Right now the group will be releasing that album sometime in the spring..on line. This approach should hopefully encourage a lot of kids to at least explore this route. As Chuck and other veterans from Prince to KRS-One, have often candidly noted, the music business operates on a pimp and ho system. The artist creates the music and the record companies wind up controlling everything. Getting a contract where you get 10% of the profits is considered a good deal in this business. According to veteran producer/song writer Kashif, in his book 'Everything You Better Know About The Music Business', 9 out of 10 artists DO NOT succeed. PE has been trying to open people's eyes and hopefully get them to flip the script by changing their ways. The problem has been that far too many artists have gotten caught up in 'The Hype'.. They have allowed the glitz and glamour and the fast pace of the music industry to blind them to the fact that this is indeed a BUSINESS. Too many artist make the fatal mistake of buying an 85 thousand dollar car before they buy a house.. if I may borrow that quote from rap star E-40. By the time these artists figure things out and try to make changes, the music business has caught the attention of new kid who isn't trying to hear the wisdom being spoken by their elders. One of the reasons I often speak about the old school artists and pioneers is not so much that I like walking down memory lane-it's because I ideally want all of us within hip hop to build off the foundation they laid down for us.. Ideally we should be learning lessons from these old school artist's mistakes. Sadly enough too many artists fall prey to the illusions we create within this industry. The other day I tried to spit some game onto a new comer and he wanted to point to Master P, Jay-Z and Puffy as proof that things are changing. He felt that since his music was better then theirs [That was his humble opinion] that he would be blowing up the spot and be twice as large. I had to remind him that these guys are doing well because they are in fact record labels. Puffy owns Bad Boy, Jay-Z owns Roc-A Fella and Master P owns No Limit. It just so happens that they also rap. Other artists who are really 'ballin' are often doing other things behind the scenes. They may own a production company [ie RZA] or they may be managing several acts [ie Queen Latifah] or they may be writing songs [ie Missy Elliot]. Because these individuals are successful Record companies their approach towards things will inevitable be BUSINESS oriented.. In this industry everything from your image to the type of samples you place in your songs is ultimately a business decision. Even if the artist comes to the plate demanding a certain style and approach toward his craft, in the final analysis unless he is paying for and owns his master tapes, unless he has the final say on what gets released, on what date and where, unless he has final say on how his music will be marketed to both the streets and radio..then that artist is really a pawn in much larger business equation. The bottom line which so many artists have a hard time understanding is that when you sign onto a record label, you have entered into a business arrangement in which I as a label expect a financial return for my investment. If I put a 100 thousand dollars toward your album and you start rapping about Butterflies while my business research shows that people are purchasing tapes where they rap about 'gats and guns', you can bet your bottom dollar you won't be rapping about Butterflies. Most companies aren't in it to further your artistic endeavors, they're in it to make money.. and unless an artist has his game tight and has done the necessary research [meaning he's taken a business approach toward things], he'll wind up literally being a SLAVE to his record label. The record company may wind up owning his music, his image even his name. Heck the record comapny may even wind up controllingwhen and where you can interviews on radio stations and video outlets. Look at all the drama Prince has and is going through with his old label Warner Brothers. Look at the ordeal experienced by singer George Michaels when he raised up against his old label Sony/Columbia. Look at the complaints and concerns brought forth by artists like Ice Cube and Dr Dre when they wound up leaving Eazy E and Ruthless records. The bottom line here is that although within record companies you will find people who are really about the music and they're there with sincere intentions, they still work for companies that are owned by huge corporations who aren't trying to hear about you not making money. They got hungry stock holders to satisfy and they got big investments to pay off...Unless rapping about butterflies and flowers is gonna make money, labels will be pushing you in a direction that does.... PE by leaving Def Jam and taking the on line approach will undoubtly bring a whole new audience to the internet. They intend to change the game and hopefully people will realize this and follow suit. Props to groups like Heiro and the Beastie Boys and Naughty By Nature who were proceeded PE by being active on the net.
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Well it was bound to happen because of all the public bickering, but
Public Enemy has severed it's ties with Def Jam Records. For those who
don't know this has been PE's only label since the release of their first
lp back in '87 entitled 'Yo Bum Rush The Show'. Over the past couple of
years PE's and Def Jam's relationship has become strained-so much so that
Chuck D in his bi-weekly commentaries would refer to label heads Russell
Simmons and Lyor Cohen as 'Hustla Crimmons' and 'Liar Conman'. Things took
a turn for the worse when the label forced the group to remove songs from
their website