With the release of a studio album slated for an early 2012 release, Brooklyn rapper Red Café has got quite a lot to talk about. The rapper recently spoke to TheBoombox.com about everything from teaming up with Diddy to his label Shakedown Records.
During the interview Red Café revealed why he decided to bring Diddy on to his team even though he was already working with Akon. The rapper explained that more than anything Diddy was brought on to create more of a focus.
“I was working with [Akon] before his first album came. At this point I’m with him for a few years and we trying to make this s— work. He had a lot of artists at the time, like nine artists, signed — trying to do something with everybody and it wasn’t working. It was taking a strenuous toll on me,” Red Café explained. “Me being a fresh artist, I didn’t spend no money at the company, but still the company, he left a stigma there. I was like, we gotta figure out a way to spin this. So I brought Puff in. I said let’s do the Bad Boy deal, I think all three of us should do it and we spin it and do it a little differently so I don’t have this stigma on me from what you were doing from all these other artists.”
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Red Café also expressed the frustrations that come with not being a priority at a label.
“It’s definitely frustrating because I know I put out great records that never reached its potential,” said Red Café when asked how he feels about politics getting in the way of an album. “Like ‘Money Money Money’ got 1.5 million views on YouTube and the record company never worked it. I shot the video myself, I shot all my videos myself. A record company never shot no video for me.”
Although Red Café is hard at work preparing his album for a February 2012 relase he still manages to run his own label, Shakedown Records. After personally dealing with various label issues Red Café is quite clear when it comes to his vision for Shakedown Records.
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“There’s a lot of talented guys that got the legs because there’s a lot of people that want to do it, but a year later [since] they’re not living in the penthouse, they like, ‘That’s it, I’m done. I don’t want to do this no more.’ I’ve been through that with a couple of artists that I was working with,” the rapper explained. “They wasted my time, my energy, my money. For Shakedown, I want to find people that’s not going to let down the people. I find those artists that’s going to go hard and give the people what they want. They’re able to endure the dramas of the business for whatever you looking forward to in the future.”
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