth and teaching legal ways to financially empower themselves. When Ricky first went to prison, he was illiterate—the educational system in South Central L.A. had failed him, even though he went on to become a multi-millionaire savvy at numerous legitimate businesses, and a tennis pro. Reading a book a week during his lengthy incarceration has since made Ricky wise beyond his years.

Ricky oversaw an empire that reached numerous states and that is rumored to have brought in millions of dollars a day at its height. His plan is to return to society and accomplish that again, but this time through legal means. Upon Ricky Ross' release, he is focusing on:
• a book and a film (currently seeking deals for both),
• a new record label in conjunction with industry legend Wendy Day,
• a Foundation to help innercity youth at risk,
• a reality TV show,
• his social networking site, www.FreewayEnterprise.com that he built while incarcerated
• speaking engagements to share his story and experiences

A film crew is following Ricky’s release from prison and his trek across the country to a halfway house in California where he will interact with, and impact youth in juvenile detention centers along the way. Already the topic of one of the most successful episodes of BET’s American Gangster series (1st Season), the real Ricky Ross is a cultural icon and hero in communities across the US. Now he is able to make positive moves with that status.

Ricky can be reached at TheRealRickRoss@aol.com or through his social networking site www.FreewayEnterprsie.com. He will be available for interviews beginning the week of May 11, 2009.

For more information, please contact Wendy Day at 404.474.1999 or RapCoalition@aol.com.

2009-02-25T07:52:00.000-08:00

Gordon Gecko For President: Obama and Pop Culture Can Do What Rick Santelli and Sean Hannity Can’t
By, Cedric Muhammad

If I could have gathered an orchestra, I would have had them build up to a crescendo during this portion of President Barack Obama’s Address To Congress: “People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway.”

Unfortunately, I would have had to send them home, because the show stopping punch line was never delivered. President Obama never explained why “banks and lenders…pushed those bad loans anyway.”

A few days I presented a blog, “Securitization As Satan,”:

http://www.cedricmuhammad.com/securitization-as-satan/

In it I explain that despite what you may be led to believe by listening only to CNBC’s Rick Santelli (“This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbors’ mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills? … President Obama, are you listening?”) and Fox’s Sean Hannity (“Government influence and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac caused this!”), the undisputable truth – which no media outlet will present and no respected economist or financial historian can deny – is that a significant majority of loans in this country were orignated, not because of the primary motivation of a bank or mortgage lender to make money off of interest rate payments, but rather its desire to make more money by selling that loan to a third-party investor: an investment bank, commercial bank, hedge fund, government sponsored entity, pension fund, or insurance company.

The secondary market for mortgage securitization and not the primary market for mortgage lending is more to blame for this mess that we are in.

And the shadow banking industry that purchased these securities became more important than the commercial and mortgage lenders who originated the mortgages they were based upon.

Now, I gather that this truth won’t be popularized until Jay-Z makes a track called ‘Securitized Gangster,’ or, Britney gets the phrase tatooed on her ——; or Michael Douglass can be coaxed into starring in Wall Street II in the role of Lewis Ranieri of Salomon Brothers or Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide.

But it sure would be helpful if our Beloved new POTUS would take a few moments to explain to the American people how we really got into this mess, and the reality that because so many banks sold their mortgages to third parties, he and Congress are really limited in their ability to stimulate the economy or repair the housing market. (Hey Lil Wayne, how’s this for a song - ’A Bank Can’t Change What A Bank Don’t Own.’)

As I have previously blogged, this is why the privately-owned Federal Reserve’s TALF program (designed to revive securitization) is more important to understand than the U.S. Treasury Department’s TARP program (designed to revive commercial bank lending). Credit won’t unfreeze because securitization controls room temperature.

The reason this basic truth is important is because it leads to another – the fact that the American economy became too dependent upon its financial services sector, moving away or taking valuable capital and talent from other sectors like manufacturing, agribusiness, general services, and even information technology, not to mention unknown areas of innovation.

Statistics show that an American economy that had manufacturing as 29.3% as a share of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1950, with financial services representing 10.9%; by 2005 had eveolved into financial services with a 20.4% share of the American economy and manugacturing down to 12%.

Securitization, which moved beyond mortgages in the 1970s to everything from credit card receivables, student and small business loans, computer leases, and corporate borrowing (even music royalties see ‘Bowie Bonds’) in the 80s and 90s, has become the lifeline of a significant portion of economic activity in America and the world.

In short, if a primary economic activity like a loan, receivable, or revenue stream can’t be bundled and resold as a security in the secondary market, it may not be produced in the first place. It is estimated that without securitization markets $2 trillion in lending is no longer possible.

How important is this?

$4 trillion in total is what was lent to businesses and consumers in 2007.

That’s the real definition of a credit freeze.

Yes, this is the financial version of the tail wagging the dog - a situation where a small part (securitization) is controlling the whole of something (real economic activity).

If the President really hopes to stimulate this economy and save the housing market, he will have to bring balance to an economy that grew to devalue produce from the earth, the entrepreneur with a great idea, a profitable local factory, and even the simple purchase of a home – if it could not be turned into paper profits, over and over again.

If he can’t do it I and we will have no choice but to turn to what Sean Penn, in his Oscar accpetance speech, called the ‘Commie, Homo-loving, sons of guns…’ to get the message across.

Cedric Muhammad’s ‘The Eclectic Economist’ blog is available at Cedricmuhammad.com (http://www.cedricmuhammad.com/)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 12:59 PM and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2009-02-12T15:47:00.001-08:00

By, Wendy Day from Rap Coalition

Mark Curry is my new poster child for Rap Coalition, but he doesn’t know it yet. Not because he has written a tell-all book slamming Puffy’s business practices, not because he takes responsibility for his own bad decisions, but because he tells his firsthand experience about the shadier practices in the entertainment industry that prevail in almost every company. And he tells it loudly, with examples, and from his experiences in the music industry being signed to Bad Boy for more than a decade.

This is a similar story that I have heard over and over and over in my 17 years in this industry. The story hasn’t changed much in 40 years since artists were given fancy new Cadillacs in exchange for their music, nor does my reaction to this and similar stories change (it always depresses me; I am not desensitized to it). When I sit down with most artists, it’s more of “to what degree did you get jerked?” than “did you get jerked?” Obviously they got jerked. Most do. Sadly, it’s the price many creative people are willing to pay for their chance at “getting on” or some primal need for money and fame. Every time I hear this similar story, my first question is always “why did you stay so long?” The answer always floors me: I believed him. We were family. I knew he needed me so he’d have to do right eventually. He said if I would just wait a little longer, all of my dreams would come true. It’s a building process. My turn would come. All I wanted to do was buy my Mom a house, and he was on his fourth Bentley so I knew he’d break bread eventually. Blah, blah, blah.

Mark Curry was signed to Bad Boy Records through a production company that was bought out almost immediately. It is a way for people behind the scenes in the industry to get a quick pay check. Someone finds an artist and brings the artist to the record label (in this case, a well known street dude). The label recognizes the value of that artist and wants that artist in their camp. The label “tests out” the artist’s talent by giving him, or her, an assignment. The assignment is usually to write a song or make a track for another already signed artist who is struggling for a hit record to “help” the family, or company, or team. In Mark Curry’s case, it was P Diddy himself looking to make a hit single for a soundtrack to a Godzilla movie. Mark delivered.

Once the label is convinced the artist has value, it comes time to pull out the paperwork. In Mark’s case, he says Puff gave him a contract to sign with the middleman. When Mark asked why he couldn’t sign directly to Bad Boy instead, he was told because the middleman was Puff’s friend (as an ironic twist, this same friend is the person Puff testified in front of the Grand Jury that he didn’t know his real name—the same crime that sent Lil Kim to prison in a different case) and actually found Mark and brought him to Puff. After Mark balked at the language in the contract that he was unable to understand, he says Puff was kind enough to send him to an attorney (after Puff allegedly asked that famous question, “Don’t you trust me? I thought we were cool?!”). That attorney, Kenny Meiselas, turned out to be one of Puff’s entertainment attorneys at a strong and credible law firm. Conflict of interest? Not exactly, Mark wasn’t exactly signing to Bad Boy. Mark was advised to sign the deal by counsel, so he did. Puffy then bought the contract from the middleman, thereby putting a wad of money--recoupable money from the artist, in the middleman’s pocket and landing Mark Curry on Bad Boy.

That contract, entitled Mark to a $75,000 advance: $25k was a signing bonus (recoupable), $25k was for the rights to half of his publishing (recoupable), and the remaining $25k would be given to him upon release of his debut album (also recoupable)--an album that never came. Since the middleman had taken half of Mark’s publishing off the top, he received that $25k, so all Mark received for signing to Bad Boy was $25,000. He knew it didn’t feel right, but he focused on the future and what other ways there were to make money in this business—touring, endorsement deals, etc. I wonder why we didn’t see this scenario on any episode of The Making Of The Band. It’s all too commonplace in this industry.

As Mark was consistently promised the opportunity to work on his own album, he was side tracked with tours, writing songs for Puff, and teaching Puff how to deliver his rhymes. Basically, he was put on hold to build the artistic career of his boss. Mark went along with that because he saw everyone else in the camp doing so, and figured it was the way things worked. He watched Puff enact sales pitches on the “Bad Boy family” of other artists and producers to get them to do whatever he needed done. He watched Puff get into numerous legal scrapes to emerge victorious. He watched Puff use Biggie’s death to increase his own popularity, fame, income, and fan base. Mark watched one disgruntled artist after another leave Bad Boy. He babysat other artists under the guise of “developing” them at the label. And Mark watched promise after promise fade into dust, even when he was most desperate.

When Mark Curry reflected on why he spent ten years at Bad Boy without ever releasing his own record, he surmised that he had more value to Puff building Puff’s career. He also felt that it was because he was trusting enough to believe his mentor and label president when he spun him by telling him the timing wasn’t right, or that he was busy with the planning of his next party or his clothing company or his world tour…or the most common excuse: we’re waiting for your budget to be approved (a lie that a label accountant finally exposed upon telling Mark that Puff never had submitted a budget for Mark’s project).

In “Dancing With The Devil,” Mark pointed out numerous ways that Bad Boy and Puff, directly, was able to profit from artists. In most Bad Boy contracts there is a clause stating that the artist has to pay Puff for appearances on a record. Since Puff is creating the album, he controls those appearances on all singles and album cuts. At $40,000 per appearance (even if just whispering “Bad Boy! Bad Boy!” in the background), he can make a fortune on appearances on his own artists’ records. Bad Boy artists often record at Daddy’s House, a studio owned by the mogul. If an artist receives a recording budget of $250,000, that fund can easily be spent with Hitmen producers (you guessed it, producers who are signed to the mogul with a stake in the publishing rights) at Daddy’s House studio (rumored to be the current going rate of studio time at $125 an hour in the late 90s). Not only does the production and recording fund go to Bad Boy owned entities, but it is all recoupable from the artists’ budgets—a double win for any company willing to do business this way.

Mark also pointed out that when Mary J Blige was recording at Daddy’s House, for example, she would be billed for 8 hours in the studio, but may have only used 6 hours. Those additional 2 hours would be paid from her MCA recording budget, but would be used by Bad Boy Recording artists to record-- artists with no ties to MCA. Mark also set the record straight about Kirk Burrowes, a former Bad Boy President, who was allegedly threatened into signing away his 25% ownership in Bad Boy, but was strung along long enough (apparently with the promise of money) to miss the statute of limitations deadline to sue for what he claimed was rightfully his. Once he filed suit, he was falsely painted in the media as a disloyal, money-grubbing liar out to gold dig a mogul (for the record, Puff spent more on jewelry for his women than he paid in annual salary for Kirk Burrowes to run the label during the early years of Bad Boy--his argument being that Kirk was a 25% owner of the label and would make money in the long term). The “relationship” that Puff had with his artists and staff seems to have been a powerful hold which kept them around long enough that they couldn’t do anything about it, and close enough that they didn’t want to….until they caught on and it was too late. In which case, either violence allegedly ensued, or images and careers were destroyed.

There are two things I didn’t like about “Dancing With The Devil,” although it’s an amazingly honest, insightful, and brave book. The way Mark listed names of street dudes who were in Puffy’s circle was a bit excessive. Now, I’m not saying he did not tell the truth, but I don’t feel he needed to discuss by name who allegedly shot Tupac in Quad, or who allegedly killed Puff’s bodyguard Wolf, or who allegedly shot Jake that fateful night that is credited with kicking off the East Coast/West Coast beef. Secondly, while there are more artists than not who’ve signed to Bad Boy and eventually cried foul, shady industry tactics are not the sole dominion of Bad Boy. Shady and fraudulent practices exist at many other companies throughout the music business. It doesn’t seem to be a Black or white problem specifically, but a green (money) problem. I realize Mark is speaking from his personal experience, and it is his autobiography, so he is only speaking about what he knows. Bad Boy is NOT the only company, by any means, in this industry that has been accused by its artists of shady business practices. Although it IS one of the most successful, and has been accepted without due diligence by journalists, the media, fans, executives, the industry, star fuckers, hoes, and party goers alike.

All in all, “Dancing With The Devil” was a riveting read, and a must for anyone who takes a career in the music business seriously. Once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down til I was finished the book. It is available at www.MarkCurryBooks.com.

“I told you that we won’t stop…” –Sean “Puffy" Combs

2008-11-05T09:17:00.000-08:00

"My President Is Black...." --Young Jeezy

For the first time in my life, I feel proud to be an American. I realize the enormity of that statement, but it's how I feel.

My boyfriend can look at his sons today and tell them both that they can be President if they work hard and really want it. How amazing is that!?!

But I don't want to dwell too long on Barack Obama's skin color and the historical aspect because there are two other things to discuss: he is qualified, and we need change. I was dumbfounded when this country voted Bush back into office 4 years ago, and am thankful those of us who saw the idiocracy of that went to the poills yesterday and fixed it.

The bulk of the vote for Barack came from the Hip Hop generation. 18 to 34 year olds turned out in record numbers to vote this man into office. Minorities turned out in record numbers to vote this man into office. Not because he is Black, but because the country is fucked up.

The highlight of my night last night in watching the election coverage were the phone calls and emails that came to me from the Federal Correction Institutions. Even the forgotten, with no votes, were celebrating this man's ascention to power.

Yep, a change is coming. Now the real work begins....

2008-11-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

Gangster won first place for his Halloween costume at his Vet's office...

2008-08-26T19:20:00.001-07:00

Hey, remember Mic Geronimo? He sent me this today and I liked it so much I thought I'd share it...
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Today We Fought The Devil
Category: Life

EEEP! Whopnin' Babies. I borrrowed that courtesy "The Chronic". Shout out and G d bless to Dr.Dre. I got the news that he lost his son a day ago. It's always something y'all. Isn't it? I had a tough week myself. Not nearly as tough as that, but it was a truly trying seven days.

I recently went through one of those periods in life that test where you are, what you've learned, and if you have the fortitude to keep keeping on. I went through an expirience that quiet possibly could have meant the end of your boy's career, and possibly exhausted any energy I have left in pursuing what my dreams and aspirations are. Now that I think about it, I went through two scenarios simultaneously that put me through the fire. Life is a funny thing. It is the greatest cosmic joke of all in existence. There is always something that reminds us all, just when I thought it was over..they pull me right back in.

I can remember each period of growth mentally that I have been through. I remember the sense of feeling as though, "Ok, I thought I knew, but NOW I know." And after each of these phases, I assumed that I was better equipt to deal with any and everything then I was before the lesson came. I felt as if anything, any force that reared its head in opposition to my destiny, would be in for a formidable confrontation. A rumble like no other. A complete and utter ass whipping! And after that, life would be on cruise control. The skies would clear. I would enjoy the journey as though it were a walk in the park.(or in my case, and endless night in Vegas with 20 of the most gorgeous women ever assembled in a presidential suite at the Wynn)

But the older you get, the more you realize that force known as The Devil is always lurking. It is always observing you, waiting to see how much of an adversary you truly are. That force is always waiting to turn you towards the Dark Side. It sees you as a valuable acquisition, and lusts for you to submit or be tricked into serving by its side. It feeds on your insecurities, your desires, your lack of infinite information. It causes your imagination to run wild. It motivates you to view things with tainted vision. That force makes you question things that are not to be questioned, or move with temperance as opposed to logic.

I been through enough in my time on this rock to know this force all too well. Some may even say, with all that I have been through it's amazing that I haven't just grabbed Lord Vader's hand and chose to be an Imperial asshole the same as he. But what made things different this time, was that I actually stepped outside of myself, and watched myself apply the techniques and components neccessary to defeat it. I watched myself use comminication over attrition. I watched myself use a sense of calm, as opposed to clutching on to aggression. I listened more, and spoke less. I was open minded and not stubborn.

In both scenarios, I am happy to say there was a peaceful resolve. In both scenarios there was a beautiful outcome instead of the aftermath of slaughter. With both scenarios, there was a sense of triumph through unity, and not the temporary rush of divide and conquer. There will always be the need to be primal as there will always be the need for diplomacy. Everything has its time and place. But that force known as The Devil, it wants you to be confused as to when and where. The key is knowing when you are up against that force.

Today we fought the Devil, and I am proud to say...we won. Until next time, keep fighting...just be smart about it.

2008-08-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

Do you believe that every love story that you see, read, or hear can be true?...

Or maybe you think you have your own with your's truly... You know who.

Do you believe that a contract should be drawn up for your love, and signed in the truest blue... And if it's ever breached for infidelity, or any emotional travesty you could sew?

Do you believe that your man should have you first in line after God, but way ahead of his crew?... No matter what loyalty they claim, you know you'll have his back in everything he'll ever go through?

Do you believe that your man should cherish, love and spend most of his time with you, even if he doesn't want too...

Well you will find that there are a few who believe like this, so stick with me baby because "I DO"... by Patrick Watson 40 boy !

2008-07-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

"Another day trapped in my sorrow thinking about my children,family, and friends... What to do about tomorrow, how to make a bad day and situation better, how to make pain and fears clear to the ones I love in a letter! Knowing right from wrong while I was doing wrong from the start... Chasing and catching devalued dollars constantly in vain to make everything better for my family knowing it could and would tear us apart! The life of a baller-- the cars, girls, money, power that lasted for a couple of years and vanished in hours... A fool for wanting to attain and keep the eye candy of the world you can't have... When you see your folly, and realize it all in your suffering for the try, you want to cry but all you can do is laugh...

Who's the Gangster now? "

--Terrance "Gangsta" Williams (www.GangstaWilliams.com)

2008-07-28T19:02:00.000-07:00

Stop asking me to join your NING website just because you saw 50 and USDA doing it big. I don't have time for MySpace, so why would I have time for YOUR social networking site? If you are not as big as 50 and USDA, NO ONE CARES! Read that again.

Stop hitting me up with requests to join Hi-5, Tagged, Plaxo, FaceBook and the myriad of other time wasters that exist on-line. You call it business networking-- I say if you want to ask me for a favor do some work and get my fucking email address like everyone else. I have a job. Those sites are a waste of my time. If we didn't keep in touch over the past 16 years I have been in the industry, there is a reason for it. I do not need your "blast from the past" email. If I wanted to be introduced to new people through people I don't respect, I'd go to more industry functions.

Stop calling me and asking me to put your artist on. If I had it like that don't you think all of MY artists would be on? Idiot. In the time you spent emailing me, you could have spent researching what it is that I do, and actually asking me something that wouldn't make you look stupid.

Stop emailing me AFTER I tell you I can't help you, as if I am blocking your access to the industry. If I could have helped you I would have. But keep my number because you WILL get raped by someone you call with that same stupid request--talk to ya in about 3 years when you need out of your fuck-boy contract you signed without reading.

Stop handing me demo CDs after I speak at conferences. If you listened to me speak, you heard me say that I have never seen anyone get a good deal from handing a demo to someone. So why would you then hand me a demo? Are you stupid or did you just not listen? Either quality is not one I'd want to do business with, so you are fucked in the gate right there.

Stop approaching me by telling me you are better than anyone I have ever worked with before. Did it ever cross your mind that maybe I like my clients and by dissing them you are offending me? Duh... I only work with the folks I believe in--except one time, and that went REALLY poorly. Never again.

Stop jumping into this industry without learning as much as you can about it first. Did you ever stop to think that I set up free websites to educate artists, so when you sound ignorant, you are offending me? Why not just introduce yourself by slapping me? Same shit...

Stop being so desperate and saying you just want a deal, any deal, and you are willing to sign to some bullshit to get on. I run an organization to protect artists' rights. You are looking REAL stupid to me, right about now. If I ran an anti-violence organization would you promise to beat someone up to get on? Dope.

Stop using gimmicks to get on. Do NOT call me name dropping. I do not care who is your brother, sister, cousin, nephew, uncle, or neighbor. If you had value, they would have already signed you and jerked the shit out of you. This phone call would then be taking on an entirely different direction. Have you done a reality show and think that entitles you to something big in this industry? Hang up now before I hurt your feelings. All a reality show is good for is to kill your credibility and show the entire world what a buffoon you really are. Reality shows are great for has-beens who have no other way to attract attention anymore. If you are lucky, you'll get your Flavor Flav 15 minutes of fame again, and hopefully be smart enough this time around to bank the loot instead of using it to stay high like you did in the 80s, or 90s. By the way, American Idol is a gimmick, too. I don't care if you were the 5th runner up to the last audition in Tiny Town, USA. It's a gimmick. No one cares. Only the winners of the actual show sell records, because they've had 16 weeks of their annoying faces shoved down stupid viewer's throats. And they get jerked out of the bulk of their money by signing to the idol maker's production company, so how is that a plus again?

Stop thinking that because we were friends years ago that I owe you something today. We fell out of touch for a reason. Probably because you assumed too much back then about what was owed you...like you do now. Fuck off.

Stop assuming you know what I do and asking me for shit I can't deliver. It's a waste of both of our time, and all it does is make me block your email and phone number. My cell phone has over 100 entries that say "Asshole." Do you really think I pick any of those calls up? I'd much rather pick up a blocked call and deal with a new asshole than one who has already pissed me off before. (No, I don't pick up blocked calls--I am making a point).

Stop doing stupid stuff that makes me vent on my Blog. Nobody wants to read this shit! And I sure as hell don't want to write it. I have work to do....

2008-07-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

It is very rare that I read something awesome enough to make the blog at both Rap Coalition as well as my personal Blog. Mic Fiend sent me this copy of a piece about Networking from DJ Vlad's MySpace page. It came at the PERFECT time. Last weekend, I received an incredibly stank email from someone who had sent me an email sometime ago requesting we "network." His rant was unclear--either I didn't respond to his email (I get 400+ emails a day) or I declined the opportunity to "network" with yet another wanna-be in this industry who has not accomplished anything to prove himself. Yes, I wish I had all the time in the world to converse with some idiot who hasn't succeeded at shit on his own in this industry, in an area of this industry that doesn't even affect me or my Coalition one bit (event planning). What a dick. And the fact that he wrote me a bitter email about it REALLY made him look like a bitch! And I told him what I thought about his little tirade. I went hard on him (as I should have). He needs to unbunch his panties and get a clue...

Anyway, a few days later, this brilliant email hit my Blackberry. I dunno, Vlad probably got the same angry email from the same angry ass wipe who signed his email "Tennis Pro." Go back to tennis, asshole...your attitude is wack for urban music! Anyway, here goes:

Your network determines your net worth”

A lot of people email me everyday to try to ‘network’. Most of the time, they don’t understand what networking really means.

Your network is people that you have done actual business with - not people that you have seen in the club. I’ve had conversations with Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and Puffy multiple times. I didnt’ have any business that I could bring to them at that time, so they’re not in my network.

I met the founder of Ask.com when he was first starting his company. I had a recruiting company and helped to hire a lot of his first employees. The company eventually became a billion dollar company, and the founder bacame a multi-millionaire. Whenever I’ve brought good business ideas to him, he would put up the money and help to develop the businesses. He’s also in my network.

“I’m hot but I’m broke, put me on” is begging

“I’ve got a project with a budget that I want to work with you on. We have $10,000 dollars for you upfront” is networking

“I’m gonna blow up one day and then you can take your cut” is begging

“I’ve sold 20,000 copies of my last 2 releases and have the soundscan numbers to prove it. Let’s do our next project together and we’ll split the profits” is networking

“your beats are hot, let me bless one for free” is begging

“I would like to purchase beat 9 right now - let’s work out a price” is networking

“I wanna get signed” is begging

“I have deals on the table from Interscope and Def Jam. I need to build up my buzz more so I can get a better deal. Let’s work together and I’ll give you X% of the deal” is networking

Professionals network with other professionals. Hobbiests network with other hobbiests. If you make your living off your music - you’re a professional. If you don’t earn your living off your music - you’re a hobbiest. This is not my opinion - it’s the dictionary definition.

(Source: DJ Vlad @ Myspace)

2008-07-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

Most Awesome Compliment of the Month:

"Really you are a sweetheart.. I really mean it.. Real Gangster talk . Alot of them don't come like you. " --Terrance "Gangsta" Williams

2008-07-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

Funniest response EVER:

Yeah, you are truly a piece of shit when someone drinking booze from a gas can is able to rightfully call you a fuck boy

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

2008-07-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

Seems I am not the only one who has issue with Kia Shine's FUCK BOY ways. Here he is showing up to a Three Six Mafia in-store under the guise of "Memphis unity." They have their security remove him from the behind the table (although they do autograph his CD for him), and then further explain to him why he is not liked. They remind him that he first tried doing NY music until he couldn't get on and then switched to southern music. They even call him a "fuck boy" and tell him to leave and proceed to clown him on his way out. At the end they even tell Frazier boy to "go get his cousin." Karma is a muthaphukka...and this guy is just the most hated person in rap. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARj98rgcfPk

DJ Paul calling Kia Shine a "fuck boy:" PRICELESS!

PS- Does he quote Bible scriptures to conceal the fact that he's a snake?

2008-07-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

Doggy airfare to bring Gangster to Houston with me overnight (under the seat in front of me): $138

Omni Hotel additional charge for a 2 pound dog in my room: $50

Picture of Manny Fresh holding my dog in the studio: priceless

Coming soon--my dog's MySpace page to show the picture of him and Manny...LoL

TMI Boyz Do It Independent

2008-06-21T08:14:00.001-07:00

TMI Boyz Do It Independent

Posted using ShareThis

2008-05-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

"It's been a long time...I shouldn't have left you..."
-Rakim, the God

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I'm tired. That's why I haven't written much lately. Two months, twenty-six days to be exact...

Keeping me sane are a very much incarcerated Ricky D Ross (not the rapper) who is kind enough to correspond with me via email numerous times a day, and my brand new puppy, Gangster.

He is 3 months old (the puppy, not Freeway Ricky) and I've had him for 2 weeks now. He pees on the floor a lot (again, the puppy, not Ricky)... He is very cute and gives me a reason to come home at night (or anytime really).

I have to admit that I am a little tired and burned out on this industry. Because the economy is bad, people are jerking others left and right in this industry (including a mediocre radio guy in Atlanta jerking one of my clients out of $15,000). Then there are potential clients wanting to BUY their way into this industry rather than do the work--hey Einstein--if it didn't work for BMF who had more money on a bad day than you will have in your whole life, why would it work for you?

Suge Knight got knocked the fuck out, and the barber who did it (who seems a little light in his loafers to me) is bragging and enjoying his 15 minutes of fame all over YouTube. Truly the end of an era.

All of the superstar NYC acts that were big in the 90s (like Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Fat Joe, etc) are now doing deals at incubators, not because they make financial sense, but because it's the only deal out there for them. The end of an era...

And rappers like Busta Rhymes and Jay Z are no longer cool, they just look like somebody's Dad. That's not a dis--hell, I'm 45 my damn self. This is a young person's industry. My generation doesn't buy music. We have car notes, and mortgagaes, and college educations for kids to pay for. Rocking to a Souljah Boy CD is for our kids, not for us. And speaking of which, are these new artists too fucking lazy to research who came before them in rap history when they are choosing a name? Fuck, can't they spell GOOGLE? There already was a Souljah Boy and I hope he's suing the fuck out of you. VERY disrespectful. It wasn't even THAT long ago, although you were probably 8 at the time. Hope you kept your publishing and are banking your money.

Don't get me started on Rick Ross, the rapper... You took dude's name but never even reached out to him? Are you really that foul?????

Been working with Young Buck regarding his G-Unit situation. Boy is 50 angry with him... I say let dude go, get a check from him, and keep it moving. He never did get a royalty check, but no rapper does really. I guess they haven't read my websites or articles.

Just trying to stay relevant in a world that doesn't give a fuck anymore. Having a hard time even giving a fuck myself...

2008-02-26T22:27:00.000-08:00

Day Eighteen: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Columbia, SC

We slept til 10 AM today and boy did it feel good to get a full 7 hours of sleep. This is the most amount of sleep any of us have gotten in a month. For me, I went right from setting up the panels at the SEAs to planning this tour, the TMI Boyz promo tour, and JAG’s promo tour. I haven’t gotten much sleep since New Year’s.

I lost my boy toy in Tallahasse (Day Four) when I really needed to talk to him and he was too busy at the strip club to speak with me-- in a snow storm, watching only one broad dance. The message that he sent was loud and clear….I don’t have any value to him at all. So I cut him off once and for all. Didn’t even save his numbers. Gone!

I am thankful for my friends who’ve been listening, supportive, and offering help and ideas all along this tour. They’ve either been calling or emailing everyday. Between Calvin Klein, Pimp Fresh, and the real Ricky Ross, I have been straight.

We drove the hour to Columbia, SC and met up with Jihad and KB from Street Bangazz. They took us downtown to the ‘hood surrounding Benedict College and then we went on campus and promoted. Benedict is a historically Black university. Something interesting happened on campus though. As we stood outside the cafeteria promoting (it was 5 PM, prime time for dinner), we encountered so many haters. One idiot came up to us and asked who the hell was BloodRaw. When I told him he was part of USDA, he looked at me blankly. Then one of the guys said he was signed to Young Jeezy and CTE. The kid then said the only person he knew was Jeezy and he didn’t even like him. As a student who is in an institution of higher learning, why would one show such ignorance? Even if he hated Jeezy, why announce it to 7 people who are on their grind? He looked like such an insecure, self-involved, ignorant asshole. And to be doing so on a university campus made it doubly stupid.

Fortunately, we found guys who weren’t haters in the back parking lot, in an area called “The Slab.” Many of them were from FL and had love for Raw. I don’t expect everyone to love Raw, but I do expect people to respect his grind and his hustle. He works harder than anyone I have ever met in my life.

2008-02-26T22:22:00.000-08:00

Day Seventeen: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Greenville, SC

Greenville is a bit of a challenge because we don’t really have a point person to show us around. Raw’s publicist, Kim Ellis, was kind enough to hook us up with a guy named Ty from Grind DVD magazine series.

We found a local retail store by asking in a Kinko’s FedEx where the ‘hood is. One of the guys who works there sent us to EarShot on Laurens. The owner of the store was so cool and so knowledgeable (Randy Bunn), not only of Greenville but of Atlanta, Charleston, and Savannah. He was also well versed in music and turned me onto some new stuff that I might like. He was a gem!

TY joined us at EarShot and took us to a hip hop gear shop called Concrete Jungle. The owner was an OG who embraces the younger generation, which is rare!
We then went on to the ‘hood. We passed out DJ Smallz mixed CDs and flyers at a gas station at Shaw and Buncombe in West Greenville. People were both surprised and elated to see Raw in the heart of the ghetto promoting.

I went back to the hotel to work, as did Nokey. Nokey uploaded much of the footage he’s been filming to Raw’s new YouTube TV station (www.BloodRaw.tv).Nokey is the one who shot the Corporate Thuggin’ video, BloodRaw’s DVD, and the person who created USDA TV. He’s done an outstanding job and has even sacrificed to build what he is creating with his own video company. He’s a rapper from the south side of Chicago, who moved to Atlanta to work with CTE, and found his niche as a videographer to capture Jeezy’s life on film. He has shot over 40 videos for folks within the CTE camp. You can catch them all on You Tube. The rest of the guys went to the strip club and hung out with some of the guys we met in the ‘hood at the gas station. They showed Raw incredible love buying him 3 bottles of Goose, a bunch of Budweiser, and some Patron. They showed the guys CRAZY love!!!

Mike Fresh (Raw’s DJ) came back to the room super excited by the hospitality that Greenville showed at The Gentleman’s Club. For someone to buy out so much liquor for the guys was unbelievable. All they could do was just tip the girls!

I sent out copies of the receipts to Def Jam and CTE so we could get the 25% remaining backend of the budget for this tour. I’ve been coming out of my own pocket for this for the past day or two without telling anyone, so it’s time to recoup the expenditure. I had to fax (and then FedEx) 43 pages of receipts to Corporate Thugz.

2008-02-24T14:30:00.000-08:00

DaySixteen: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Raleigh/Durham, NC

I sit here typing this from the Village Lanes in Durham, NC where we are bowling with some local DJs. Jeezy’s entire crew seems to be on a bowling kick, so today after we hit the Malls, the hip hop gear shops, the record stores that are open on Sunday and blitzed the hood with flyers and DJ Smallz mixed CDs, we went bowling.

Raleigh is an interesting market. It’s more New York-ish than dirty south. I find most of the guys rocking Timberlands and calling each other “son.” The style of music is more Fat Joe and Joe Buddens than UGK and Lil Wayne. But the radio seems to follow whatever is hot, so they have Rocko and Flo Rida and Rick Ross spinning. But the mixed CDs reflect a different picture.
DJ Lux guided us around town with his partner Austin. Austin has his own energy drink, called Wiz. He was kind enough to give us a case of it, so they’ll be no sleeping for us anytime soon. Raleigh and Durham are a tough market on a Sunday, but we did great anyway. Lux kept wishing we came through on a different day of the week, but everyday on a promo tour can’t be Friday and Saturday.

They mentioned that Bohagan came through yesterday on promo tour. Up til now, we seemed to be following Rocko’s tour. It just seemed that every city we went into, someone would tell us, “oh, you just missed Rocko, he was here last night.”

At lunch today, Raw and I discussed putting Gator on the April 8th BloodRaw release. It makes sense to me that he be featured with Raw and then travel with him on promo and whatever other tour opportunities are available. Then, they can drop Gator’s CD independently…

As I’m sitting here typing on my laptop at the bowling alley, quite a few local artists have come up to me. They recognize me from seeing me on some DVD. It’s always funny to me when folks recognize me because I forget that I do the DVD interviews, and yet they live on forever.

I’m about to answer my email, as I wanna see what Ricky Ross is talking about today. I’m also emailing back and forth with my friend, Pimp Fresh. He’s a pimp I know in Tampa who is a wonderful human being. He’s shopping a reality show right now to expose the insides of his industry. Hell, sex sells.

Tonight, Raw will hang out at Black Tie in Raleigh and a college spot in Durham called Luna (promoted by Faculty Entertainment). It’s the only thing happening on a Sunday. I’ll go back to the hotel and upload photos from the trip so y’all can see actual pictures on this blog from our trip.

2008-02-24T00:26:00.001-08:00

Day Fifteen: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Charlotte, NC

We stayed in a bit of luxury last night at the Hyatt Place at the airport. Everyone had a bed and the rooms had 42” plasma screen TVs. Woo hoo! We changed hotels in the morning (back to cheap hotels since our CTE budget only allows for $200 a day in hotel rooms for the 8 of us).

JKnow Truth met up with us and brought us to the radio station to tape an interview that will run on Monday. The station has never done that before, so DJ Magic assumed we were super VIPs. Truth is, JKnow just doesn’t take “no” for an answer. We missed seeing our friend Deon Cole (music director) but Raw did an outstanding interview with DJ Magic.

From there we went to a hip hop gear store and bumped into a slew of industry people. I saw Crazy Eddie, whom I haven’t seen in years and a local label owner named Lo. What a nice guy!! From there we were starving and headed to the Eastland Mall (the ghetto mall). We met with the owner of the mixed CD shop, had a delicious soul food lunch, got air-brushed t-shirts and did a little sneaker shopping. WE ran into a bunch of ATL DJs who had come up for the day with Malachi to perform at Club Incognito. Why a label hasn’t picked him up is beyond me. This guys wins most of the open mic contests, has won Greg Street Showcase competitions, and yet, no deal. Go figure. Anyway, I adore Malachi…so it was great to see him.

From the Mall we went to Office Depot to buy sleeves for the mixed CDs that mysteriously showed up again at our hotel. If it weren’t for Raw’s hustle, we’d be out here with nothing to pass out. The guys stuffed CDs like machines…

At midnight, Raw went to Crush to do a show for the radio station. The promoter was so marketing savvy—he let in all women for free who carried Louis Vuitton bags (the name of the single is Louie). Clever….

Raw rocked it. Rocko was in the house performing last night, and Raw had a larger turn out and really did his thing.

I have to mention something that happened on our drive into Charlotte. We were down where I-26 meets I-85 (Greenville area) and we were listening to the radio. There was this RIDICULOUSLY talented DJ who was killing it on the mix show. This muthaphukka mixed Lil Jon with the TV theme to Star Trek. When we stopped at a rest stop, this DJ had me dancing outside the van to Poison Posse and DooDoo Brown. This DJ is king! I was so impressed with DJ Swann that I whipped out my phone and was ready to dial his number….but I couldn’t find it. Tony Neal didn’t have it. Chuck T didn’t have it. So I pulled out my laptop, connected through my Sprint card and logged onto the website of that station. I sent him an email through the Cox Radio website. THAT is how much he impressed me. I am on his dick!! DJ Swann. Remember that name…

While the guys went to the concert, I stayed behind in the room to assemble the receipts that I need to turn into Def jam to get the remainder of the tour money. And Ricky Ross just sent me an email to read to the guys when they come in from the show. I’m loving how he thinks…

2008-02-24T00:11:00.001-08:00

Day Fourteen: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Still Memphis, TN

In the morning, we got up and decided to drive straight through to Charlotte. Today is our only down day on the 25 day tour. But before getting on the road, I dragged the guys downtown to the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated. Now, I am far more Malcolm than Martin, but I do realize the importance of MLK and his “change through non-violence” campaign. After just popping up on the Civil Rights Museum (what the building surrounding the Lorraine Motel has become), they were ill-equipped to handle a famous rapper just showing up without calling first. When I lived in Memphis, I used to drag rappers through all of the time, and they welcomed the opportunity to show off their outstanding museum, and even allowed access to the balcony where MLK was shot—for photo ops. I’ve shlepped David Banner and Slick Rick through that museum, both of whom turned around and made healthy anonymous donations. For some reason, today they weren’t having it, or us. What a sad day for a music city when a rapper is turned away from such an important historical site. We skipped the museum tour, took photos out front, and went on our way to Charlotte. It was an eight hour drive… ugh!

2008-02-24T00:10:00.001-08:00

Day Thirteen: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Memphis, TN

I met back up with the tour in Memphis. It was a cold and rainy day, and flying AirTran once again proved to be more trouble than savings. What a fucked up airline—and they do NOT care about their customers one iota!! Anyway, back to the tour: I met up with the guys and we hung out with DJs all day. By 5 pm, DJ was kind enough to take us around the city. We hit Sammy’s Fashions on Perkins and City Gear on American Way. The roof blew off the Hickory Hill Mall a couple weeks back when a tornado hit, so we were unable to hit that Mall to promote. Raw decided to get his hair cut by Ren at Antonio’s on Winchester. That’s who always cuts his hair in Memphis…

After that, we went to WHPK to hang out woth Lil Larry on the Trap House (you maggots!). I haven’t been in the radio booth with Larry since he was at Hot 107, when I lived in Memphis (June of 2003 through July of 2005).

Yo Gotti was in Atlanta recording with Gucci Mane, so we weren’t able to spend anytime with him, and MJG has changed his number so many times that I had given up on trying to find him. Project Pat was out because I’d have to call the ex to get his number, and that’s a bad idea (the ex was Pat’s cell mate when he was locked down).

Speaking of cellies, the real Ricky Ross (NOT the rapper) has been my buddy via Blackberry and email during this trip. He reached out to me on the second night of promo tour telling me he respects what I do with Rap Coalition. After corresponding with him and realizing that it really is him, we’ve been chatting everyday. It’s as if he is along on this tour with us. He gives me great advice, moral support, and hooks me into his network of folks who run the internet. He’s been a tremendous support system for me and I really look forward to his daily emails. It’s nice to have someone my age with my sense of what’s right and wrong to talk to. What an amazing man…. I’m loving him…

2008-02-23T10:08:00.001-08:00

Day Twelve: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Nashville, TN

Between Janiro (who owns the Southern Entertainment Awards) and Young Buck, the guys were well cared for in Nashville. They hit all of the key retail stores, the ‘hoods, and even found time to chill at Buck’s house. Buck decided to get on another song (“26 Inches” is NOT on Raw’s album, he gave it to Greg Street for his Interscope release) with Raw so there should be a Young Buck presence on the album (April 8th, in-stores).

Raw’s album will be called “My Life: The True Testimony” and he’s assembling photos and artwork for the album cover now. Raw has decided that the photographer in Orlando who did his photo shoot will be doing the cover shots. Wazzup Wuz Up!!

2008-02-23T09:53:00.001-08:00

Day Ten: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Montgomery, AL

I jumped off the BloodRaw Tour in New Orleans, and hooked up with the JAG promo tour (JAG is the group from Memphis with that hot single, Trap Walk, featuring DJ Unk). While in Montgomery, Michael London (DJ Shadow) took great care of Team BloodRaw. He took them through all of the hot spots, retail stores, radio stations, and clubs. Raw performed at Fusions to a crowd of only about 50 people (no one knew he was coming because we had no promotional budget) but Michael London made sure all the key DJs and taste makers were in the house.

When I arrived in Montgomery the next day with JAG, all anybody could talk about was the incredible show BloodRaw had put on the night before. He must have done 10+ songs because everyone talked about how intimate the setting was and how awesome the show was. Raw is a pro. He’s gonna give an outstanding show whether it’s 3500 people or 35 people. You can see some of the footage from this promo tour at www.BloodRaw.tv.

2008-02-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

Day Seven, Eight, and Nine: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
New Orleans, LA
All-Star Weekend

Although All-Star Weekend in New Orleans wasn’t as hype as All-Stars in the past, it was great to see New Orleans making some money. The city still needs help after Hurricane Katrina. A lot of help. The rents are sky high, and most regular income folks can’t afford housing. I met a real estate broker who drove a taxi at night 7 days a week in order to pay her $1600 a month rent for her 2 bed-room apartment. The cost of living is high, but the income level isn’t.
After promoting on Bourbon Street and in the Uptown area, we hit the clubs. The hardest part was choosing which event to attend. All of us have friends who were throwing different parties, so choosing where and when to go was a challenge.

Mike Fresh, our DJ, made the best use of his time while in New Orleans. He never slept. Fresh is originally from Bainbridge, GA—a small city. He relocated to Tallahassee after going to a teen club called The Garden. He loved it so much that he stayed. He has a great network of people because he’s so out going and friendly. He’s friends with James Butler (corner back) from the NY Giants, so he went to his party at ESPN Zone. He went to House of Blues (which was cracking!), 360, and really made great use of his time there.

We stayed in Metairie because the hotels were waaaaay cheaper. We bumped into TMI Boyz downtown at the Doubletree, and on Saturday, we all jumped into our vans and headed to Jackson, MS on Saturday morning to attend Kamikaze’s music seminar.

While in Jackson, we ate at Gloria’s which is a local soul food spot. Food was banging! We also visited Stax at Block Wear. He’s such a cool dude. We bought shirts, DVDs and magazines and then headed back to New Orleans for the night’s festivities. Blitzing the ‘hoods was extremely effective in Jackson. I guess a lot of folks don’t do that. It was also great rolling with TMI Boyz again, even if it was for such a short time.

Headed to and from Jackson, I never felt safer—rolling in a van of goons, with a TMI van of goons in front of us, and a van of TMI goons behind us.

2008-02-17T11:49:00.001-08:00

Day Six: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Mobile, AL

At 6 AM we pulled out for Mobile, AL. Every slept in the van except me and Nokey, who drove. I can’t really sleep sitting up, so catching up on my sleep on a three hour drive isn’t easy. Especially when there are 8 of us in a van that holds 8 people (plus luggage, plus CDs, t-shirts, flyers, posters, etc).

Dirty Dan met up with us and took us to Prichard and Maysville to promote. Gregory at Maysville Shack was kind enough to hook us up with some of the best wings I have ever tasted. Huge shout out to Dirty Dan and all the folks along the way who’ve jumped in for free to help us get around town and set up radio and club dates for us.

In Prichard, we posted up at the gas station and gave out CD singles, mixed CDs and t-shirts. We then went down to the Roger Williams houses and did the same. The streets love BloodRaw. He gets so much love in the ‘hood, it’s unbelievable. We also rolled through the Colonial Bel-Aire Mall before heading to WBLX to hang out with Nick at Night. What an amazing DJ he is. We spent over 2 hours with Nick (I love him!). He actually DJs in the booth for two hours of his show…mixing and scratching and doing all sorts of DJ tricks…He is an outstanding DJ. The coolest thing about him though is that if he likes a record he plays it. You can’t hand him some loot in exchange for radio play. I love that integrity!

We ended our stint in Mobile at the clubs—but I went back to the hotel to work. My Ozone article is overdue and I have to get it to Julia ASAP. We’re headed to ALL-Star Weekend tomorrow. Jeezy was supposed to perform on Saturday night, but he had to go to MAGIC with 8732 to promote his clothing line…

2008-02-17T11:47:00.000-08:00

Day Five: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Still Tallahassee, FL

Today is TJsDJs! It’s one of the most important and influential events in the South. It occurs four times a year, and this also happens to be TJ’s birthday. BloodRaw had a plaque made for TJ thanking him for all that he’s done for Raw’s career and wishing him a happy birthday…

We woke up and hit the ‘hoods to promote. DJ Mike Fresh is from here, so he brought his street team to follow us. Jade, the radio promotion person from CTE met up with us for the remainder of the tour. She and I will share a room, so aside from the extra luggage, we almost don’t notice the addition to the team. She blends in seamlessly.

Raw did a radio interview with J Blaze that Storm and Brian from Future Stars were kind enough to set up for him at 102.3 FM. It takes team work!! I left my Blackberry sitting at the station, so I was without phone numbers, emails, addresses, or navigation until DJ Speedracer was kind enough to overnight it to me at our next stop—New Orleans. The worst part was that I thought I lost it. I didn’t find out it was at the station until I could call them at 9 AM the next morning (on our way to Mobile, AL).

TJsDJs was outstanding. Aside from watching some great up and coming artists perform like Drop, JAG, E-Dubb, Lil Ru, Chop Chop, Beadz, Jap, and many others, we got to see a super star line up of B.O.B, DJ Unk, Gorilla Zoe (I love his voice—he could rap the fucking alphabet to a dope beat and I’d love it), BloodRaw, and Shawty Lo. The place was packed!! If it holds 2500 people there were over 3,000 there. The Moon is a great club and Vaughn is a wonderful owner!!

Since we have Raw’s camera man along (Nokey), we got GREAT footage of the show. In fact, Nokey uploads footage from our promo tour everyday for fans to keep up with our travels. You can see it at YouTube.com/USDAtv.

Afterwards, we went to Guitherie’s for fried chicken! It was slamming!!! I headed back to the room to sleep. I’m still fucked up about my Blackberry!!!

2008-02-16T23:33:00.002-08:00

Day Four: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Tallahassee, FL

Raw knows Tallahassee like it’s home. This takes a lot of pressure off me to navigate. I’ve lost the clip for my Blackberry (which is also our navigation device), and losing my Blackberry is but a minute away!!

We start our trip to Tallahassee with King getting a speeding ticket. Due to a child support error, he’s informed that his license is suspended. The cop takes it right then and there and issues him a court date. I’ve never been so happy in my life to meet a nice cop. He could have carted him off to jail, but instead, I became the driver while everyone else slept. Poor King! I’m feeling a kinship to him now, so it pisses me off that he’s got this drama in his life simply from doing 87 mph in a 75 mph zone.

We pull into Tallahassee just in time to have lunch with DJ Speedracer, Sean D, and Dreesey Baby (together the 3 of them make up The SchoolBoys—and they run the local club scene). DJ Dap also joins us at Applebee’s. Sadly, J Kwik can’t make it as he’s still in Orlando after DJing the night before for Gucci Mane.

Raw hit the studio to do drops for folks that he was unable to record before we left home. We headed to BW3s for wings, and then the guys went out to the club (The Edge and H20). Raw’s DJ, Mike Fresh is the DJ for H20, so he was happy to be home for 2 days. I went back to the room to work while the guys hit the clubs. This is the first night that I get a full 6 hours of sleep in weeks.

2008-02-16T23:33:00.001-08:00

Day Four: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Tallahassee, FL

Raw knows Tallahassee like it’s home. This takes a lot of pressure off me to navigate. I’ve lost the clip for my Blackberry (which is also our navigation device), and losing my Blackberry is but a minute away!!

We start our trip to Tallahassee with King getting a speeding ticket. Due to a child support error, he’s informed that his license is suspended. The cop takes it right then and there and issues him a court date. I’ve never been so happy in my life to meet a nice cop. He could have carted him off to jail, but instead, I became the driver while everyone else slept. Poor King! I’m feeling a kinship to him now, so it pisses me off that he’s got this drama in his life simply from doing 87 mph in a 75 mph zone.

On the way to Orlando (I’m driving), I spend about an hour on the phone with Chaz Williams from BlackHand Entertainment to pick his brain about setting up a prison tour for Raw. I do this with most of my street artists because they want to give back to folks less fortunate and make a difference. We just set up Raw’s Foundation, and are making moves to help those who need help! Chas was featured in November on BET’s American Gangster, showing the world what most of us knew all along—he’s an amazing human being making a difference in the world. I’m pulling out all of the stops for my friend BloodRaw!

We pull into Tallahassee just in time to have lunch with DJ Speedracer, Sean D, and Dreesey Baby (together the 3 of them make up The SchoolBoys—and they run the local club scene). DJ Dap also joins us at Applebee’s. Sadly, J Kwik can’t make it as he’s still in Orlando after DJing the night before for Gucci Mane.

Raw hit the studio to do drops for folks that he was unable to record before we left home. We headed to BW3s for wings, and then the guys went out to the club (The Edge and H20). Raw’s DJ, Mike Fresh is the DJ for H20, so he was happy to be home for 2 days. I went back to the room to work while the guys hit the clubs. This is the first night that I get a full 6 hours of sleep in weeks.

2008-02-16T23:22:00.001-08:00

Day Three: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Orlando, FL

After driving all night, we arrived at 10 AM at our hotel. I grabbed a quick 2 hour nap. Nasty ended up canceling lunch because he was too tired, so we went to the bank, ordered more postcards, and had lunch at Brian McKnight’s restaurant: Mama Nem’s.

We wanted to hit the Magic Mall Flea Market, but it’s closed on Mondays.

Instead, we went to order 5,000 Bigga Rankin mixed CDs and 5,000 DJ Smallz mixed CDs. A third of the budget has been spent already and we’re only at our third day… Street team queen, Mercedes, was kind enough to set up a meet and greet for us at Cleo’s, which is a strip club in Orlando. We did a photo shoot that came out spectacular (wassup Wuz Up!). This kid is a fucking genius. Raw did a shoot at 4 and we were looking at photos via our blackberries by 8:30. The shots are awesome. Raw decided this kid will shoot his album cover…

In hind sight, holding a meet and greet at a strip club wasn’t such a great idea for me and 6 guys on a budget. LOL. We met a lot of local press and some of the club DJs were kind enough to come see us. We also met some of the key mixed CD DJs. DJ Young City was so sweet. He kept shouting me out. I guess he thought I was like a fish out of water, but after 16 years of working with rappers, I’ve seen a strip bar or two…or 1,000. If I can survive Chocolate City in Detroit and Rolex in Miami, I can handle anything.

Raw did a radio interview with DJ Prostyle at Power 95. Work (Mike) was also helpful to us along with Mercedes who set all of this up with less than a week’s notice. We were scheduled to leave on promo tour for 25 days starting Saturday, and the money arrived from Def Jam on late Friday afternoon. It didn’t turn into cash at my bank until after midnight, and we were unable to withdraw money til Monday—yet we left Saturday afternoon for Florida.

The guys went to the club while I returned to the hotel to get some work done. They ended up going to the studio and recording all night. By 8 AM we were all piling into the van with our luggage to head to Tallahassee. I’m beginning to bond with the guys, especially Scrap and King. I’ve discovered King likes Blow Pops, and Scrap is funny as hell. They are two people I always hope to have on my team. They are worth their weight in gold!

2008-02-16T23:06:00.001-08:00

Day Two: Team BLOODRAW Promo Tour
Jacksonville, FL

We woke up in Jacksonville. We headed to the ‘hood to pass out flyers and then made our way over to the Regency Square Mall where we were able to grab some lunch. We met up with Wayne and Tony from Street Hustle DVD. They decided to roll with us for the day, filming a “day in the life of BloodRaw” type DVD. They knew their way around town which made our lives much easier.

We arrived early to the Meet & Greet that Bigga Rankin had arranged for us. This gave me a chance to spend some quality time with his assistant Stephanie. Bigga Rankin came out of his own pocket to have this event with all of the local JAX DJs. Damn, I love Bigga Rankin. Raw says, “That’s my nigga right there, boy! He always looks out.”

After asking the 30+ DJs in attendance for their support, we headed over to a club called Reefer that has a bumpin’ Sunday night. WE got to have some appetizers and drinks before heading to the skating rink.

It was great seeing DJ Dr Doom again, plus Sunday night at Skate Station is off the hook. It’s in Orange Park, but everyone was there: local artists like Grand Prix, Uncle, Young Cash (who was nursing a cold), as well as street teams and promoters.

We didn’t get to stay very long because Raw was doing a show in Crescent, GA which was over an hour away and we needed to be there by midnight. Bigga Rankin was paid to DJ at that club, but instead of keeping his DJ fee, he passed it along to Raw so he’d be doing a paid show. We needed the money for our promo tour so we could press mixed CDs, CD singles, flyers, etc. We were sent out on the road with only 72 t-shirts, so we had to make the best of the situation. The club promoter, BG, was one of the coolest guys I’ve met in a long time, and even though the club was kinda far from Jacksonville, we hope we get to go back sometime. The club was the size of a 4 car garage set in a very rural area. We didn’t go on until about 4 AM, but Raw rocked it.

I give BloodRaw a lot of credit—he never complains, he just makes the best of a situation, does what he has to do, and over compensates for any short comings by working extra hard. I’m loving him and our road dogs (our team is awesome!) and am happy to be helping him for free. He’s making it easy to help him.

After the show ended, we got in the car for the long 4 hour drive to Orlando. King drove us all night while everyone but he and I slept. Eventhough we were dead tired, we had to be in Orlando by 11 AM for an interview and for a Noon lunch with DJ Nasty. We couldn’t blow off Nasty, I have known him over ten years now, and he’s kinda special to me.

2008-02-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

DAY ONE
Of The BloodRaw Promo Tour

We all arrived in Jacksonville, FL tonight around 11 PM. Raw and his crew drove the five hours from Atlanta. I flew because of my schedule. As much as I would have liked the bonding time with the guys in the van, I was so busy setting up Raw's tour all week that I needed the extra time to get my shit together to come out on the road for a month.

I'm at the hotel working, and Raw's at the club with Bigga Rankin (Plush Club). Tomorrow we'll go through the 'hood and attend a meet and greet for DJs that Bigga Rankin was kind enough to set up.

We're doing this tour on a super shoe string budget. Unless we can build a strong buzz around the first single: Louie, featuring Jeezy, Def Jam will not kick in and pick up the project. So we're hitting the streets hard with a ridiculously low budget.

I gotta give a HUGE thank you to Kinky B and Erica at CTE for tolerating me and helping supply what we need to make this tour happen. Erica went above and beyond, and we haven't even had the time to thank her properly or keep her updated properly, and she hasn't given us a hard time about it--and she could!!

I spent all last week setting up this tour, for free, because I love Raw and this shit comes so easy for me. But me and my superstar team (Lola and Ace) piched in and did 3 weeks worth of work in 7 days. Crazy...

I gotta thank my clients JAG and TMI Boyz, because they put up with me shifting my focus for a couple weeks to BloodRaw. It will come back to them a million times over....

I am going into this 25 day tour tired, because I did not even take a day off since setting up the SEAs. No rest for the weary.

Can't wait to see my industry husband, Bigga Rankin, tomorrow. He jumped in head first to help us with this tour, setting up a couple of days for us (thank you Stephanie, for making it a reality--I know he was the mastermind, but you brought it into fruition). He even set up shows for Raw. What an amazing human being Bigga Rankin is. Why haven't I married him yet??

2008-02-04T10:00:00.001-08:00

Straight from Playahata.com:

We told ya’ll: In a recent interview up and coming rapper Shawty Lo admitted he paid various radio stations for airplay. The Bankhead sadly confirmed what struggling artists and labels have complained about for years - payola. According to Lo, he paid a variety of radio stations to play his record, which eventually got attention at other outlets once the BDS from smash hit “Dey Know” caught on.

2007-11-30T10:11:00.001-08:00

Time to stop all the dying By David Aldridge

If you want to debate which quarterback is best for the Eagles, please, go read somebody else. This morning, I don't give a damn. My concern today is not whether Donovan starts Sunday but whether Dontae down the block is going to be alive in a year.
Black men, I need your attention.

This means you, Jimmy Rollins.

Mr. Cosby, give me a minute.

I'm talking both to Beasley Reece and the guy who drives the downtown bus.
Will Smith and the electrician fixing the wiring at City Hall. The pastor at the Baptist church. The waiter at the Capital Grille.

The pilot behind the stick of the USAirways flight this morning.

The teacher in West Philly.

The barber in the first chair.

The 14-year-old who thinks no one believes in him.

The painter.

The convict.

The gay guy.

The sergeant just back from Iraq. The lieutenant who is going next week.

All of you. Listen up.

I'm tired of seeing young black men go into the ground.

Tired of seeing lives ruined by guns, and by drugs, and by bad choices, and by people like me who sit idly by while it happens, because it isn't happening to us.

Rich men, poor men, athletes, beggars, journalists, L.A., D.C., Detroit, Chicago, it doesn't matter. We are dying.

I've just spent two days with the Redskins, who are trying to deal with the fact that one of their best players and team leaders, a young, complicated black man named Sean Taylor, is dead at 24, because someone broke into his home at 1:30 in the morning Monday and murdered him.

There are those, including colleagues I respect, who say they're not surprised, and infer that Taylor had it coming, because he had had a beef with some bad people two years ago that led to brandished guns and cars shot full of holes. And, thus, it was inevitable that he had to die, like life is a Shakespearean play or something. A Montague is dead; a Capulet must follow. It's in the script.

No, no, no. That is wrong.

As black men, we cannot allow ourselves to be defined by anyone - by the media or by ourselves - and accept the premise that one beginning means only one possible ending.

Sean Taylor, while no saint, was not a "thug." He didn't grow up in the 'hood. He went to private schools before college. And even if he was a thug
- whatever that is - or embraced that culture during one part of his life, that doesn't mean he deserved to die in front of his child and fiancée, in his home, bothering no one.

I'm angry that people cry about Sean Taylor's death because he was an outstanding football player, as if his death has extra meaning because he had great closing speed. This is not about sports.

We have buried 200 Sean Taylors in this city this year. We don't know what would have come of their dreams and hopes. They deserve our tears, too, for they may have been anonymous to you, but they weren't to their mothers and fathers, their best friends and lovers, their teachers and mentors.

I'm angry that, as of 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control, homicide is the No. 1 cause of death among black men ages of 15 to 34. I'm angry that the Justice Policy Institute found more black men in prison than in college.

I'm angry that young brothers who like school and want to learn are accused of "acting white," and have to make the awful choice of sticking with their education or sticking with their boys. It happened to me when I was 5. I've never gotten over it. How does one mend a heart broken by those who look most like him?

I'm tired of nodding in agreement as I did yesterday when Brian Westbrook talked about how he has to be extra careful these days, because he knows that, all-pro or not, he's a target when he steps off the field, and his celebrity provides no shield.

"I feel as though everybody's vulnerable, to a certain extent," he said.
"You have to watch the company that you keep. You have to watch the situations that you put yourself in. . . . You can't put yourself in a situation where your friends are doing dirt or bad things, and then you hang around those people. 'Cause at some point, karma catches up with you."

We can continue to throw our hands up and blame others or we can stop this genocide and deal with the recriminations later.

In an otherwise demagogic campaign advertisement in 1964, Lyndon Johnson said, "These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God's children can live or to go into the dark. We must either love each other or we must die."

What's it gonna be?

2007-09-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

brilliant....

http://www.hiphopmusic.com/2007/09/americas_two_destinies.html

2007-09-06T10:54:00.001-07:00

The group I am consulting out of Houston, TMI BOYZ, just hit #1 on the Billboard Rap Singles Sales Chart and #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales Chart. I am sooooooo excited for them! Woo hoo!!! Here's the press release from their publicist about it:

Whether grindin' for a reason or grindin' for a purpose, Houston's TMI Boyz grind is producing RESULTS!!!!!!! Their second single, Swervin' moved this week from it's entry point last week at #5 on the Billboard Hot Hip-Hop/R&B Singles Sales chart, to #1 this week as a result of the many Texas-based, FYE in-stores they have done this past 2 weeks, set up by Atlanta-based Face2Face and Rap Coalition's Wendy Day - a plan they are scheduled to follow nationwide through the end of October.

Swervin' is the follow-up single to their highly successful Mannie Fresh helmed I'm Fresh ft. Mannie Fresh, whose accompanying video made it all the way to BET's 106 & Park (New Joint of the Day), was produced by in-house production team Dirtbag.

Hailing from Galveston, TX and Houston's notorious South West, the group has made their presence felt at major events nationwide, most recently the 2nd Annual Ozone Awards in Miami where many top industry panelists made mention of the grind they have seen the guys put in. In fact, in the most recent issue of Ozone magazine, TMI Boyz are hailed by Florida's Bigga Rankin as the next artists to blow.

TMI Boyz may be independent but they are no strangers to what it takes to win. Only 2 short years into their career they caught the attention of industry veterans like Chris Crawford, Owner of TMI Entertainment, Mario Henchmen and most recently, Wendy Day of Rap Coalition, who is helming the release of their upcoming album Grindin' For A Purpose (Fall 2007.) The group has in fact already performed before thousands of people with internationally-known artists like T.I., Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne, Slim Thug and Juvenile.

I have provided a download link for Swervin' below and you can view the schedule for their in-store / promo run by clicking the image above and visiting their MySpace page or by going to http://www.myspace.com/tmimuzic2

TMI Boyz have a question for all those screaming about the current state of hip-hop..........If hip-hop is dead.....why am I makin' bread?????? Food for thought indeed.

DOWNLOAD LINK - Swervin'

Radio - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=P7IA8UA1

Radio Accapella - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=A26Q31KF

Instrumental - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XOLTMEJ2

For further information, DROPS, dirty version, review copies of their Michael '5000' Watts album sampler (press only) or a full schedule of their promo run, kindly contact Nancy Byron, OGPR (832) 220.6071 or nancy.byron@ogpr.net

2007-07-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

BLOODRAW (thanks to AllHipHop.com for letting me sample this).

CTE/Def Jam artist BloodRaw has joined the roster of artists being represented by Jimmy "Henchmen" Rosemond's management company, Czar Entertainment, it was announced today.

The announcement comes two days after the rapper's former manager, Florida record promoter and indie exec C. Wakeley, announced that he and
the artist had parted ways under amicable terms.

"The new management situation came [about] because I was really looking to take my career to the another level," explained BloodRaw of his decision to bring on Rosemond and his team. "I needed someone reputable and able to see my goals and ambitions the way I did."

He went on to tell AllHipHop.com that he was brought to Rosemond via industry veteran Wendy Day of the Rap Coalition, who is a mutual friend.

Speaking exclusively to AllHipHop.com, Rosemond seemed equally confident with his latest acquisition, who he believes stands to positively impact the music industry.

"I feel that BloodRaw is a force to be reckoned with in that whole Southern movement," he said. "He's part of an elite crew of rappers from the South [that includes] T.I., Young Jeezy, Gucci Mane and Ludacris. He's among those ranks."

Czar Entertainment has also been representing Atlanta's Gucci Mane for approximately ten months, Rosemond said, and is responsible for his major label deal with Atlantic Records.

"Gucci wasn't getting the exposure he needed on an independent label. Now we have him in a situation where he'll be able to attain his full potential as an artist," said the industry veteran, whose firm also
represents The Game and producer Bryce Wilson.

BloodRaw continues a promotional tour with his U.S. D.A. group mates Young Jeezy and Slick Pulla in support of their debut Young Jeezy Presents U.S.D.A: Cold Summer, which spent three weeks at #1 on Billboard's Top Rap album chart.

He is also currently pushing the lead single from his forthcoming solo debut My Life The True Testimony, due out in late 2007.

2007-07-05T06:52:00.000-07:00

Another relationship crashed and burned. This one only lasted 7 months, but that doesn't make it any easier, does it. When you care about someone, it sucks when it ends regardless of the time in. It also shakes your faith in human nature a little more, and leaves you wondering if there's anyone worth the effort out there, and wondering why humans have a propensity to pair up anyway.

The whole point of moving from the "dating" stage to the partnership stage is to make life a little bit easier (in the "me and him against the world" way), and to be happier, right? I mean, we don't really choose whom we fall in love with, it just happens. Often at the weirdest times, when you aren't looking for it.

So, human nature allows us to reflect, beat ourselves up a bit, and say we'll learn from our mistakes (do we ever?). But how do we fill the void that's left? And how do we keep doing so over, and over, and over? The odd thing is that I prefer to be alone. My standards and expectations are high. So it's really hard to pierce that wall I have up anyway. But somehow the wrong men seem to be able to get through...

Actually, there's nothing wrong with the men I choose--they are just wrong for me. And the realization of that hurts like hell...

2007-07-05T06:51:00.000-07:00

July 1, 2007 (Detroit, MI)

Today, I went back in time, and it took me 6 hours to get there. And close to $1,000.

I was on MySpace a few weeks ago and saw a Google ad link to the Psychedelic Furs (the scary part is that a web application knows what I like and have a propensity to click on). Apparently, this alternative rock band was gearing up for a new tour—thirty years after their biggest hit. Good for them.

Let me back up a step and explain to you the importance of the Psyche Furs in my life. They, along with The Cure and Siouxsie and The Banshees, were my favorite music groups prior to discovering rap music in 1980. And, how I discovered rap was: I went to a Psychedelic Furs concert at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1980, and Grandmaster Flash and The Furious 5 were the opening act (along with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band—sans Bruce). Ok, I’m going to let that sink in for a minute.

Flash and the Furious Five opened for one of my favorite rock bands. That moment, right there, defined a tremendous moment in hip hop. I fell in love with a culture, a music, and a people. That defining moment eventually led to a Master’s degree in African-American studies, studying the teachings of Dr Molefi Asante, my attraction for the Black Nationalist Movement, my love for the Nation of Islam, and my starting Rap Coalition 12 years later-- making a tremendous difference in the lives of thousands of rap artists, producers, and DJs. All from a fucking concert. That’s the history; now back to yesterday.

So as I was surfing MySpace, which I never have the time to do, I saw a link to my favorite band from 27 years ago. The link took me to a ticket site which sold me one ticket to the Psychedelic Furs concert in a suburb of Detroit on July 1, 2007. It was the fist date of their new “Colonies Tour” with some group that never mattered to me thirty years ago, called The Alarm.

I booked a flight, a hotel room, and a rental car since the venue was a 45 minutes north of Detroit on I-75, and I live 45 north of Atlanta on I-85. The irony of spending a thousand dollars on one night was not lost on me. I chuckled over the fact that thirty years from now, I will be booking a ticket to a Young Jeezy concert long after his fan base has forgotten him. LOL. And, get this--thirty years after discovering a band that has brought me so much happiness, and I live in a world where no one I know would have any interest in coming with me—how ironic is that?

So, off I went. to a concert that was packed with other 40-somethings and 50-somethings, reliving their youth. I never felt so old in my life. I made a mental note to go home and slash my wrists. There were a ton of folks wearing Rolling Stones tour t-shirts (apparently they never miss a live show from any of the aging rockers). I couldn’t help but laugh when just prior to The Furs taking the stage, the venue played AC DC’s She Shook Me All Night Long, and the crows went nuts, just as they would have in the late 70’s. Today we have a similar song playing in the ATL club scene (about sex) affectionately called Dump That Dick Up In That Ho—a 2007 version of a song about fucking.

So the four fifty-something year old members of The Psychedelic Furs took the stage and it was like going back in time. I’ve been to enough shows in my life to know to call ahead to find out what time the act I want to see takes the stage—fuck that opening act shit, when I could be eating dinner or watching hotel reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond. Please consider this when you are offered the “opportunity” for 20 Grand, to open for a known act like Snoop Dogg-- no one shows up for the opening acts.

I had an awesome time. I guess the other 40-somethings there did as well because the place was packed. And after all, where else can we go to feel like we are 16 again? Other than the incredible mid-life crisis that this caused based on age issues, it was well worth the flight to Detroit, with the drive up to Auburn Hills to see one of my favorite bands from the 80s still rock. The only difference between then and now is that I can afford the t-shirts at the concert, and no longer need a fake ID to buy a drink at the concert.

2007-06-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

Greed, In The Music Business. Try to imagine it.

Just saw this older rant from Bob Lefsetz...had to share it...

This is TicketMaster's idea of cool? Overcharge me for the ticket (maybe not their fault, we can blame that one on the greedy act/manager/agent), then hit me with all kinds of bogus fees and then give me ONE FREE SONG? Whoop-de-doo!

Boy has TM got an image issue. The public hates them. If they wanted to give back... How about if you buy the fucking ticket, which is expensive no matter WHAT the beginning price ($15 ticket? $15 in FEES!) you get the WHOLE DAMN ALBUM!

Used to be the tour was an advertisement for the album, now the album is an advertisement for the tour. But many people don't have the fucking record and have no intention of ever buying it, especially with heritage acts. God, the Stones' "Bigger Bang" was their best-reviewed album in twenty five years, but it STILL didn't sell. Why do you need to own it? But if people are already agreeing to spend in excess of $100 to see these geriatrics, they MIGHT check out new music by the band. Hell, why make an album if no one HEARS IT!

Which is why most of the heritage acts HAVE STOPPED making records. Sure, most have nothing to say, but on the chance they do, why not give the music to those who express interest!

But NO, we're gonna give you one track of your choice, and then feed you a fucking sampler album. And you know you can't get one without the other. No, the ten or twenty bullshit tracks that you don't ever want to listen to will be cluttering up your hard drive. And most people are too stupid to realize when you delete them from your iTunes Library THEY REMAIN ON YOUR HARD DRIVE! Shit, Walter Mossberg beats up the computer companies for adding craplets (http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20070405/pcs-mired-in-chores/) and nobody at TM reads the fucking business paper of record and thinks they're doing their fans some fucking good!

This is not 1973, music is not a scarce resource. You can steal it online, you can hard drive swap, you can listen to every act known to man on MySpace and the big breakthrough is you're going to feed us label priorities that we're NOT FUCKING INTERESTED IN?

These pricks should read Seth Godin's "Permission Marketing" (http://www.sethgodin.com/permission/). Wherein he delineates how the game has changed. You have to ASK the customer, and only give him what he wants. It's a changed era. Seth is getting rich spreading his wisdom, but the fucks in the music business are all losing their jobs. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS MOVIE!

Apple isn't blame free, but we know their agenda. Just get everybody hooked on iTunes, make exclusive deals with everybody in the music business, and nobody can compete. And they'll emerge almost blame free in the eyes of the public, who'll hate the dreaded TICKETMASTER once again.

God are things fucked up. Did you read that inane insane bullshit about Florida and the used CDs (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070507-record-shops-used-cds-ihre-papieren-bitte.html)? Yup, that's the cancer on our industry, the sale of used CDs. No, it's keeping indie retailers in BUSINESS! Stop the sale of USED CDs and the sale of NEW CDs will fall even further. Yup, with nowhere to BUY the music, you sell LESS!

And Verizon cancelling sponsorship of the Gwen Stefani tour over the Akon fracas. You know handlers will now be lecturing their charges on everyday behavior. Then again, a star's everyday behavior is ALL OVER the Web! So, if you're not a reasonable person, EVERYBODY KNOWS! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUV6b-J31GE)

And why does Gwen Stefani need sponsorship money anyway? Why does any STAR need sponsorship money? They're charging a fortune, they're selling out, it's PURE GREED! And you wonder why the public hates the whole fucking music business.

You're in it for the money, admit it. Don't tell me the public doesn't care. If the public didn't care, sales would be through the roof, new acts would be selling out arenas, stadium shows would be de rigueur. You can't believe in the music or the people who make it. But the people who are selling it, they're the WORST!

http://www.apple.com/itunes/ticketmaster/

--

2007-05-26T09:07:00.001-07:00

I Love You by Amir Sulaiman
...................

I love you

So how must I feel about those who want to....control you, Jim Crow you, Cointell Pro you, F16 you, crack feign you, clusterbomb you, Vietnam you, napalm you, lost and found you, lost in the rubble; surround and pound you, humiliate you, debase you, erase you from your history, imitate and replace you, take you, rape you, use hip hop to beat break you, pop lock you, Biggie and Tupac you. I love you.

I love you.

So how must I feel about those who want to....assualt and abuse you, hoodwink and bamboozle you, Baghdad and Fallujah you, homeland secure you, Patriot Act you, entrap you, firing line you, hog tie you, solitary confine you, Palestine you, politically imprison you, steal you, Imam Jamil you, lie to you, racially profile and follow you, Amadou Diallo you, Malcom X you, snipe you, AK you, JFK you, MLK you, I love you.

I love you.

So how must I feel about those who want to....capture you, badger you, John the Baptist you, crucify you, apartheid you, landmine you, diamond mine you, glock you, if they don't Tupac Shakur you, then Afeni Shakur you, or Assata Shakur you, 3/5 compromise you, deaf dumb and blind you, cage you, Abu Ghriab you, Guantanamo Bay you, Attica and Pelican Bay you, use hip hop to beat break you, DJ cut you and cross fade you, I love you.

...........................................................................

I Love You. From the album by HBO Def Poet, Amir Sulaiman, "Like A Thief in the Night". Available now on Uprising Records.

If you can do one good thing today, cast your Vote for Amir at http://www.urb.com/promotions/next1000/profile.php?BandId=134
(simply click the stars under his name)

Spaceships On Bankhead

2007-05-03T22:23:00.001-07:00

Fabo

2007-04-24T19:22:00.000-07:00

I rarely go out. Truth is, I don't enjoy it. I'd much rather be in front of my computer working!!! But last night, I decided to go out and support my friend Khao (producer) who was judging the final competition for artists at TI's club, Crucial. So off we went to Bankhead, me, Khao, and Ruben Studdard. Now, I have to tell you that I am not a fan of American Idol at all (I think it's a gimmick that's rips off artists' dreams) so I didn't know shit about Ruben except that he was a winner a few years back, and that he is friends with my friend Khao. They are both from AL.

What a cool muthaphukka Ruben is (for the record, so is Khao).

I've met a grip of artists, as you can imagine. I've spent time with the famous, the not-so-famous, the used-to-be famous, and the wanna-be famous. Ruben stood out. He was warm, kind, friendly, and smart as hell. He was giving Khao advice that was incredibly on point.

I have to admit that, as someone who pulls artists out of bad deals, I fantasize about breaking those bullshit Idol contracts that those slavemasters fight so hard to keep secret. Ruben informs me that his deal is done. This makes me happy for him, but too late to really help him. He's signed to Clive Davis, a man who either has a great ear for talent (voices especially), or a great ear for hearing people who know talent (this is what I believe I have).

What a great guy Ruben is. I had so much fun at Crucial last night. At one point, I had Ruben standing on one side of me, and Scorpio and Dynamite from The Furious 5 on my other side. How cool is that?! Two generations apart, both of whom have influenced and affected me.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 were my intro into rap music in 1980 or 1981. I saw them perform live in Philadelphia and fell in love with rap. That's what started it all for me (if not for them, there may not be a me). And then the Idol show at the other extreme. A way for kids to get jerked by folks who want to exploit their talent yet make the lion's share of the money. The reason I exist is to stop that. And it all came full circle last night as I was watching a bunch of rappers competing at TI's club in Bankhead-- Atlanta. Ruben on my left and and Scorpio on my right. WoW! What a night!

2007-04-08T22:23:00.001-07:00

HOW TO FIND A LITERARY AGENT

When trying to find an agent, you have every right to question and interview them. Unfortunately, most writers don't interview agents and simply sign with whoever agrees to represent them. While agents are qualifying you as a prospective client, qualify them as potential agents. When interviewing with an agent:

Keep a balance. Answer their questions, but also listen.
Don't dominate the conversation and put all your focus on selling yourself. Agents will be looking for specific answers from you and if you don't let them ask them, they may decide not to represent you.
After you respond to agents' inquiries, question them. Get answers and obtain information so that you can make the best possible decision.

Questions to Ask

The questions that you should ask prospective agents will vary project to project. However, the following basic questions are appropriate in most situations:

Do you specialize in a particular genre of books?
What have you recently sold that you are most excited about?
May I have a list of your current and past clients? May I contact your clients?
May I have a list of the books you sold in the past year?
What books that are similar to mine have you sold?
How much should I expect my book to sell for to a publisher?
Who will lead my account? What is his/her experience? How much time will he/she spend on my account?
What is your plan for selling my book and How long do you expect it to take?
What more can I do to increase my book's chances of selling?
How much input will I have in my campaign?
What are your advantages over other agencies?
Do you have an author/agent agreement?

Attracting the interest of the right agent can be as mystifying and elusive as interesting the man or woman of your dreams. How to do it depends on many factors, including chemistry, timing, luck, and so many unknowns. Often, the agents who will intrigue you the most will also find you and your project interesting. Trust your instincts; often links or connections can be based on reasons that we can't identify or articulate, but we just feel that they exist. So if you find yourself liking or being drawn to a particular agent, trust your feelings.

An excerpt from Author 101: Bestselling Secrets From Top Agents

by Rick Frishman and Robyn Freedman Spizman

http://www.author101.com

2007-04-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

Perspective: Where did the music industry go so wrong?
By Patrick Faucher
Wasn't it all so gloriously simple back when people listened to top 40 radio and obediently paid $20 for discs at record store chains?

Labels set the deal terms for artists. Managers handled the "biz." The touring circuits were maintained by well-mannered warlords that politely divvied up the venues. And everyone had their place in the pond.

So where did it all go wrong with the music business? Somehow, the pond became stagnant over time, mucked up with greed, laziness, contempt and excess. People got bored with music. Then, someone threw a rock into the middle of it called the Internet, and nothing will ever be the same. Today, anyone can hum a tune, mix it with a rhythm track and some samples on their Mac at home, put it up on MySpace.com, and end up with a publishing deal from Moby, which will then sell it to the next Super Bowl sponsor.

__________________________________________________________

Sound Off: Is the music industry obsolete?

__________________________________________________________

The industry has become decentralized. Major labels no longer have the market muscle or control over the distribution channels as they once did. Technology and consumer choice have caused a shift from the traditional music business model of major labels throwing copious amounts of money behind a few big hits to that of a vast collection of individual artists creating pockets of more moderate success among passionate fan bases.

This shift requires a different approach to the development and monetization of music by the producers and promoters--one that more directly resembles that of more traditional venture-backed business. The entrepreneurs (artists) create new intellectual property (music, artistic brand) that has a demonstrated market (fans) that is robust enough to attract investors (for example, a label) that wants to own some equity in that IP and wishes to put money into the asset to enable it to engage in value-building activities (distribution, merchandising, licensing, and so on). Oddly enough, this "new" model is, in fact, not new.

We've all heard of The Grateful Dead, Phish, Ani DiFranco, Aimee Mann and the Barenaked Ladies. These great artists have grassroots beginnings. They all employed clever uses of the technology available to them at the time to find fans and create direct distribution channels (from bootleg cassettes and toll-free phone orders to MP3s and e-mail distributions). Using these methods, these "artist-entrepreneurs" have circumvented the traditional channel gatekeepers and have blazed a trail for the rank-and-file working artists and the weekend warriors to follow.

Now all serious artists need to conduct themselves as entrepreneurs engaged in building a business, not just playing and selling music. There are many tools and services out there that artists can use to help them sell. Still, it's not enough to put up a MySpace page and get a song on iTunes. They need to build a brand that has long-term value. They need to own that brand and their customers outright. There is a need for artist platforms that make this process more efficient so the economics make sense. Those solutions increasingly are becoming available.

Investors--including the major labels--need to understand the intricate partnership role they play in development. It's no longer about throwing money into the ether, marketing to no one in particular, and seeking only mega-hit payouts. It's about patience and commitment and focus. The labels--or their successors--need to get down to sea level, pick up an oar, and help row with the artist into this new ocean of opportunity.

Patrick Faucher is the CEO of Nimbit.

2007-02-09T19:36:00.000-08:00

Idiots. This industry is full of them. I got a message on my voicemail today from an A&R guy who is not only shady, but who is also a dick. And this idiot actually thinks I’d return a call to him? Puh-lease…

I have known dude since the 90s when he first came into the industry. He has never been successful—-never "discovered" or signed any artist who went on to become truly successful. His claim to fame was working at a label where he got assigned to a multi-platinum artist. He’s never had a success before, and never had one since. That says it all.

He’s known for two things: 1) never returning phone calls (which makes the irony of him leaving me a message to return his call all the more classic), and 2) he’s done deals with artists and production companies where he’s allegedly a 50-50 owner and then signs them to the major label where he’s employed, taking half of the money and budget. In an industry where reputation is all you have, why would anyone do such dumb shit for something as replaceable as money?

There’s a good chance that if you are a liar and a thief, you aren’t going to ever get a return phone call from me. People like that have no value to me, or to the industry. This genius was assigned a second platinum street artist to work with a few years ago. Now, since the first platinum artist he lucked into working with in the late 90s handled all of his own music, there was nothing for Idiot Boy to do. When he was assigned the second artist, at a worse label, he didn’t take into consideration that he had no clue. He began putting the artist into the studio to make commercial radio records. Did I mention it was a street artist? When the artist came out with the new commercial sound, he lost his entire fan base, not even going Gold. Dude killed this artist’s career in one album, eventually getting him dropped from the label to end up at an even inferior label.

Back in the day, I used to be nervous to be this outspoken about someone in the industry that I don’t respect. But time and experience has taught me that usually the folks that I find ugly, others also find ugly. This is the case with dude. His name has come up a lot in my life recently. I guess he’s gone out on his own and has been jerking people left and right to increase his income. I have gotten so many calls complaining about him that it’s almost time to get VERY publicly outspoken about his business practices.

One thing is for sure: he is the majority in this business. As long as money exists, slugs like him will continue bilking people out of some. Just to make a dime. I won’t be returning their calls anytime soon, however.

2007-01-09T19:28:00.000-08:00

Sunday night here in Atlanta brought us torrential down pours. I was stupid enough to go out in that rain. This happened on my way home at about 8 PM. I'm sad... I really love my car. Fortunately, I'm OK. A few bumps, scratches, and some bruises... The side airbags never did deploy. I have to say though, the car took the hit pretty well... I got hit while making a left hand turn, full speed, dead on in the passenger door. It knocked the wind out of me, the hit was so hard. No one was hurt, thankfully. Metal is replaceable...

2006-12-30T23:20:00.000-08:00

rap olympics 1997 - battles - eminem

The asshole who shot this video took my money but never delivered the video... but here it is for free from YouTube!!!

2006-12-30T23:13:00.000-08:00

La La La Human Steps 'Human Sex' 1985

This is my favorite Dance Troupe in the world...

2006-12-22T19:35:00.000-08:00

Jeezy's Party @ Tabernacle in ATL the day after his album released

I RARELY go to shows, because, well, they bore me most of the time--why should I stand around waiting to see an artist do on stage what I can often see in my own damn living room (I do this for a living, eh?)... But I made an exception for Jeezy. He performed live with a band backing him up (remember M-TV Unplugged?). In fact, the band wore face masks like bank robbers, which was WAY cool...

Parked out in front of the club was a Lambourgini showroom. I had to catch one of them on film because it was just so damn special...

Ah, the pre-requisite strippers...

I may have spent more time watching Kinky B enjoy the show than I spent watching the show my damn self. It was a happy moment for Kink--he got to be a fan. I adore this man...

Here's our boy Jeezy doing his thing....

2006-12-22T19:24:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago, I picked up a friend who was getting released from the FEDS after 7 years, and drove him home to Detroit. Here are photos I took of two things in Detroit that stood out (sorry, no flicks from our awesome trip--protecting his privacy is important to me): a billboard for Proof, and one of the most famous places in Detroit to hip hop (St Andrews Hall). Those of you who know my history with Em, know the importance of this spot. Sorry that you can't really read the billboard, but it's a tribute to Proof from Shady Records (way to go, Marshall!!).

2006-12-20T05:44:00.000-08:00

SoundScan has a tremendous image problem and they do NOT seem to care. I called at 8:30 this morning to find out Young Jeezy's first week's numbers (352,392 thanks to Warner Music Group and a BIG fuck you to SoundScan!!!)and some corporate idiot told me I could "buy a report" because they "don't give info away for free." Buy a report, Chris? To find out how many CDs one artist sold in his first week to mention on a free Blog? You are a joke, sir! Chris is an idiot who "works" in Client Services at SoundScam: (914) 684-5525--ClientServices@soundscan.com. Way to tote the corporate line, you dweeb!

So I called a friend at Warner Bros and we had a long talk about why SoundScan is so hated in the industry. Aside from the fact that their numbers are not 100% accurate in urban music (yet they repeatedly claim they are), and that one can even affect the charts by "buying" soundscan scans from stores (I have personally done this in the past so I know it's possible), they charge exorbitent rates from the labels to access this less than perfectly accurate data. Perhaps that's why Universal told them to "fuck off" last December, and got rid of their soundscan access until SoundScan came back to them with a reasonable price to access their data... I can't blame them. SoundScan has gotten crazy with their policies and pricing.

They have always been all about the money, but they've gotten REALLY outlandish with it lately. So the moral of this story is that if you want some quick info from Soundscan about an artist, don't bother. They are assholes and proud of that fact!! Better to call a friend at a label and get the information... or pay those dweebs at soundscan close to $20K a quarter to access their not-so-accurate data that they seem to feel is worth more than it really is.

2006-12-12T12:39:00.000-08:00

Dear Jeezy;

Well, you did it again. You made a great CD from start to finish. Now in fairness, Young Jizza from the bottom of the map, I may be biased towards you, because Thug Motivation got me through a really difficult breakup this summer. It was also right there with me riding shotgun while I made the move to Atlanta, like a comfortable, dependable friend. It was my soundtrack to picking up a good friend at the FEDS last week in St Louis (after 7 years) and bringing him home to his new life of restricted freedom (but freedom none the less) in Detroit at a halfway house. (I spent a lot of time avoiding BMF over the years--too flashy for me).

Because of all this, I put a lot of pressure on you for this new CD. If it was even the slightest bit wack, I would have seen it as a violation. But you did your thing, muthaphukka. You delievered good product, with outstanding production, at an affordable price. You even thanked me in the liner notes (hell, I'm thanking you everyday--I haven't listened to any one CD this much since 1996).

I've watched your team work this record with less than perfect support from Def Jam (especially in the early crucial days when your label president was the focus because he had his own album dropping) and they didn't complain once. I didn't hear you complain either, like every other artist who dropped on Def Jam in this difficult Quarter. You just worked. And delivered the crack--your best shit! Nobody got to see what you went through behind the scenes. I did. Nobody got to see you take it like the man you are with no complaints. I saw it. I'm not even sure your team knew how fucked up the situation really was. They just handled it. I saw it, and I know. And for that alone, you are a fucking star!! Surrounded by competent hustlers. You should be proud.

Thank you, Jeezy. You've given me another reason to spend more time in my car with the stereo blasting. Nas is wrong, hip hop isn't dead--making wack albums is. Thank God.

Wendy

PS- Kinky B is the BOMB! You need to buy that man a helluva toy for Christmas...

2006-11-11T13:05:00.000-08:00

Integrity

Absolutely nothing is more important in the business world today than trust. Sure, knowledge and skills are important. Building your team is important. Building a network that provides you with the connections to make things happen when it's necessary is important. But without trust, everything else is virtually useless.

Trust isn't something you create in a day. It takes time. Trust is earned through honesty, quality, service, and consistent performance over time. Trust is earned one person and one deal at a time. How do you achieve that? I'm sure you know, but I'll remind you anyway.

Always be truthful about your intentions. When you lie and people find out — and believe me, they will — they aren't going to believe you the next time.

Maintain an open line of communication. Share information. Encourage feedback. Know the concerns of the people you're dealing with so you can take appropriate action.

If you make a mistake, acknowledge it and fix it. Trying to cover it up or make excuses only compounds the problem. Correct the situation and move on.

Always give people more than they expect. We've all been disappointed when someone promised more than they could — or was really willing to — deliver. Under-promising and over-delivering does more than just delight your customers and associates; it clearly demonstrates that you are trustworthy and deserve respect.

Don't be tempted to move into a gray area just because you think you can get away with it and the profits could be substantial. When the stakes are high, your integrity should be even higher.

Finally, remember that trust is a two-way street. Just as you’re willing to earn the trust of your associates, so should they be of you. And if they prove untrustworthy, remove them from your network.

Can you build wealth without integrity? Sure. It happens all the time. That doesn’t make it right, though. When you build on sand, you never know when the foundation will shift and your house will come crashing down around you. Build on rock — that is, on truth, honesty, and integrity — and you’ll be confident your foundation is secure and you’ll weather any storm.

Thanks to Mark Sumpter for this!!!

2006-10-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

AFRICAN AMERICAN HIP HOP PHOTOGRAPHER BEATEN BY TORONTO POLICE FOR ALLEGEDLY CAUSING A DISTURBANCE OF THE PEACE

TORONTO, CANADA…Police brutality, according to the numbers, is becoming rampant in Toronto. And now American tourists seem to also be susceptible.

On October 16, about approximately 1:40 pm in front of the Econolodge Hotel ( 335 Jarvis Street ) in downtown Toronto , Tonye Allen and his fiancée, Ann Brown, having just checked out of the hotel, were at the curb attempting to hail a cab. While in the process, a police car from the 51 st Division pulled over at started asking questions of the two. When they answered, the officer said he didn't like their attitude, especially after they sought to find out why they were being questioned. Enraged the officer, jumped out of the car, grabbed Mr. Allen and called for backup. When backup came, there was no questioning. They immediately all descended upon Mr. Allen pepper sprayed him, knocked him to the floor, hit and kicked him. Someone on the street was videotaping the incident as onlookers were appalled. The person videotaping was told he too would be arrested. They also told Ms. Brown she was going to be arrested for disturbing the peace when she sought to see what was happening to Mr. Allen and when she went to seek help from bystanders. She was pushed, grabbed by the throat and also subdued by another police officer. The police refused to tell her or Mr. Allen the arrest charges. They refused to tell Ms. Brown their names or badge numbers. They refused to tell Ms. Brown what division they were taking Mr. Allen to. One of the witnesses on the street told her what division the police were from.

After arriving at the police station Ms. Brown spoke with a Det. Moyer who informed her: "We get all kinds of crap from the public everyday and we don't have to take it," he told her. When she said they within their rights to question the officer as to his reason for singling them out, and that we were in a free country, Det. Moyer said, "This ( Canada) is not a free country."

Mr. Allen and Ms. Brown are both African American. According to a former officer, the problem of police brutality has gotten worse in Toronto. Sgt. Jim Cassells told CBC News. "police brass have covered up, refused to investigate or buried cases of alleged police brutality, public complaints and internal corruption for years." (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/05/05/toronto-police-misconduct.html )

Racial profiling in the city has also become a problem, according to recent studies by the University of Toronto. "I wholeheartedly believe we were victims of racial profiling and Mr. Allen a victim of Toronto police brutality. We were in front of a hotel, with several large bags as well as our pet in a pet travel bag. We were not suspicious. There was no other reason to question us other than we were black," says Ms. Brown, a respected freelance journalist. "As such, I am reaching out to the local community activists. I will also contact the NAACP and Jesse Jackson's Operation Push to encourage a boycott of the City of Toronto by African American tourists and conventioneers." Ms. Brown has written several glowing articles about Toronto and was in fact working on another piece during this visit.

Mr. Allen is a photographer whose work has appeared in L.A. Weekly, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Vibe Magazine, The Source , among other publications. An avid traveler, he has never experienced anything like this incident. In his 45 years, he has never once been arrested.

Ms. Brown is a freelance writer whose work as appeared in Black Enterprise Magazine, Essence Magazine, Upscale Magazine, Playboy Magazine, The Source , and various other publications.

2006-10-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

I’m on the phone with Jane Higgins, a publicist in St Louis.

Ali was stopped by Hazelwood, MO police at 4:30 in the afternoon last Saturday (October 14) for a traffic violation. Somehow between the time they cuffed him and threw him in the back of the patrol car and took him in to the station, he was tazed 35 times (while in cuffs) for ‘”resisting arrest.” There are burn marks all over his back.

Tased 35 times? So after the first 6 or 7, he was still fully functional and resisting arrest? C’mon now… 35 times.

Hazelwood is the same town where Ali is opening his restaurant (is he nuts?) and a suburb of St Louis (it’s near the airport, actually).

Someone driving by HAD to have seen his. 5-0 did NOT call for backup (since when do they arrest a young Black male without scores of other cops coming by?), and they were on Lindbergh Blvd long enough to wait for a tow truck to come and tow Ali's corvette.

The newspaper reports that Ali was tased until he “soiled himself.”

It’s time to stand up, St Louis.

2006-10-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

THE BRIDGE: Gangs and Street Power, Part 1
By Darryl James
www.eurweb.com/story/eur29078.cfm

*Say the word "gang" to nearly anyone in America today, and visions of groups of violent young Black men will be conjured up. Racism? Perhaps. But undoubtedly, the marketing of the urban lifestyle via rap music has given the face of gangs an ebony hue.

Some of the crews and gangs in Urban America were also young and Latin. Yet, thanks to Gangsta Rap, America still merges the idea of gangs and gangsters with Black youth. In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, while gangs in New York City morphed into graffiti crews and rhyme posses, the music went straight to the streets when it hit the West Coast, and the content was mostly about the avocation of gangsters and the gangster mentality.

Many of the rap artists who represent the lifestyle in their music have more than likely never been gangsters. Haha Loco, a professed Crip gangster from 357 (named for the weapon of choice), a sect called Pomona Sin-Town, on the West Side of Pomona, California, says that the marketing of rap music has painted an unrealistic portrait of life on the streets.

"We don't just ride down the street and shoot people sitting on the bus stop," he says. "It has happened, but it was blown out of proportion. It might not be a gang member who shot someone or who got shot--it could be completely unrelated.

Let's make it clear before we get too far: Blacks did not invent gangs. And, no matter how much we love Tupac, the word thug is older than he, his parents or even his grandparents.

The word thug was found in India as early as 1200 AD, referring to a gang of criminals plundering villages across the countryside. What was their motivation? Money and power, of course.

And when we think of the gangster lifestyle, it too has been around for a very long time. In fact, the most popular aspect of gang activity ascribed to modern urban gangs--the driveby--was popularized in Chicago during the heyday of Al Capone.

For Capone and his gang, control of the streets meant controlling the cash and power that flowed from illegal alcohol during Prohibition. The use of weapons such as the machine gun allowed them to keep an upper hand on the community and a level hand with law enforcement.

In fact, law enforcement as we know it today came into existence to combat crime and to abate the street power of gangs. In every corner of the world, where there are gangs, there are police and some say their interaction isn’t always based on friction.

Haha Loco also illustrates that there is a very thin line between the street gangs and what Tupac Shakur labeled as a legal gang--the police. Sometimes, he says, the police create gang friction and/or even participate in street crime to their benefit and to the detriment of the gangs.

"That's why the gangs will always take an opportunity to strike back at law enforcement, whether it's through rioting or whatever," says Haha.

Throughout history, the gang lifestyle has revolved around grouping up to obtain power.

On the high seas, for example, pirates terrorized sea-faring travelers, robbing them of precious cargo, including jewels and valuable metals.

In the Wild, Wild, West, Jesse James and his gang reigned terror through towns both small and large as they robbed banks to become powerful outlaws--the stuff of which legends were made.

By the time the West was calming down at the turn of the twentieth century, gangs began roaming the streets of big cities, including New York City. These gangs were Irish and even Jewish, but were eclipsed by Italian gangs such as the Five Points Gang--extensions of the Sicilian Mafia--which included the notorious Lucky Luciano and Al Capone, who later moved to Chicago and into gangster infamy.

Throughout the first half of the century, new immigrants and existing ethnic groups were forming gangs in depressed urban areas.

During the 1940's and 1950's, Asian and Hispanic gangs were emerging on the West Coast, and the powerful Latin Kings and Vice Lords were founded in Chicago.

And while the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950's and 1960's was moving between Dr. King's nonviolent movement and Malcolm X's message of empowerment, the streets were forming factions of an entirely different type.

Black gangs called the Savage Skulls formed in New York, while in Chicago, the Black Gangster Disciples and the Blackstone Rangers moved through the streets.

Black gangs began to take on new forms, but their existence certainly wasn't new.

Following slavery, when Blacks were shuttled from free labor to cheap labor in burgeoning towns, their housing would be confined to one area of each city, usually the south side. When street commerce ran through the Black community, it did so with the assistance of gangs and gangsters—white, Black and otherwise.

From bootleg alcohol to the numbers game and from marijuana to heroin, gangs have existed in one form or another, surrounding the street commerce of the day. Gangs also served as the catch-all for the bottom of society, as well as a form of mentoring for fatherless sons--role models for strength when there was no strength in the family. The pecking order of a gang provides strength and power for the person on top in each segment, whether divided by Block or neighborhood.

Gangs were already strong within the Black community in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, but when crack cocaine and high-powered automatic weaponry hit the streets, the game was officially changed. These two symbols of power (crack = cash and guns = strength) became the order of the day.

Loco, who entered the game as a teenager and spent nearly ten years behind bars because of it, got into the game because of the money and the power.

"It's a powerful movement," he said. "The gang life allowed me to get out and make money and drive cars even when I wasn't supposed to be driving. But it's also how I ended up in prison--I got caught with kilos of crack and had to do time. I was about the money, but the violence and the territory came with it.”

Because the game was elevated, gangs began to operate like businesses in many ways. Some even began to franchise.

Go West, Young Gangster

Perhaps the most powerful national street gang, The Bloods, stems from a gang founded in Chicago in the 1960s, the Blackstone Rangers, a.k.a. The Black P Stone Rangers, a.k.a. The Black P Stone Nation (BPSN). By the time crack cocaine became an urban street staple, The BPSN was spreading westward.

And, outside of Chicago, the most notorious location for gangs has been Los Angeles, a city many people think of synonymously with The Bloods as well as The Crips, a gang founded in the 1970s by Raymond Washington and the late Nobel Prize Nominee Stanley "Tookie" Williams.

The Crips were the dominant street gang in Los Angeles until the late 1970s/early 1980s when smaller gangs such as the LA Brims came together under the title Black P Stone Bloods.

During the 1980s, the Crips and the Bloods formed national networks, fueled by crack cocaine sales, which some say were even connected to Central American gangs. There were specific aspects of the gang lifestyle that remained consistent from city to city, including the money and the power, but also, according to the self-professed Crip Gangster from Pomona, California, Haha Loco--the respect.

Respect is everything," he says. "You have to keep your respect and hold on to it. You can't take any crap from anybody."

Two years ago, Haha saw the pursuit of respect in the game come too close for comfort. He and his twenty-nine year-old brother-in-law were at a party when a fight broke out. His brother-in-law stopped the fight and one of the youngsters fighting pulled out a gun and shot him dead.

"That's how it is," says Loco. "The youngsters are trying to get respect, so they can become OGs. You're fortunate if you make it past twenty-five."

But, contrary to popular myths, there are many like Haha Loco, who find a way out of gang life.

"I've been living it out for twenty years, but I've become a father and a husband and I'm working now," he says. "The story of my life isn't what I'm doing now, it's what I lived through. I'm not worried about the streets coming back to claim me, because you have to get yourself right spiritually. You learn to fear God and you fear no man."

Loco knew that he had to change, especially when he saw the changes in the laws surrounding street commerce. Those changes in laws included the stiffer sentences garnered from crack cocaine as opposed to equal amounts of the less potent version of cocaine.

And, California's "Three Strikes" laws allowed judges to send repeat offenders to prison for life after their third felony, no matter how minor the final offense.

"I knew I had to change," he says, "because based on the laws, people are getting the same time a murderer would get, just for dealing in the drug game. I had to learn the game all over again and re-socialize."

Haha transferred his game to rhyming, reversing the trend of Rappers claiming to be gangsters. Haha is a gangster who is now a Rapper.

"Whatever I say is indisputable, because the streets will vouch for me," he says. "They know Haha's an OG from 357."

"I've got over thirty dead homies over the years," he says. "I've done over ten years in lockup. I know people from every gang--Watts, Compton, LA, and Pasadena. Hoover Crips, East Coast Crips, Main Street, Nutty Block Compton, Sin-Town, Bounty Hunter Watts, 97 Gangsters, 190's--they all know me."

The crime rates across the nation began to fall sharply by the mid-1990s, but gang activity continues to rise--curiously in suburban areas more than urban areas.

The popularity given to gangs by rap music, according to Haha Loco, has lead to an unrealistic view of gang life.

"To me, rap music exploited what the gangs were doing," says Haha. "I see it as a lot of guys trying to step up as if they did dirt, but the real guys are doing time in penitentiaries somewhere. It made the people who had nothing to do with the lifestyle more aware of the power in the streets.

"I won't take away from them, but when it comes time to show what is being said, they will move away from it. Gangsterism is marketing."

And the overblown marketing of gang life has lead many citizens to harden their view of even the most reformed gangsters, including Stanley "Tookie" Williams, founder of the infamous LA gang, the Crips, who turned humanitarian while behind bars, denouncing gang violence, helping to turn lives around.

Even though Williams contributed greatly to society, some pressed vehemently for his death, citing the violence wreaked by gangs, tacitly ignoring the peace he brought after being jailed.

"He changed his life around," says Loco. "That man was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Is that (The Death Penalty) how you reward a person who turned his life around? He spent more than twenty years locked up, but he did more good in there than many people out here."

Even behind bars, Tookie Williams remained about the power. The power he focused on was the power to change lives and to save lives, steering youth away from the hazards of gang life.

Once in--for life--gang life is about the power. But it is not about some of the things that people publicize-being forced to join, for example.

"You can be born into it, but one thing that is a myth is that people are forced into it," explains Haha. "If you don't want to be in my gang, why would we make you get in and tell you all of our secrets?"

Haha also explains that the first step to being in a gang is rebellion. Adolescents begin to turn their attention away from homework and chores to money and girls. Parents have to be careful of the messages they send their children.

"As a parent, you have to think about your kids," he says. "You can't gang bang and then raise your kids in the same hood and think they won't follow you. I have sons who watch me, but they also watch me go to work. They also play the video game True Crime: Streets of LA and they hear my music."

No matter how many rap videos proclaim to expose the "real" inside view to gangs and gang life, the reality is that no criminal in his right mind with real power would dare expose current activity for which he could be prosecuted.

Power is not always visible with a quick observation. Sometimes, true power moves through the streets as an unseen hand.

Next Week: "The Facts & Faces of Gangs."

Darryl James is an award-winning author who is now a filmmaker. His first mini-movie, "Crack," was released in March of this year. James' latest book, "Bridging The Black Gender Gap," is the basis of his lectures and seminars. Previous installments of this column can now be viewed at www.bridgecolumn.com. James can be reached at djames@theblackgendergap.com.

2006-10-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

I spent time in Montgomery, AL this weekend.

I was there to meet with T Long (NY Yankee) who is starting his label, LongMoney Entertainment. I got to meet all of the artists on that label: Small Time Ballaz (Jungle Baby, Killa Katt, and Big Hulk), Willie Wheat, D'Shanty (Shann), Songbird, Lil Dutty… and the incredible producers and folks behind the scenes who are making shit happen over there. I met T through my good friend Michael London, who is one of the first people int he industry that I befriended. He's a cool muthaphukka...

T and Michael London were kind enough to set up a meet and greet so other artists in the city could meet me, Greg Gate$ (writer for MurderDog, Down, The Source, etc), and Wayne Watts (a successful entrepreneur). It was an outstanding couple of hours. I received over 200 demo CDs, but the best part was that I got to tell the artists that to get noticed by major labels and offered a respectable deal, they will need to sell their own CDs regionally. So they need to get their hustle on.

At the end of the night, I got to see a performance by many of the local artists at a local club with a very long history: The Rose. Although I never go to showcases (it sends the wrong message to the artists that performing leads to a record deal—labels don't care about shows), I did have a great time Sunday night.

I met Khao and one of the guys from Dirty. Khao was in town for the weekend to clean up some things for his father’s estate—his Pops had just passed away (condolences to Khao and his family). He’s from Atlanta, where I now live, so I’ll get to see more of him.

Daniel from Dirty was able to break down his experiences for me in the music business from being at Universal to Rap-A-Lot. He has a solo CD that’s out now. He is a very nice guy and I got to hear about his kids that he’s raising by himself as a single Dad. How amazing is that!!

T Long kept the Moet and Corona flowing all night in VIP, and the only bump in the road was when a fight broke out downstairs. It appeared to be some guy who chose that moment to beat the hell out of his woman right then and there. Men who beat on women are low, so he showed his ho card to everyone in the club that night. Security seemed to be busy outside guarding T’s Bentley, so the fight lasted a little longer than necessary.

The Rose has a rich heritage of performances by jazz and R&B greats and has been in existence forever! I was proud to be part of history in the making and hope I get to do big things with LongMoney in the near future! Michael London (DJ Shadow) is the superstar who is going to deliver that label to infamy. Get at your boy… he’s running shit over there now!! And he’s really doing his thing!

2006-10-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

Best quote I've read from a rapper in ages:

Complex Magazine asked Game about why he remained loyal to Dr Dre when it appears Dre turned his back on the rapper by not offering any beats for this release. Games responded by saying, "How about giving me a chance to feed my family for the rest of my life? Isn’t that better than giving me a beat?”

Aces.

And speaking of props...

Dear Project Pat;

Thanks for introducing me to Mike.

Best Regards,
Wendy

2006-09-18T13:37:00.000-07:00

For the first time in six years, I am single again!

It's kinda weird but it's also very, very exciting. A huge stress has been lifted off of my shoulders, and there is this odd sense of freedom and calmness that has descended over me. We've been seperating for a long time now, so this has been a long time coming. I am fortunate that we parted friends and went out of my way to ensure that. He's a great guy...just not for me.

I have a lot of work to do on ME, which I am looking forward to (and already started). I have a new home, in a new city, with a renewed committment to my companies. It's all very exciting.

I'm a bit sad for the loss of what could have been. But the truth is that it was never a fair and balanced relationship for either of us. I hope we can remain friends forever. We are both great people...on our own.

So if you need to start your label and are looking for an outstanding consultant, hit me up. I have a lot of free time now!

2006-09-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

This is for those of you who complain that I never share my interviews with you!! Here's an interview I did with MVRemix. You can see the original at http://www.mvremix.com/urban/interviews/wendy_day.shtml along with a lovely picture of me and Proof (RIP):

Wendy Day makes millionaires out of Rappers
September 2006

For those of you who May or May Not know who Wendy Day is, what she has accomplished and what she does for living, you need to read this interview.
Yes, rap music is a field dominated by Men. But as the saying goes, "behind every good Man is a good Woman". Wendy Day is that good woman behind many of Rap's good Men.

Rap Coalition History

Wendy Day founded the not-for-profit Rap Coalition in 1992, out of revolt for the way urban artists were/are unfairly taken advantage of in the music industry. Wanting to shift the balance of power to favor the artists, Wendy dumped her life savings (selling her condo, her stocks and bonds, and her BMW) into starting the advocacy organization to support, educate, protect, and unify hip hop artists and producers--in other words, to keep artists from getting jerked. Since 1992, Rap Coalition has impacted the urban music industry by helping, for free, thousands of artists, DJs, and producers individually, as well as through monthly panel discussions, seminars, demo listening sessions, cipher sessions, showcases, and fair deal negotiations. Rap Coalition breaks unfairly oppressive contracts (pulling artists out of bad deals with record labels, production companies, and managers), teaches the business side of the music industry to thousands of artists and industry hopefuls from around the country, offers health care and dental benefits, coordinates the panels at most of the major urban music conventions, has instituted a mentor program combining up and coming artists with established artists, and helps set up artist-owned record labels.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MVRemix: How did you come up with the idea for Rap Coalition and where were you?

Wendy Day: I was taking a class in New York City that was taught by an "accountant to the stars." The class was called The Pop Music Business, and I was basically nosey. I wanted to know more about the music industry. When the teacher talked about how artists got jerked, I was annoyed that no one helped them because there was no money in helping them. I decided to be the one!

MVRemix: Who was hot when you came on the scene?

Wendy Day: I started listening to rap in the early 1980's when Run DMC, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick, Grandmaster Flash, Cold Crush, and Sugarhill Gang were hot. But when I started Rap Coalition 12 years later, my soundtrack was Naughty By Nature's "OPP," Ghetto Boys' "Mind Playing Tricks," and X Clan were busy stomping in their big black boots. On the rap music historical time-line, the music had just left New York as the center of everything hip hop and the influences were coming from the west, the south, and the Midwest--like it should be. The importance of mainstream radio was just coming into play--instead of rap music being played only in the mix show evenings, some of it was crossing into mainstream and being played during the day. The growth of radio was something that would continue to accelerate, even today.

MVRemix: Did you know that your organization was going to be around this long?

Wendy Day: No. I wasn't sure there was this much of a need for what I do, and also, I didn't know exploitation and greed went as deep as they do. The naive, optimistic me thought that I'd help everybody and then the problem would be fixed in a couple of years. I thought the organization would morph into a union for artists--all artists. See? Naive and optimistic.

MVRemix: Were people, mainly rappers, initially put off by you're being Caucasian or did and does it work to your advantage?

Wendy Day: If they were, I didn't notice it. I think they were more put off by someone willing to help them for free. We don't charge to break contracts, and people never quite trusted that "free" aspect of what we do. Now that we've been doing it for 14 years and it's still free, people seem to get it. But back then I think they thought it was a trick. They kept looking for my angle, and when there was no angle, they were pleasantly surprised.

MVRemix: How did and do the labels react to you?

Wendy Day: With love and hate, fear and reverence. The ones who know me and deal with me regularly, understand me. The ones who do not know me well, think I am a "do-gooder", out to keep them from making money. Some even think my deals are overpriced and ridiculous. The ones who have done deals with me have made millions of dollars and call me regularly to see what else I have. They understand me. I am a pussycat when a label is fair and honest. I am a pitbull when a label is shady and lies to their artists. There are a handful of labels I refuse to deal with, and they hate me. But who cares? They are fucked up labels. That's why I don't deal with them.

MVRemix: What is the worst career move a struggling rapper or producer can do in this day and age, in your opinion?

Wendy Day: Worst? There are so many fuck ups to choose from [laughs]. I think the worst is an artist assuming all labels are equal and signing a deal with any record label because their goal is to just get a deal--any deal, not to get a good deal that will lead to success - success should be the goal, eh?

MVRemix: Have you had experience with ungrateful artists? Meaning, artists you'd help out of a bad deal then turn around and show you no gratitude?

Wendy Day: Sure. But since I don't do it for the thank you's or the kudos, those few situations don't matter. Rap Coalition is the last stop for an artist who has no place else to turn. When the artists arrive on our doorstep, they are usually broke and at the end of their rope. 99% of the artists know the value of that love and support we offer, and act appropriately. One or two have been assholes, but that's not a prerequisite for helping someone. We even help assholes. Happily.

MVRemix: Do you get swamped by unsigned rappers and producers and how do you handle it?

Wendy Day: I used to get swamped and it was frustrating because there was a mistaken assumption that I could get anyone a super deal at any time. That's obviously not the case. I handled it by removing myself from situations that created that misunderstanding--like the Source Power 30: as honored as I was to be selected as a power player in their mag, it caused pure drama. There was no upside. Haters came out of the woodwork, and artists assumed that access to me guaranteed a deal. So when they called me asking to do a photo shoot in the following years, I refused the honor. After awhile I guess they thought I was crazy, or an asshole, and stopped asking me--or maybe I'm just not powerful anymore in their opinion, who knows. There was no upside to that honor.

I began explaining on panels how to get a deal and that demos were not the way. I stopped accepting demos by mail. I stopped doing interviews so folks that weren't firmly entrenched inside the industry wouldn't know who I was or what I did. I stopped doing photo shoots so folks wouldn't recognize me from magazine articles and stalk me with demos. And I began writing for rap magazines to educate folks on how-to.

MVRemix: I know you must get harassed by rappers whose game is/are not up to par. How do you shake off a wack rapper?

Wendy Day: I don't shake off wack rappers. What I do has no bearing on talent. My mission isn't to be a gate keeper nor am I qualified to say who is wack. I think Master P was wack, yet he sold 50 million CDs in the 90s. My favorite rapper is Ras Kass and he has sold 200,000 CD's. So I already know I am not qualified to judge talent or success. Our goal is to help rappers on the business side. We help everyone. Wack or talented... No one has the right to judge. Don't like it? Don't buy it. We are not censors or gate keepers. Rhyme about chopping my family up into little pieces? C'mon in and we'll help you if you need out of your contract. What I do has no bearing on the music and vice versa.

MVRemix: I heard it said that the best rappers and singers sell the least amount of CD's. How true is that?

Wendy Day: Ras Kass sold under 200,000 CDs. Master P sold over 50 million CDs. You tell me... But who is the judge of "best?" I can only say what I think is best for me. People confuse the art form with the commerce of the music business all the time. Who am I to say what's good and what's not? What's good doesn't always sell well in anything in life. Crack and Heroin aren't good, but they sell well. In urban music, we are forever confusing popular with good. Popularity sells well. Good makes you feel warm and fuzzy when you hear it. Every now and again in life, I like things that are also popular. But I'd never push my feelings on another person. This is a business, not an art form. You can make music because you love making music or you can supply music that fills a demand. Each artist has to make that determination and decision. If you want to be in the business of music, you must treat it like a business. If you enjoy making music, get a job to support yourself and make music to be happy. Give it out to the world for free.... If you are signed to a label and it doesn't sell well, you will not be happy. They think it's a business too...

Also, for me, what happens when the personal gets involved? David Banner is my friend and I do not like Jay Z as a person. Does that make Banner a better artist than Jay Z? I prefer listening to Banner's music. My husband wouldn't agree... he can separate the personal from the music as a fan. I can't. I guess because I know the artists. Once I know someone is a terrible human being, it's hard for me to listen to the music with an open-mind. I can't even listen to Baby - CEO Cash Money... I get nauseous. All I can think about is how he hasn't paid his artists properly as he brags about all of his cash. Fuck! Sell a car or pull out a tooth and pay BG.

MVRemix: Are rappers getting better deals, now?

Wendy Day: Absolutely they are, if they know what to ask for. It depends on what you mean by "better." The deals are financially smaller right now than they were in the late 90s because the sales and return on investment are smaller. But since I never did deals based on money, to me, the deals are better. The labels are more desperate for profits, and my deals are very profitable for the artists and the labels. When artists are happier, they are easier to work with and make better product. When they sell more CDs, labels make more money. My deals are hugely successful, so the labels smile when they see me.

The artists are also more knowledgeable today. They realize that quick fame is wonderful, but it's not enough. They need longevity too. They need to build a brand that can be leveraged into other areas to make income for many years to come.

MVRemix: Has any rapper ever asked you to get on CD with them and say a lil' somethin'?

Wendy Day: Of course. All the time. I never have. I have no talent for that. Oh wait! I tried to once....to help out. I was in the studio with Ras Kass. He needed a female voice in the background of a song that Domingo was producing for him. He couldn't find anyone to say one line for him and needed it done right then. All he needed me to say was "a mansion and a yacht." I tried and tried. I SUCKED! I couldn't do it. I couldn't rap on beat. It was pathetic. We had to call a female rapper I was friends with and ask her to come down to the studio to say 5 words. Pathetic. My career as a rapper was very short. [laughs] I sucked!

I did some acting on a CD for Prince Paul back in the day. I played an EMS worker. That was fun. No rapping...just talking. It was a short part of a skit, I think. It was a very creative album. He's a genius.

MVRemix: How has the business said of the music industry changed from 14 years ago?

Wendy Day: It has gotten more competitive and there are more "friendship" and "favor" deals. Also, people who never would have been able to get a deal 5 years ago can get a deal today by selling 30,000 CDs regionally. Labels used to sign artists based on talent. Today it's pure business. If a label thinks they can make money, they will sign you. No development, no real support, no breaking records...just sales. If you don't sell quickly, they are on to the next. And there is rarely a second shot. Also, the artists are more cliqued up than they used to be. And because they beef more, whatever clique an artist decides to be down with, can be a crucial decision with far reaching repercussions. Look at Game. He thought he was signed to a label, not inducted into a crew. That mistaken assumption has cost him a lot. The price of signing to the hottest artist was very high.

MVRemix: What's a typical day like for you?

Wendy Day: I don't have a typical day because I do so many different things. The not-for-profit side of what I do (Rap Coalition) has me reading a lot of contracts, interacting with established artists, and calling lawyers. I do a lot of listening and a lot of planning. To support the not-for-profit organization, I shop deals and consult indie labels. So that side of what I do (PowerMoves, LLC) has me on the road a lot, setting up record labels, and teaching folks how to sell CDs, or it has me meeting with label executives in NY and L.A. negotiating major deals. Then the educational side of what I do has me setting up panel discussions and conferences which means a ton of emails, calls and following up. I get about 200 phone calls a day and about as many emails. I try to touch base with industry friends as often as I can, and I need to keep in touch with people on the streets around the country so I never lose touch with what's happening on the streets and what's hot. And sometimes I even sleep.

The bad part is that I focus on what I need to do, not on what I've done well. For example, my websites need to be redesigned and updated. I need to set up the panels for the SEA Weekend in January, and the panels for the Indie Label convention in Vegas in February. January and February are coming very fast--tick tock tick tock. I just got a major artist released from his contract, and I never think about that success. Just tick tock, tick tock...

MVRemix: Do you still have that same fire for the music game and what do you see yourself doing in the next 5 years and?

Wendy Day: Yep--same fire; same passion. I do burn out from time to time. It used to scare me. But I learned that the passion comes back. I've learned to work through it. I've also learned how to take breaks and vacations and enjoy downtime. That took me 10 years to learn. Next five years? I will most likely phase out of consulting indie labels and start my own label. I have created A LOT of millionaires. Yet I am not one yet. Let's see...what else? I am getting more into building brands and leveraging artists' brands with corporate Amerikkka, and have been toying with the idea of starting Urban Markets, LLC-- a branding and endorsement company for established urban artists. There is no reason why we don't see Pimp C or Ludacris doing ads for products that reach our market in Hip Hop. Right now artists do deals for the products that reach out to them, or that they have access to.... imagine someone who perfectly matches artists with products based on target market and imaging instead of something as fleeting as access and opportunity. There's a void in the branding market. I have access to every artist and can fill it. My Master's degree is in Marketing and I specialized in Psychographics. That might be fun for me to do...

2006-09-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

I just moved to Atlanta and was soooo excited that the Billboard Hip Hop Conference would finally fit into my schedule for the first time since its inception. While I no longer read Billboard (it isn't very rap friendly, nor is the news regarding our industry as on point as I need an industry mag to be), I was excited by the event when I read the list of panelists and topics on their website.

Over the past few months, in speaking with folks in the industry and indie labels around the country, no one was planning on attending (except me). This had me a bit concerned because I had heard over the years from folks in the industry that it was an event worth skipping. Regardless, I am a conference junkie and will pretty much support anyone trying to share some industry knowledge.

I was over there this afternoon and gave out less than 25 business cards. It was a waste of time.

My take on the Billboard event is that they are able to secure great sponsorships by leveraging their name because companies outside of hip hop (and folks wanting to be in this business) support it-- but much like the magazine, they don't really attract our industry to impact a return for those sponsors. It was the worst attended event I have seen in my 14 years in this industry. I had always heard it was mediocre, but never really believed that to be the case because I saw the level of sponsors (and prices) they were able to secure.

The space was incredible, the sponsors top notch (hell, they had secured Bentley, Roland, Remix Magazine, Stanton, Pioneer, etc), and impressive panelists. I don't know if the panels were good because when I saw the level of attendance at the event during what should have been their key hours, I opted not to spend the $700 admittance. I did spend time in the common areas talking to folks who had spent their money to attend. I collected a few demos and talked to everyone offering insight into the urban music industry--I literally talked to everyone in attendance.

What they seemed to be lacking were key executives, tastemakers, and DJs to network with--oh, and attendees. Both the TJsDJs/Ozone event last month and the Core DJ Retreat a few weeks ago in ATL put this event to shame. I'm not sure why the event is passed over by the more serious folks in this business, but the good folks at Billboard certainly should analyze this and solve the problem. Their event would have been ideal for DJs to attend based on the rooms they had set up off the main ballroom with various equipment to play with.

All I could think as I walked around this empty event was that if I could just drop in all the attendees from the events I've been to in the past month, it would have been the best convention ever (even at $650 a head--more than double ANY other hip hop event). And everyone would have benefitted...

2006-09-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

More than a month has passed since I last posted. It was no vacation, I assure you. At the beginning of August, I moved from Memphis to Atlanta. I loved Memphis, but there was not enough of a music industry there. So I found a house at Lake Lanier, which is about 45 minutes north of Atlanta. It's gorgeous and I live right by the lake. Once I recover financially from the cost of the move, I'll probably find a small apartment in downtown Atlanta so I can divide my time and be nearer to the center of town.

I plan to open the Rap Coalition office in Alpharetta, a northern suburb of Atlanta about 15 minutes up 400 from 285--just north of Buckhead. It's a suburb, but a great location and easy to access from all areas of the city.

I spent 9 months in Atlanta in 1999 and 2000--in fact, I spent millenium New Year here, trapped in a house in Lithonia; in a shitty relationship that I soon ran from at high speed. The experience I had being in the ATL back then was not positive, but I have a new positive attitude this time around. Being at the Lake will help that...

A few days after I moved, I headed down to the TJsDJs/Ozone event in Orlando. The event was great (except for the ghetto hotel) and I went from there to Philadelphia to help my Mom move. I popped back to ATL for 2 days to support the Core DJ Retreat which was great, but crowded. I was pulled in so many different directions and just plain tired after two moves in a few weeks time. I headed back to Philly to finish the job after the Core Retreat, and am thankful the moving is over. I'm headed back out on the road and happy to be based near such a large and easy to use airport (I'm used to Memphis which is expensive, small, over crowded, and disorganized).

Here's my new info:

Wendy Day
Rap Coalition
PowerMoves, LLC
3000 Old Alabama Road
Suite 119; Box 171
Alpharetta, GA 30022
404.474.1999
cell 917.501.6100
email RapCoalition@aol.com

No demos, please! I don't sign artists and demos are a waste of time and money. If I heave not heard a buzz on the artist, I don't have the time to listen to it. And if you haven't sold upwards of 30,000 CDs regionally (verifiable by SoundScan, and within the last 9 months), there's nothing I can do for you regarding finding you a major deal. So save your postage and energy. Chances are if you have sold those CDs, I already know who you are and we've already spoken... Hell, I'm probably in the middle of shopping your deal right now!

2006-07-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

More from N'Awlins...

The tourist areas are fine. Some restaurants and hotels have not reopened, and many of the bigger stores in the Quarter (like Saks Fifth Ave) were looted (and torched) and have not re-opened yet. There are only 200,000 people in the city now, so it seems empty--like a Saturday or a holiday, but on a weekday. There are billboards everywhere advertising lawyers to sue insurance companies (my favorite said "Wind or Rain...Attorney Bob Jones can help YOU." Bob Jones is helping himself obviously, because by the time he gets a settlement from insurance and takes his third, there will be nothing left for anyone to rebuild with). I saw a lot of signs in store windows that said things like "CNA Insurance SUCKS!" or "AllState only paid us $10,000."

I drove through one of the worst neighborhoods on my way to the airport (not the infamous 9th ward, but an area just north of uptown where many of the rappers are from originally) and it's devastated. It needs to be razed and rebuilt, but because of the proximity to downtown, I know it won't be rebuilt for poor people, so I am reluctant to suggest demolition. The shotgun houses are destroyed, and have that curious coded graffiti all over the front that we saw on CNN ("one dead" or "dog inside", etc), yet still have people living in them, like squatters would live (but in their own homes). I saw one house with no front door, no windows, and a blue tarp on the roof to cover a gaping hole, with 3 young kids sitting inside what would have been the living room. It was over 100 degrees outside.

The mosquitos are intense at dawn and dusk, and the smell in certain areas is like a fish market (or worse--that's the nearest smell I can relate it to). No one should have to live like this. I half expected to see Sally Struthers come walking out from behind a house the way she does on the Feed The Children commercials from Africa. That this can be happening in the US is unbelievable and unacceptable. With the wealth that exists in this country, it is hard to believe we have poverty anywhere in the world, let alone in the US. New Orleans just reconfirms the disparity and lack of caring by the have's for the have not's.

2006-07-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

So, here I sit in New Orleans in a law office, waiting for my flight to go home. I was brought down here to testify in a deposition for UNLV against Cash Money. UNLV sued Cash Money because they allege they were not ever paid properly--ya know, same experience as EVERY artist (and me) who has fucked with those brothers. Juve sued, they settled (I thought he was nuts to settle for 25% of what he was owed), he didn't get paid and had to sue again. BG sued, settled this past May, and didn't get paid and is about to sue again. UNLV sued and they settled today...let's see if they get paid... you already know what I think.

Anyway, the law firm called me to testify back in May as an "expert witness" in the UNLV case, regarding what royalties they SHOULD have been paid since I've broken down royalty calculations so many times for so many artists and indie labels.

I sat down at the deposition-- my butt BARELY was in the chair, when Cash Money decided to settle the case. Classic! I guess no one on their side wanted to hear what I had to say... the UNLV side was ANXIOUS for what I had to say to become part of public record (meaning every other artist who wanted to sue could use that info for their own benefit).

So, here I sit in N'Awlins, waiting for my flight home.

I've been back twice since Katrina--and by the way, that's how locals refer to time here, as pre-Katrina or post-Katrina. It's so sad, but their resilience is so outstanding. As we sat at lunch at the Loews Hotel celebrating, I was able to hear at all the tables around us, that people repairing their homes is THE topic of conversation. The owner of the restaurant recognized the attorney who was with us (Rick), and immediately came over to chat. After the initial pleasantries, the hello, how are yous, the topic switched to how's your house coming along... Rick is demolishing his home and rebuilding, and has had trouble scheduling the demolition--a good contractor is a prized possession in this town the way a great dentist or a good barber is, elsewhere.

I had a chance to chat with the court reporter, and she had evacuated days before the flood. She said her home in Metairie had minimal damage--just water and mold damage. Hell, that's enough!! But I guess when such a large portion of people lost everything, one feels grateful for just water and mold damage.

Rick explained that there are only 200,000 people in New Orleans right now, a far cry from its pre-Katrina size. Folks are optimistic and resilient. This morning I saw a homeless woman sleeping on the corner of St Charles and canal. I imagine that's a common site here, and the reduced number of people of color is obvious to me. Certainly different from pre-K. I was excited to see cars rolling by with 22s (rims) because to me that is a sign of the pre-K New Orleans.

I didn't go over to the ninth ward. I didn't think I could stand it. I have a tendency to see things that need fixing and try to fix them, and this one I can't fix. I'm at capacity trying to fix a small section of the urban music business. But I did buy a shirt that says "New Orleans Matters." And it does. So do UNLV.

2006-06-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

Bob Lefsetz wrote this rant, and I felt it worthy of reposting here:

EMI and Warner (The Merger)

This isn't about music, this is about money. And when it comes to money, the brass at EMI isn't even in the same LEAGUE as the brain trust running Warner.

EMI is looking at this from a music perspective. How to ultimately compete with Universal and Sony BMG in a three way fight for dominance. Whereas those who are running Warner are laughing hysterically, they stole the music group from Richard Parsons, it's now worth twice what they paid for it, AND they've already gotten all their money back AND MORE!

Just because major labels are in trouble don't think their value is going to go down to zero. Quite the contrary. The crisis is in NEW music. They're like the TV networks, they're going to lose market share. But EMI and Warner have incredible CATALOGS! Hell, insiders know the BMG catalog isn't worthless, but it pales in comparison to that of Sony. And Sony's catalog is not in the league of Warner's. So who's stupid here?

And, the original PolyGram catalog and MCA wares are not up to par with either Sony or Warner. Combine them with A&M and Island and you reach critical mass and sell Bob Marley discs forever, but Warner has Neil Young and Led Zeppelin and most of James Taylor's hits and if you think these recordings are going to be worthless in the future, you truly know nothing about the Internet.

We're in an interim phase. Where sound recordings are sold at the iTunes Music Store for a buck a track, trying to replace lost CD business. But sometime in the future, this ridiculous stranglehold will end. Music will be much more easily acquired and at a much lower individual track price, to the point where people will acquire the aforementioned acts and the Doors and even Aretha Franklin in vast quantities. Probably over and over again. It's gonna be a goldmine. And Warner is poised perfectly to reap rewards.

EMI? Not quite as good. They've got the Beatles. Never discount the Beatles, but EMI's catalog is not as good as Warner's by a long shot. But, EMI controls publishing. A cash cow. Which also is going to blow up, not only when recorded music sells on the Net, but when songs are used in all kinds of new ways. Both Warner and EMI are worth a fortune, for slightly different reasons.

The guys at EMI want to continue to play, because, after all, that's all they know. Not Eric Nicoli specifically, he's from the biscuit business, but Alain Levy and his troops...you can have their music company when you pry it from their cold, dead hands. Levy got bounced once, he's not going to let it happen again. He's convinced he can win in the new era, if only he has the size to compete with Universal and Sony BMG.

But the guys who control Warner could give a fuck about the music, never mind the music business. They're all about the cash. Why make things easy for Nicoli and end their profitable run when they can continue to own Warner, pay themselves, and watch their stock GO UP! Yes, that's what's happened.

It's pure negotiation. EMI NEEDS this, Warner does not. And he who does not need a deal always wins.

It's kind of like Jerry Perenchio and Univision. God, the guy doesn't even speak Spanish. He just saw a great business opportunity, and hired people to run it HIS WAY! Which is exactly what Thomas H. Lee, et al, did with Edgar Bronfman, Jr. If you think this standoff is about Bronfman wanting to continue to be in the business, you know nothing. Sure, he may have that desire, but this is all about the bread, period.

2006-06-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

Pandora.com

Have you seen Pandora.com yet? It's a music generator program. You tell it what artist, group, or song you like and it creates a radio station based on that sound and similar sounding music. It's pretty cool... Their license doesn't cover all music (like I told it that I like UGK, and it couldn't play any UGK because it isn't licensed to do so, so it played Pimp C music).

http://www.Pandora.com

Enjoy!!

2006-06-21T18:54:00.000-07:00

Almost ten years ago, I met a rapper doing his thing on the indie tip. He was selling his CDs in pretty decent numbers. I tried shopping him a deal to no avail. None of the labels were interested, which was odd because he had a powerful attorney (he was also mine at the time, which is how we met) and a track record of pretty decent success.

The artist ended up taking a bullshit deal with a new label that had no distribution yet and no track record of success. I tried to talk him out of it. The artist signed because he said he needed the money (I guess getting a job and staying true to his music until a better situation came along was not an option). No surprise that the label went bust and the artist never had any success.

Fast forward to 2006. The artist gets out of his bullshit deal and decides getting radio spins is the way to get a record deal and have success. He called me and asked me to shop him a deal. I passed, because I have yet to see an artist get a favorable record deal that leads to success, based on the limited leverage of just radio play (radio is no guarentee to the labels that an artist will sell well--but sales are great leverage, so I shop deals based on regional sales). I introduced him to my attorney (different guy than before) knowing at least he wouldn't get jerked.

So the artist hires one of the best radio promoters in the country and talks him into getting the spins on spec (meaning the artist will pay the radio guy once he gets a deal). I think you know where I am going with this... so the artist gets a deal (another new label with no track record of success) and forgets to pay the radio guy. Oops...

So he neglected to pay his radio team (ya know, the ones responsible for getting him that deal) and they have now cut him off. Let me explain what happens when an artist decides to skip that pesky outlay of cash--the radio spins go from 100+ a week, to ZERO. Once a song comes to a screeching halt, it's next to impossible to get it started again. Once radio is burned, it's hard to get the artist started again.

Meanwhile, the artist rented a Ferrari for his video shoot and was seen driving all over town by the guy who never got paid. Well, I don't need to tell you what happened... the artist is done at radio. If this kid is able to get ANY spins at radio in the south, it will be a fucking miracle. How can one person be so stupid?!

Guess what all this drama is over? $5,000. He couldn't pay his radio guy just 5 grand out of his $300,000 advance. Unbelievable...

2006-06-21T17:32:00.000-07:00

David Banner...David Banner... I'm in the middle of shopping a deal for The Core DJs and Tony Neal was kind enough to send over the new David Banner street anthem called "Get Money!!"

OK, so the song goes a lil somethin' like this:

"If Steve Rifkind stiffs a nigga, then I'm back on the block, I'll shove this pistol in your mouth and run my hands through your sock..." I had to listen to it a couple times to understand exactly what Banner is saying. At first I thought he was saying Rifkind didn't pay him, but I know that IF that was the case, he would have called me (probably even before his lawyer). Then I realized that he was saying that IF Rifkind were to NOT pay him, he'd have to resort back to the streets and rob and steal to feed himself. I took it like he was saying thank God for what he had so he wouldn't have to turn to the streets to survive. I chuckled over the fact that I misunderstood what he was saying...sometimes I feel like such a white girl...

Then, I wondered what Rifkind thinks Banner is saying. If I had to listen to it a few times to get it, and I know Banner well, what would his label head think? I started to send him an email (at 4 AM) and then realized I was being silly. Of course Rifkind didn't misunderstand the song...

Well, when I woke up yesterday, it was still eating at me, so I dashed off an email to Rifkind's blackberry saying, I know you didn't misunderstand the song, but just in case you did, I listened to it a few times and here's what he is actually saying....sorry for being silly, but I just wanted to make sure you heard it correctly, because it confused me at first.

No response.

Uh-oh. Rifkind always hits me back within minutes because I never bother him with dumb shit. Finally, I receive a response about 30 minutes later (that's long for Rifkind) that says he heard the song, listened to it ten times and Banner is absolutely dissing him.

Uh oh.

This man's feelings were really hurt. He's going through a rough time right now, so this must be magnified 100 times in his world. He thinks Banner has dissed him. This is the president of Banner's label. Banner's career is in the hands of this man. And he thinks Banner dissed him. Uh-oh...

So we're going back and forth about the song, and I'm trying to tell him to get the lyric sheet and listen to the song again, and to read the lyrics. Banner is NOT dissing... He says he heard Banner dissed him in Ozone and now this song and he's pissed and hurt.

Uh oh.

So what do you do when someone thinks they were dissed when they weren't? Isn't this how wars start?

What do you do when your label president thinks you dissed him in a song? What if he's convinced he was dissed? Now what!?

Uh oh.

2006-06-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

Time Warner Cable sucks. I lose my cable connection (Road Runner) at least twice a week. It just disappears for blocks of time with no warning, no explanation, and certainly no price adjustment. For the $50 they stick me for every month, plus the $15 a month their co-owned AOL slugs rob me for each month, one would think they’d get their shit together.

The second a better solution comes along in broadband, I’m on it. It will delight me beyond words to pull my $65 a month away from these fuck ups called Time Warner/AOL. Ditto for my Sprint cell phone service, by the way….

I already left Bell South in the dust for the $125 that I was paying each month to those corporate thugs-- I now pay $25 to Vonage for better service. I remember all those times my phone bill was two days late and Bell South cut me off so they could hit me with that super high reconnection fee (that they were kind enough to spread of 12 monthly installments so I could be reminded for a year that they are greedy). So now their customers are leaving in droves to be treated better for a more reasonable price. Hah! Couldn’t happen to a nicer company. Idiots.

OK, I’m done ranting now. Of course I have to wait to post this on my Blog because I can’t get on the damn internet. Now we’re back to Time Warner Cable and how they suck. The second another broadband choice comes along…

2006-06-09T23:54:00.000-07:00

The music business is a bitch who doesn't love you back.

Man that's real. I wish I could remember who said that to me last week. At the time, I knew it was true, but didn't realize how genius is was until it rumbled around my brain a bit this week. The music business IS a bitch that doesn't love you back.

I'm just back from the Bay Area again. Checking out the Hyphy Movement. The labels are scared. They think it's just a fad. But how can such a huge and passionate reaction be just a fad? I don't think it can be. I do understand how someone without their ear to the street, sitting in a glass tower in Manhattan could misinterpret it though. Watching the BDS and SoundScan of E-40 isn't a testament of the Hyphy Movement, it's a reflection of Warner Bros working a record. That's just MY opinion though.

I gotta tell ya...it was cool to see a Hyphy Show (Thizz Nation, Keak Da Sneak, Mistah F.A.B., Mac Mall, etc), but it was even cooler to meet Mista FAB's team. Sometimes, as I travel around the country, I meet the teams behind artists and am not impressed (including NY where the industry is based) because it's usually the artist's brother, or cousin, or neighbor's siter's brother's dog's uncle representing them. Then I met Stretch and Gary. I can't ever recall being so impressed with the level of industry knowledge, sheer drive and ability, and business acumen of any artist's representative before. They had me all fucked up. OK, I know I just offended every team everywhere around the US, but you gotta meet these guys in the Bay to understand what I'm saying. Not only do they know what they are doing, but they even know the inside industry gossip that like 10 people in the inner circle of the NY Urban Music industry know. Very, very impressive.

Needless to say, they can ask me for anything, and it's theirs. Move the moon a little to the left? Done! Just say the word. I think we ALL need to aspire to be as sharp as these guys are. Myself included. I'm gonna have to step my game up a notch.

2006-05-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

Somebody please explain this to me….

A year ago, I started getting calls from a guy who has been unsuccessfully putting out records, and losing a grip of money every time he does so. Since I have helped some of the best indie labels in urban music put out CDs, he called me for help. Free help. He told me he couldn’t afford to hire me (which is fine--most folks can’t afford to hire me; I work with real labels, to build real businesses, not some guy who decides he wants to be a record label on Monday and by Friday has 7 artists under him looking to do a deal with Universal next week).

I have spent a lot of time on the phone trying to help this guy, but he doesn’t listen. His goal is to get a deal. I explained that the only way I see folks getting good deals is by selling CDs regionally, in excess of 30,000, verifiable by SoundScan. I set up a free website that reiterates everything I explain verbally, just in case I speak to quickly or unclearly (rapcointelpro.com). Many labels have followed that advice and succeeded. It’s no secret that I have helped to create many millionaires in this business through my consulting.

But this guy keeps calling me with questions. I’ve introduced him to attorneys when he has needed one. I’ve introduced him to an indie distributor when he asked for that introduction. I’ve even told him some of the folks I have utilized at radio and on the streets to work projects (a consultant’s team is a guarded secret that most never share—I shared with him). But he rarely follows up. He has an idea, talks about it, and then by the next time we speak he has a new idea that he’s trying to chase.

I have to admit that in the past 4 months, I have only returned about every 4th call he has made to me. After a year, it’s plain to see that he’s not listening and I’m wasting my time. I get hundreds of calls everyday, so I have to be selective about my time or I’d never get MY work done. I’m very busy. Meanwhile, dude keeps calling for free advice. He keeps asking me to shop him a deal, even though he has none of the ammo I need to be effective in place. I wonder if he thinks he’ll call me and one day I’ll just change my mind and shop him a deal. I’ve explained many times how the industry works, but he doesn’t want to hear me.

In the past year, I have heard his sob stories of money he has squandered. He’s complained about all the fake radio promoters who promise to get him 2500 BDS spins for $5,000 or some other such nonsense. Then he gets angry when he loses the $5,000. Bear in mind, I’ve told him whom I hire to do radio and how it works. When I asked why he didn’t hire that dude, he mentions some other guy in the same town who does it cheaper. Yeah, a guy who is well known for taking people’s money and disappearing. How did this guy not know? I thought everybody knew.

Tonight he called to complain about losing $3,000 on t-shirts (he’s been calling everyday for a week and tonight I had some spare time). What a surprise, the same guy who ripped him off for radio, ripped him off for t-shirts too. He then complained that it’s impossible to sell 30,000 CDs regionally these days because of all of the rip offs out here (funny, I’ve been doing it successfully since 1996 and never been ripped off and never ripped anyone off). As I added up all of the money I knew he has lost since he’s been talking to me this past year, I realized dude could have hired me a year ago and had 50,000+ CD sold by now. Back when he told me he couldn’t afford me…

What is it that makes people think this industry is easy? With all the available knowledge about how to do it right and how to check references of folks who say they can do something, how are people STILL getting ripped off? With all the legitimate people I know in this business who do more than they promise for a fair price, how are folks still losing $50,000 or $100,000 putting out a CD? If somebody jerks you out of $5,000 and it happens ten times, that’s $50,000. Who has $50,000 to lose?

If one does the same thing over and over and the results don’t change, what makes someone keep doing it? More importantly, why do I keep taking their calls?!

2006-05-19T22:57:00.000-07:00

I took a quick trip over to Chris Lighty's Blog to see what he's been up to, and saw this:

CHRIS LIGHTY: Last night as I was running around the city to check on Q tip making a record with will i am. I stopped by a radio city theatre performance were we saw Nas do an interesting set with the hip hop band called The Roots. I was rolling with Dnice and meet Mark Pitts up there to see Nas do a quick 20 minute set. It was astonishing to see this particular venue filled with hip hop heads but as Nas went off and I went on my Qtip mission I realized that as a true grown man I had just seen an amazing feat. A hip hop band just filled a venue reserved for xmas shows, kid specials, and anything far removed from hip hop. The roots of hip hop started in jam sessions in the street where kids from the neighborhood would come out in peace to hear Flash,Theodore, Bambataa do a free jam session to express themselves. I didn't stay for the Roots full performance but I left feeling like that was the jam of the week.

Fast foward to my office today where I meet with Qtip and we discussed his rollout and release for this year and we talked about how hard it will be not to rely on the pedigree that Qtip and Tribe have built from their past as this is a sport where your roots count only when your finished or you have a great band(The roots) playing beside you. This is a hit driven sport and even if your roots are stellar they are only to be shown in your live stage performance. You always have to have the new and next hit to play in this gladiator arena. As someone that has been active in hip hop since 86 in some form or fashion I am well aware that it is just as important about identifying the next star as it being associated with the current stars. Rap is still too young to really have an old school as it claims. What is old school? Sugarhill,Kane,DasEfx,Public Enemy,Foxy Brown? All of these artists have records that came out 10 plus years ago. Some older than others but is that really old? Is a twenty something year old person really old? Our roots are still growing lets check back in another 20 years when our roots will be a little stronger and maybe hip hop will be out of this strange growing spurt it is in right now. Love it or hate it this is hip hop.

Posted by chrislighty at May 19, 2006 09:51 PM

WENDY DAY SAYS: I've been spending some time in the Bay Area lately and have been seeing folks take it back to the streets. It is the closest thing I have seen to going back in time (I'm talking about the Hyphy Movement and the power of the REACTION to the music). Back to the 80s when it was fun and about the response to the music, not about business, first week sales, branding, and imaging (not to dis any of that because I love the business side of the industry as well as the creative musical side). I get just as much of a hard-on from seeing 50 hawk Vitamin water as I do hearing the uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh of "Stay Fly," or the hot new 16 bars that Ras Kass drops on my cell phone voicemail to let me know he's still got it (and does he!).

The Hyphy Movement reminds me of what it's all about and why we are all here. To celebrate the musical art form called rap (one of hip hop's elements). The current Bay Area artists haven't been jaded by the industry yet and have their own issues and drama with the police in Oakland and Fairfield who show up to stop the block parties that pop up just anywhere there is a group of people, and a loud stereo. Sound familiar to anyone over 35?

Posted by: Wendy Day at May 20, 2006 01:46 AM

2006-05-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

I happened to mention to a friend of mine today that MySpace is getting on my nerves. Not because it’s slower than dial-up (although that’s annoying too), but because I get about 100 emails a day from folks asking me what it is that I do in the industry (how about doing some research to find out what I do instead of wasting my time asking me).

So I turned to some of my friends to answer these questions for me. This is meant to be FUNNY, not to insult anyone who has recently asked me this question. Please understand when one is asked the same question 50 times a day, it gets really old. And truthfully, the folks asking me are NOT my market. They aren’t the ones who need to know.

Here goes:

“I'm the person who helped your favorite rapper get noticed...stupid.”

“If you have to ask, you’re already too far behind in the industry to be successful.”

“Can you spell g-o-o-g-l-e? It’s a lot less typing than your stupid email to me.”

“One word: google.com. It only shows 36,000 entries for “Wendy Day.” Pick one and read.”

“How long have you been in this industry to not know Wendy Day? 3 days?”

“If you have to ask, you don’t need to know.”

“Why would I take the time to respond, since you obviously can’t read. If you could, you’d have read the comments on my page or my blog on my page.”

“Is this the best you could do to find a reason to reach out to me?”

“What do I do? Too much to be wasting time answering this question.”

“Have you ever heard of Cash Money? Twista? Eminem? David Banner? I’m the reason you have.”

I didn’t reprint the rude ones….although some of them were funny.

If you really need to know MY answer to this question, please check out my bio at www.rapcointelpro.com: http://www.rapcointelpro.com/Wendy%20Day.htm. I haven’t updated it in awhile because I don’t really care who knows what I do. I’m too busy working…

No offense…

2006-04-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

2006-04-11T23:43:00.000-07:00

I grew up in a white middle class neighborhood. OK, that's not so surprising, I am white. But in growing up in that middle class neighborhood like I did, I never got to see the rule book that said stuff like:
*take what you want from anyone who can't fight back;
*education is for pussies;
*if someone scuffs your shoe beat them senseless;
*any and all "perceived" violations must be punishable by death;
*a stank look is grounds for a stomping;
*prey on others who are just as bad off as you;
*white is right;
*you have no value or future so fuck it;
*unity is just a word with no meaning;
*going to jail is a right of passage (we actually celebrated folks coming home from college, not coming home from the joint);
*you will be lucky if you live past 25;
*1 out of 4 of people will go to jail and 2 out of 4 will be somewhere in the justice system--on the receiving end, and that's somehow not worth resisting;
*being an entertainer or sports figure is the way out;
*moving weight is a viable source of income;
*fuck education; etc.

I don't believe this is a color problem (although African-Americans are severely disenfranchised in this wicked country). I believe this is an economic problem. So when folks do improve their economic situations and move along in life, going backwards is not an option (who wants to see a millionaire hoodrat). It's tantamount to waving a T-Bone steak in front of a starving person... Having said that, until we solve these problems in the world, ugly shit like this will continue to happen and the more have-nots we create (I don't mean in a "give birth" way) the worse the situation will get. I can't think of a more dangerous time to be on the streets, and THAT'S fucked up.

I celebrate the fact the Puffy's children (or any child of a successful person of color) will be going to the best private schools money can buy, but it really has no value until every poor and disenfranchised child has the opportunity to get a solid education. If we wait for others to help, things will only get worse. My biggest fear is that Proof wasn't a wake up call, he was just a statistic--I cry over that as much as I cry over his loss.

This post is in response to a DJ Babe email--

Now Ya Know Normally I Blast Detroit Hip Hop…..

This time I just wanted to share my insights on what we have at hand. My manz Proof is gone, not here anymore. To actually think about is crazy, like this man ain’t never gonna be around again. Not physically. I’m not one to jump up and talk about we were buddies from middle school & our mamas know each other, no. But I did know the man and had the pleasure of doing business with him several times and actually could say that we were cool. Did I agree on everything he did? No. Were there things I thought he should change? Yes. But he lived his life how he wanted and that’s how we should remember him.

Those outside of Detroit may not have been a fan, or understood his importance to Detroit hip hop. Sure, D12 sold millions of records but individually they haven’t made the mark they need to. But to Detroit, to Detroit hip hop he was called “The Mayor”. I once made a comment in one of my newsletters about how this nigga would be at the grimiest spots, spots that I wouldn’t be caught in. Sadly, he was in one of those spots last night.

I used to blast Proof & others who have been able to get in positive positions because I’ve always felt that they are maximizing their blessings. The Detroit music scene seems to be in a rut and for those who can make a few things happen, I always wondered why steps were being taken. Sure, Proof did a lot – A LOT – for local artist, but I wanted to see more results taking place. He showed love by continuously being in the hood & places where the everyday man is. You know what – Fuck The Hood. Fuck keeping it real & I’m Always Gonna Represent. I’ll always say where I’m from, but when I’m worth a certain amount, due to jealously and envy I won’t be able to be where I once was. And honestly, I don’t wanna stay in the hood! I’d like to actually be able to stand outside on New Years Eve at midnight. I’d like to be able to have rims on my truck and park in the driveway at night. Fuck the hood!!

For those who have been blessed with an opportunity to eat off this music shit, whether in Detroit or beyond, realize what you have and enjoy it, use it, hell abuse it. My manz created a label and signed some of the city’s top open mic talent & gave jobs to a few of his friends. Now all of these guys have to ponder their future. The members of D12 have to create a new album without him & with Eminem not being Eminem of 1999/2001.. what will happen with them?

In the end, Proof was a father, husband, son, and friend to many. I only hope that my black people will take an extra second to realize what we have & maximize it. Niggaz won’t… Niggaz be on some dumb shit & ain’t gonna change for shit. Black people are the ones I’m talking to. Fuck niggaz.

Once again, if you’ve been blessed to have what you have & achieve the status you have… maximize it, abuse it, don’t let an ounce of it go unused.

R.I.P. Big Proof

R.I.P. J-Dilla

DJ BABE

2006-04-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

Proof That He Was Alive
By his friend, Wendy Day

The headline on AOL’s main screen read “Eminem’s Close Friend Killed.” As I clicked on it I said to myself please don’t let it be Proof.

Proof was so much more than a close friend of Eminem’s that was killed.

Proof was one of the first artists in this industry that I befriended. I met him through some friends who worked at Tommy Boy. It was around 1994. They wanted to sign him because of his charisma, but they were afraid to take a chance on a rapper from Detroit, in my opinion. I liked Proof very much as a person. I can’t say that about many rappers.

Proof was energetic, outgoing, and spoke his mind. He reminded me of a little Muppet character. Always happy, always entertaining, always moving—especially when everyone else around him was tired. He was always so alive and energetic.

With the success of Eminem, I lost touch with Proof. Tommy Boy never did sign him, but he had a better gig as Em’s right hand man. He was down for Em—stayed true, even when there were rumblings in D-12 about this or about that. Proof was always by Marshall’s side, through the good and through the bad. I imagine Marshall’s feeling it the most because it’s impossible to replace loyalty and years in. Especially when you are a household name. He was Marshall’s best friend.

Proof and I spoke by Blackberry, a few lines here and a few lines there. We spoke often when he put out his CD independently. It didn’t do as well as he had hoped, or maybe it didn’t do as well as I had hoped for him.

I saw Proof in July in Atlanta. I was backstage at the Anger Management Tour meeting with his cousin Trick-Trick. Everyone was sitting on the tour bus, tired as hell. Proof was the energetic Muppet running around entertaining all of us, clowning for the Shade 45 interviewers. He was having a good time, but I think that everywhere he went he had a good time. I wondered if he would have any energy left for the stage. He did.

When Proof first saw me he gave me shit for not returning a call to him months earlier. He had an old phone number for me so I never got his message, but that didn’t stop him. After he was done scolding me, he hugged me for what seemed like hours. We had a good time, but everywhere he went he had a good time.

Except maybe last night. He was gunned down in an afterhours club on Eight Mile in Detroit. Yes, that 8 Mile—the one his best friend made world famous in a film by the same name. More senseless violence. More Detroit shit. Apparently they caught the dude who shot him. That’s a first.

I remember a story Trick-Trick told me in September while we were in NY shopping his deal. He dropped Proof off at home early one morning after they had been recording at the studio all night. Proof got out of the car and without Trick knowing, he ran across the yard, jumped a fence, through another neighbor’s yard and ran along side of Trick’s car and banged on the window shocking the hell out of him. When Trick pulled over and asked him “What the hell are you doing man?!,” Proof just laughed and ran off through some bushes and across another yard. All Trick could do was pull off laughing thinking about how crazy Proof was.

We lose too many rappers to violence. We lose too many young Black males to violence. And now we’ve lost a Muppet to senseless violence.

I know that wherever he is, he’s in a better place. I want to say “rest in peace, dear friend,” but I know that’s not possible. I know he’s running around with incredible energy, entertaining everyone. That’s just Proof.

2006-04-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

Why I Never Did Another RapOlympics After 1997

For those of you who don’t know, RapOlympics was an event I conceived one night when I could not sleep when I lived in Brooklyn in 1996. I was watching the labels veer away from signing lyricists to sign entertainers, commercial radio rappers, and gangsta rappers. Since the lyricists were my favorite rappers, it was disheartening to see the industry going in this direction.

I decided to do an Emcee Battle. But I wanted it to be the battle of all battles. The smaller MC Battles I had been involved with, and the ones where I was just an attendee, were not effective in bringing national attention back to the lyricist. Basically, the events which were about two a year (kind of like now) drew the same folks. We were preaching to the converted, and not drawing in any fresh blood or any attention from the labels or industry. So I was watching the same 30 Battle rappers travel around the US competing against each other in front of the same crowds at the New Music Seminar years earlier to the Rap Sheet Battle to the Zulu Nation Battle to Scribble Jam (which still goes on every year, by the way). Same faces, same battles, leading to the same outcome: the artists wanted record deals and were not getting signed.

So, I decided to contact different crews in rap who I knew believed in lyrics and asked them to form teams: KRS-1, Sway & Tech, Wu-Tang, Diggin’ In The Crates, J Smoothe, Ras Kass, Canibus, the GoodLife Café, and a few others that I now can’t recall. I also formed a Rap Coalition team. But what made our team different was that it was all unsigned artists, and they were from all over the US (Eminem, Juice, Thirstin Howl III, Wordsworth, and Kwest Tha Madd Lad—I had originally had RhymeFest in place of Eminem, but the other members of the team voted him out and Eminem in—a move that would go on to change Em’s life). The other crews were hesitant to step up. Signed artists would have a lot to lose if they lost. The prize was an appearance on the Sway & Tech Show (radio Mecca for lyricists) the following night. Ras Kass became my host for the event (and had we made any money, he would have become my 50% partner, only he never knew that).

So RapOlympics came down to my team, J Smooth’s Project Blow'd team, and WuTang’s team (who never showed up). The event took place directly after the RapSheet MC Battle that I coordinated, and was a complete failure. Every promise made by the sponsors was broken. RapSheet (the promoter) did not supply a DJ (I called Shorty from Da Lench Mob and within 2 hours he had a DJ do the event for free) or enough hotel rooms; Interscope never paid the $5,000 they pledged as a sponsor (which is ironic since they signed one of the artists afterwards); Do Or Die never paid the $5,000 they pledged as a sponsor. RapSheet also reneged on the prizes, leaving me to run to a local bullshit jewelry store to buy what I suspected was a fake Rolex as the prize (which we always billed as a fake Rolex, but it sure did look real).

At 11 PM, I was informed the club was kicking us out in an hour because it had only been booked til Midnight even though I was told by the promoter we had it til 2 AM (and I advertised my event til 2 AM). We had one hour in which to fit three hours of events. The crew that filmed the event ran off with the footage and the money I paid them upfront (quick lesson: never pay anyone everything upfront even if they cry about having to rent equipment). A big FUCK YOU to him, oh and by the way--$1,000 to the first person who beats his ass badly (you get paid when I see the anonymous police report or a hospital confirms his stay).

This left me with $10,000 in debt on my Visa credit card which took many, many years to pay off. The RapSheet Battle ran overtime because the event was so poorly promoted by the promoter. The fans finally trickled in for my event, RapOlympics, but we had not yet even started the RapSheet Battle (which I had agreed to coordinate for free in exchange for airline tickets, a DJ-- that was never booked, and hotel rooms for my RapOlympics team which turned out to be 2 rooms for 8 people). My team, who won, were at each others throats the whole time (except for Eminem who did not stay with the team, he stayed in Paul Rosenberg’s room) because one of the team members drove everyone else nuts with his incessant whining and pointless lying.

I did a horrible job of keeping the event on point and lost control of the flow and timing after the first round. I also should have kept a better eye on the promoter to verify that what he was saying was true. I felt myself give up near the end of the night and say "fuck it; what happens, happens" which is out of character for me. I was so angry afterwards I couldn’t speak to anyone for days (except Eminem’s manager). To this day it still costs me thousands of dollars to slap lawsuits on anyone caught using the RapOlympics footage I paid for but never received. So let’s just say that the memory of RapOlympics isn’t a pleasant one.

It was not a happy loss for me financially or emotionally, but at least if I had achieved my goal, it would have been a bearable loss. My whole reason for doing the event was to bring industry attention to lyricists, and get the record labels to see their value and sign them. While all of the mainstream press covered the event (like M-TV and the major music publications) and gave it outstanding reviews (miraculously, because the event was nothing like what I had planned), none of the artists got record deals except Eminem. Em’s camp says that Interscope had his demo tape and when a savvy A&R scout saw him at the event they finally passed his demo to Dr Dre. My memory is a bit different of his discovery: I recall that Em was rhyming on the Wake Up Show (which was the prize) and that Dre was listening to the show in his car. I recall that he went up to the radio studio and scooped Em up and brought him to a hotel room where he kept him writing and working for days. Sadly, to this day, there are no outlets for a lyrically gifted rapper to put out his CD successfully--the few indies who do sign these underground MCs seem to disappear after selling around 15,000 copies further verifying the majors' fears of this genre.

So while fans of MC Battles remember RapOlympics fondly, I recall a disorganized event that cost me tens of thousands of dollars personally (credit card debt that lasted for years), a lesson in dishonest promoters, and bullshit promises from sponsors. With a real budget that event could have been outstanding! But it still wouldn’t get artists record deals and that’s why they were doing it. Very few rappers were there for the Battle. Most were there for recognition and a record deal. To continue doing Battles would mean I’d have to keep allowing these artists to believe that they could build a real career as a Battle Rapper. Eminem was an anomaly. He has the ability to think quickly in a battle, is witty enough to say some shit that would make a dead man laugh, and most importantly has the ability to write songs that can sell CDs. In almost ten years, not one other label has signed another artist like him.

I look at the trail of Battle veterans like Craig G, Supernatural, Juice, Wordsworth, Thirstin Howl III, Jin, RhymeFest, Canibus, Ras Kass, and many others. They are worthy of the fame and financial success of a Master P, or Ludacris, or 50 Cent, or Cash Money. It makes me angry and disappointed that they are not. When a young rapper calls me and asks me to help him get a deal because he won this battle or that one, I cringe. I know the truth of the matter is that when a major label hears the word Battle, they run in the opposite direction. And very few MCs are still doing it solely for the art form. I refuse to mislead them into thinking it’s anything but…

2006-03-30T13:14:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or is that little DJ Drama cartoon character just the cutest little thing???? It looks just like him! And so does the Pharrell cartoon. They are just too damn cute. I toyed with the idea of having the little Drama character tattooed on my body, but that would just be toooo weird--in a stalker kind of way. Whoever drew these REALLY captured them! I hope there's a Cartoon Network show a-coming! I'd watch it...the adventures of DJ Drama.

Just too damn cute...

I am currently reading Into The Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose The Myth Of A Free Press, Edited by Kristina Borjesson (ain't nothing in life scarier than the truth...)

2006-03-27T02:53:00.000-08:00

Life Lessons I Learned From Tupac Shakur

I learned a lot from Tupac Shakur. I am thankful to have known him, and to have considered him a friend. I am sad and angry that he is no longer here. I am angry at the music industry, and at all of the artists that have let Hip Hop become what it has become. Before he passed, Pac predicted much of what I am seeing now. He was one of the most enlightened and prolific people I’ve known. Those who really knew him understand what I mean when I say: Tupac, the artist, was only the scratching of the surface.

Anyway, I learned a lot from Pac. On the business side, I learned that if you make a great song you will create a few temporary fans, but if you touch the people, you will build a fan for life. Pac built fans for life.

When he used to tour early in his career as the opening act, after he performed he’d go into the crowd without security and interact with the fans. I remembered him telling me that he had performed at a stadium show with Scarface back when folks really didn’t know who Tupac was. After performing, he went out the back door of the coliseum, around to the front doors, and came in and stood with the crowd in the back of the stadium to watch the show. He took pictures with fans and signed autographs until he was the last person to leave the venue. He signed every last autograph. His fans were able to feel him and touch him often. He built fans for life, not just temporary fans of his music who’d buy a CD. His work ethic was unsurpassed.

When Pac passed away, everyone had a Tupac story to tell about how they met him, or when he was at such and such place, or how they saw him do blasy blah. The one thing everyone said about him was that he was “real.” That was a big part of his appeal. He built his fans one by one, and people knew he was “real” by seeing him and interacting with him.

On the human nature side, I also learned a lot from Pac. He taught me that no good deed goes unpunished. He told me that as people did things to help others advance in their careers, once they advanced they would go on to grow without the folks who helped them get to that level. He educated me to the fact that no matter how much I did for someone else, and no matter how instrumental a part I played in their career, that they would go on to forget me, often even writing me out of their history for no apparent reason. I argued with him about this lesson, adamantly denying people could be so cold and heartless. He was right.

Over the years, I watched people I had supported and helped build, grow and move beyond me, especially when it came time to honor a contract by writing a check. As they grew in their careers to discuss how they got started, they magically did it all by themselves. This became the norm. I watched many artists take hundreds of thousands of dollars from street entrepreneurs in order to survive as they were coming up in the industry trying to get on, only to shit on their benefactors once they got signed to a record deal. In the case of one Chicago rapper, I saw him do it to four different gangstas over a five year period--it’s a miracle he’s still alive today.

I read interviews from incarcerated rappers talking about how no one supports them while they were in prison. I guess all the books and letters I send don’t count. I do this for EVERY rapper locked down whether I know him (or her) or not. One rapper even went so far as to name in an interview the only two people who “held him down while he was locked up,” and both of them I asked to put money on his books because no one else was.

Pac taught me that the majority of people are motivated by greed and have short term memories. He also taught me that some people, when they are helped by another, can’t live with that thought and are reminded of their dependency on another (viewed somehow as a weakness) every time they look at or think about that person, they have to move on in order to feel better about themselves. Too bad the 48 Laws Of Power wasn’t out when Pac was alive. He would have loved that book. Some of what I learned from him was so eloquently explained in that book.

In terms of human nature, Pac informed me that often if you give a person an inch, they will take a foot, and that if you do something for someone, they will expect more and more. He taught me that familiarity breeds contempt--you can tell your crew something over and over, but when an outsider comes in and says the same thing, all of a sudden they listen. The people closest to me were the ones who paid others for services identical to what I was famous for providing successfully in outside circles. To this day, the majority of artists I am closest to, have never asked me to negotiate a deal for them and consequently keep getting stuck in bullshit deals.

Pac taught me that if you give something away for free, it will be received as though it has no value because it was given with no value attached. These were lessons I did not learn well, and still have not. Pac believed that people respect fear and power, and if you are giving something away or helping people, it could be misconstrued as a weakness, which removes all respect. In my opinion, although he believed in helping people to some extent, he was torn by their reaction to the help.

Tupac Shakur was the first board member of Rap Coalition in 1996. We argued often about Rap Coalition helping artists for free. I was not, and still am not, willing to accept the fact that I have to charge artists who are in need of help, in order to gain their respect and recognition. He felt that even if I helped the most destitute and neediest of artists, there should be a price attached. I believed artists would be grateful and would give back to help other artists out of sheer remembrance of what it was like to be in such a bad position. Pac may have been right, and if so, I still have not learned this heartbreaking lesson.

I learned from Pac that rather than argue over some dumb shit with somebody, there must be a price for their ignorance. He used to tax people (I can’t repeat what he used to call it because it involves a racial epithet that I am not willing to utter, so for the sake of this article, I will call it “Knucklehead Tax”). This was my favorite lesson that I learned from him. When I was negotiating one of my first deals, the label irritated me over and over, and I applied Pac’s philosophy. Every time the label pissed me off, I upped the price of the deal $50,000. After adding an additional $200,000 to the deal in knucklehead tax, I felt better and the artist was thrilled. The label never knew what was going on, but I felt vindicated. I never had to raise my voice or burn a bridge. I just taxed them and raised the value of the deal naturally.

I do this with the many people whom I have tried to help in the past but they didn’t listen. Somehow they end up back on my doorstep asking for help, and now there is a price involved. It’s knucklehead tax—they acted like a knucklehead, so now if they want to be down, there’s a price. Oddly, no one has noticed yet. It still saddens me that many of Pac’s lessons about human nature are true. I prefer seeing the world through rose color glasses, and that’s just not realistic. Pac was more Machiavellian in his approach to human nature. In fact, he read The Prince when he was in high school and I sent it to him when he was in prison because it reminded me of how he thought about human nature. He had no rose colored glasses; he had a microscope.

So the next time you hear me speak, or read an article and you think I am angry, bitter, or negative, please just understand that after doing this for 13 years, I have seen a lot of ugliness and watched a lot of people act a fool over something as replaceable as money. Pac always said ignorance is bliss, and I have found this industry to be very, very blissful.

2006-03-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

In reading other Blogs, I have found some interesting posts by people I respect:

MC Hammer
MC Hammer Blog: Maturation of Hip Hop, Chapter 1

Chris Lighty
http://www.ChrisLighty.com

D-Nice
http://www.d-nice.com

Hip Hop Press Releases
Press here

The Bible Of Hip Hop Blog
The worthwhile one...

Paris' Guerilla Funk Finincial Advice
Building Wealth

Greg Palast
www.GregPalast.com

Gary Webb
Debt To Gary Webb

2006-03-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

C-Murder is home and doing well!

2006-03-17T18:09:00.000-08:00

This just in:

"C-Murder is finally coming home. As previously reported, the rapper's murder conviction was overturned, and a $500,000 bond was set, while he waits to enter into his second trial. The order was issued on Wednesday (March 15) by State District Judge Martha Sasson, and C-Murder, whose real name is Corey Miller, could be released on house arrest within a few days."

Come on home, baby! We got you!!

What I am reading currently: 100 Great Businesses And The Minds Behind Them.
By Emily Ross & Angus Holland.

2006-03-17T17:06:00.000-08:00

Professor X was Vanglorious!!

In 1992, I started Rap Coalition out of pure disgust after seeing how my favorite rappers were treated-- specifically, Eric B and Rakim, and X-Clan. In the late 80s and early 90s, these were my favorite rappers. I just got an email from Afrika Bambaataa saying Professor X has passed away from Meningitis. Fuck.

Lamumba Carson was great because he stood for something. He had something to say and he said it. He was the son of New York based (now deceased) activist Sonny Carson (how difficult it must be to be the son of someone so driven, focused, and important to humanity). Lumumba always rose to the occasion.

I always avoided meeting Professor X and Brother J (who, together, comprised X-Clan and were heavily involved in the organization Black Watch, which Lumumba founded years before), out of fear that they may not be what their image portrayed. At that point, I had met so many of my rap heroes and been completely disappointed in the past because often the reality of the person was so far from the marketing image of the rap star (a painful lesson for someone devoting a career and life to helping her heroes for free).

I found that J and Lumumba were serious about what they were accomplishing. And while I found Professor X to be human with all the human frailties (thank God!), over the years I have found both of them to be exactly who they portrayed themselves to be--strong Black men, loving and caring for a race of people often too tired to fight for themselves. They were not hypocrites.

Like most rappers, and certainly like the majority of rappers from their generation, they did not make much money from their art form. In fact, they had the further degradation of watching others become wealthy on what they built, and on their art form (a BIG fuck you to Lou Maglia and 4th and Broadway).

I just spoke with Lumumba for the first time last year. I had received an email that was making fun of him because he listed himself on eBay, and was auctioning off "a day with Professor X" to the highest bidder. How he must be struggling financially to do something like that, I thought to myself. I became the highest bidder. The fact that I could barely afford to pay my rent at the time did not enter my mind. I bought a day with Professor X.

He ended the auction before the final deadline (doesn't matter, I would have won regardless) because of the hateful emails circulating on the web about him putting himself up for auction. I was disgusted by the reaction. It was a fucking lunch date with Professor X. Had it been Justin Timberlake for a charity, no one would have said shit. But a hungry man was not supposed to eat this way, I guess.

Somehow others who have made a career from (read: pimped) Hip Hop had the right to say what was acceptable or not for one of the pioneers. All of a sudden, people making money critiquing what others create had the power to say what was the proper way for Professor X to make income. It pissed me off beyond words. I received disrespectful, opinionated emails from self-appointed authorities asking me why I supported such a gimmick. (If you do a search on the internet, you will still see the worst offender. His one-sided diatribes still exist on his poor excuse for a website. I refused to grant him an "interview" because he phrased his request so disrespectfully regarding a man who was my hero. I saw him for what he was--an negative opportunist pretending to be a "journalist" when his agenda was so evil and so obviously meant to belittle Lumumba. He chose to air out his frustration with me publicly and cowardly).

Lumumba called me. He knew who I was. He was excited that I had been bidding on his post. I had the opportunity to tell him what he meant to me. I told him how he influenced me to go down the path I am on without ever having met me. Now THAT'S power.

The price for Lumumba was high on eBay. Not high financially, but high in negative reaction, high in lack of support, and high in the realization that this unforgiving industry has no love for those who have come before when the fucking VH-1 cameras aren't running. I think my last bid was under $100. I would have bid $1,000.

We quietly disrespect our artists for not being Billionaires, and then we disrespect them if we perceive them to "sell out" (read: earn a living). They can't win. We bemoan artists today for selling misogyny, crime, violence, and materialism, but we didn't support the ones who had a positive message once they were no longer perceived to be "hot!"

I wanted to spend a day with Lumumba. He would not take my money. We spoke at length about the industry and Afrocentricity. We discussed his father and his legacy. We discussed a lot. It was the first, and last, time we spoke.

I never got my day with Professor X. But what I did get was far more priceless. I got the real Professor X, and he is and was what he always said he was. He was REAL. And he loved people. Especially Black people. He will sorely be missed!

Please understand if the next time you see me I am wearing my big black boots.

2006-03-15T22:13:00.000-08:00

Here are some more flicks from the Core DJ Event. I'll let you go to their website to see the people pictures. Here is a baby blue depreciating asset I saw outside of Saks Fifth at the Galleria (the rims tell me it's no white boy) and the most intelligent shirt I have seen in awhile (on the chest of one of my favorite people).

2006-03-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Was A Good Day!

I was honored by The Core DJs with an award for my contribution to Hip Hop. Pretty cool, huh? I was presented the award by Gipp (formerly of Goodie Mobb) and Ali (from the St Lunatics). Although I have never met Ali before, I have spent time with Gipp. He told the story of how I brought him and Pimp C to my house in Brooklyn, and along the way we stopped at Flatbush Avenue (it's funny that he recalled that mostly, as I remember dragging them on the subway at the height of both of their stardom...). They introduced me by saying I was the hardest working woman in Hip Hop. I hadn't thought anyone noticed...

The highlight of the evening was meeting Hammer. I looked at the man standing next to me in the VIP section, and damn if it wasn't the man whose Blog I had just got done reading before ehading over to the club: MC Hammer). As someone who has devoted a 13 year span to helping artists NOT get jerked (and believe me, there is NO money in that, so it is definitely a devotion), it was awesome to meet the man who is most famous for his rocky expereinces in this treacherous business. He is one of the smartest people I have ever met, meaning negative shit can happen to anyone...

2006-03-08T19:28:00.000-08:00

Ah Hell! Kill me now. Quickly...

My favorite artist from the 1980s signed to Koch. Ugh! Back in the early 80s was a very important group (the genre of music was called Alternative back then) called the Psychedelic Furs. Anyone who saw the teen cult film Pretty In Pink would recognize the title song's distinctive sound as none other than Richard Butler from the Psych Furs. This group could shit in a bag and I would buy it. I supported them through every release the group put out, even the two when they became Love Spit Love (and you thought I was just a rap girl..didn't you... didn't you...admit it...).

In 1981, I went to see the Psychedelic Furs perform at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphis. The opening band was GrandMaster Flash and The Furious Five, which was my introduction to rap. And if you are reading my words on a blog, you obviously know what that has meant to rap and the artists. Thank you, Richard.

I supported all of the tours, bought the T-shirts, bought all of the music. On vinyl, then on cassette, then on CD, then on-line for my MP3 Player. I'd like to point out that I was forgiving when Butler's sexy drone of a voice was the theme song to the trainwreck of a TV show called Charmed. I was happy he was eating.

I just bought his new CD on eBay. I couldn't even wait for it to be released on March 21. I had to have it NOW (and will buy a copy that benefits him financially when it is finally on store shelves--yes, even on Koch). So I bought a promo copy on eBay. I ripped open the packaging and stuffed the CD into my computer and snuggled into my comfy chair to read the packaging. What's this? The Koch logo. A fucking Koch logo???? My favorite artist went to the label known for killing more rap careers than drugs and violence combined? Say it ain't so...

Hmph. Well, I am thankful Richard Butler is still making money with his music. And I am thankful to be listening to his incredible voice and intriguing lyrics. And yes, he could shit in a bag and I would buy it.

Allen, you are a nice guy and all and my beef is not with you, it's with the business model of the company you work for. But if you fuck this project up, I will go to war with Koch. I promise!

Damn, Richard. I'd have shopped you a new deal for free.... might have even come out of my own pocket with marketing funds... damn. Shoot me now.

By the way, the album is quite good...

What I am reading currently: The Clustered World, By Michael J Weiss (it's about demographics and psychographics)

2006-03-07T18:27:00.000-08:00

This is the funniest shit I have read in a long time. It is a SATIRE that appeared at playahata.com this week. Folks in the music industry began circulating it around via email panicking that it was true (too damn funny). One major radio conglomerate even froze their playlist in reaction to it. Here it is, in its entirity, as borrowed from the good folks at www.Playahata.com:

Playahata Times: Entertainment Section
WEB EXCLUSIVE
VP of Programming of BET, Stephen Hill Tells It All On Tavis Smiley
By Kelly Hudlin

During a recent taping of the "Tavis Smiley Show", VP of Programming of BET, Stephen Hill tells it all. Hill claims the ongoing probe by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, coupled with his reconnection to his faith in Jesus Christ led to this most revealing interview.

Hill entered into a plea agreement with the New York Attorney Generals office, that allows him to keep and estimated $700,000 dollars, in illegal payments. Hill controlled the playlist for the entire network. Spitzer's investigation covered a five year period, beginning with Hill's move from MTV in 1999. BET is currently in 77 million homes.

Tavis Smiley once again shows his journalistic skills in this exclusive 30 minute interview. Stephen Hill reveals that when he first made the switch to MTV he was instructed by Bob Johnson "to whiten the network up" Hill knew he was brought to BET due to the imminent sale to MTV parent company Viacom. The transition was easy Hill said "I simply copied MTV show's like TRL and Tom Green, 106 and Park was a no-brainer and 'Hits from the Street's' were done with low budgets, Bob loved it".

Hill admits his problem was catering to the Urban market. Hill broke down in tears and admitted "Destiny's Child and "Bills, Bills Bills" is his all time favorite but ironically was the beginning of his lavish life of payola. Hill admits "I knew it was time to come clean, after I moved D4l's "Laffy Taffy" up BET'S charts" he was bound to get caught.

Spitzer's office planted D4L's "Laffy Taffy" as a nationwide sting, Hill along with over fifteen hundred programmers took cash payments to make D4L the most paid for song in the history of radio. “I remember when I heard the song, I laughed" Hill said the lyrics were great but the drum machine was not a Kevin Liles track! Hill decided to tell all in a plea agreement and now spends 40 hours a week with his renewed Jehovah Witness faith preaching door to door against sexuality in New Jersey.

Stephen Hill admitted that Bob Johnson and Viacom, know that BET's core audience will fall for anything. "Radio and Video are about making money, developing stars and content is long gone. Hill told Tavis Smiley that the "industry has run amuck, pay for play is the rule now and I am tired of playing Kunta for Jimmy Iovine and the rest of the industry".

Tavis during the final minutes of this must see interview asked the Brown University Alumnus, "You have three pictures on your desk, Tiger, OJ and Michael Jackson, which one of those stars are your favorite"? Find out that and more when Tavis Smiley interviews Stephen Hill, VP of Programming on Friday March 31, 2006 on PBS.

Kelly Hudlin is a freelance writer, from Chicago, best known for his short film "I saw it, I seen it, then I did it".

2006-03-05T02:33:00.000-08:00

Tonight I watched a documentary about who really killed Malcolm X ("Brother Minister") and it reminded me how great it was to study African-American issues in the early 1990s. Malcolm was a hero turned pop icon, which, commercialism aside, brought him to the attention of many folks who otherwise would not have known who he was or who would have believed the popular misconception of him being a "hate monger." Could we have had Tupac without first having Malcolm to set the stage?

In addition to Malcolm, Afrocentricity was a hot topic of discussion in NY. This allowed for numerous books, incredible scholarship, and outstanding opportunities to attend relevant lectures at universities and community centers. I miss listening to learned people speak on topics that matter. I got to hear my hero, Dr Molefi Asante speak numerous times, and I got to sit at the feet of Dr John Henrik Clark and learn before his passing.

I lived in a neighborhood where William Kuntsler would pass by frequently, and he'd often stop on the street to share his views and opinions publicly. I recall attending a seminar regarding the African Diaspora at The New School in NYC (where I first met Kevin Powell, years before his M-TV Real World fiasco). They held many seminars that mattered because it was the socially responsible thing to do (and interesting!).

The media cared about issues and instead of focusing on politics and fear of pissing off a president or a certain group of people, they did their job by asking the hard questions and uncovering lies. Our pop music icons made songs about relevant issues, not about how much weight they were moving or which brand of champagne or car they could afford (that we can not).

Only ten or fifteen years have passed yet I feel so much is lost... The world has changed. People interact mostly through the internet; our stars are from reality TV shows or daughters of billionaire hotel magnets, and we can't seem to get enough of them; and entertainment has become dull. Our politicians lie to us and are being indicted in record numbers (or escaping indictment with a great publicist and a crackerjack legal team). And if they continue to get indicted, will there be room for them in the country club prisons that are growing full from CEOs who cooked their books (compared to the 80s and 90s where prisons filled quickly and unjustly from those who cooked cocaine)?

In the 90s a Black man was beat down by the police and rebellions ignited across the US--today we'd curse because we weren't the ones to film it and get to start a bidding war between cable stations and internet sites (one of the on-line poker sites or an on-line porn site would win that bid today). In 2005 an entire Black city was destroyed by Mother Nature and we did nothing when the goverment didn't react properly. Six months later, we watch footage of the President being briefed days before Katrina side-by-side with footage of him saying he was never told of the severity of the situation before hand. No one reacts.

And my biggest fear has come true--I have turned into one of those boring old fucks who sits around reminiscing and playing the "remember when" game...

What I am currently reading: The 33 Strategies Of War, By Robert Greene (he wrote my favorite book, The 48 Laws Of Power)

2006-03-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

Oops...almost forgot to add these two shots. Asberry Bros was a syrup shop and as you can see, proud of the fact that it was open 24/7. Sippin' on Sizzzyrup... OK, I gotta go call MJG. Select-O-Hits has a check for Ball and MJG and can't find them...