In an interview on Angela Yee’s “Lip Service” show, G.O.O.D. Music emcee Big Sean gave his thoughts on Nas and Shyne’s recent disputes with Def Jam, weighing in on his experiences with L.A. Reid.
“Well, my experiences with L.A. Reid, I’ve had tons of meeting with him recently, and even in my meetings he said ‘Man I’m a guy that’s into hits man, pop,’ you know he says that,” Explained Sean.
“He’s straight up, ‘I’m into hits I’m into that money. I’m into these fucking hit songs.’ So no, I don’t think L.A. Reid understands Hip Hop in the same way that Nas understands it or Shyne or whoever or Kanye. He understands that muthafuckin money, he understands what a hit is, so you gotta respect him on that. He’s responsible for a lot of big acts. But honestly Def Jam does make a lot of mistakes and I’m signed to Def Jam and I appreciate everything they’ve done for me. I’m happy to be on Def Jam.”
Recently, Shyne revealed he was seeking to end his partnership with the storied label, while Nas wrote an angry letter to Def Jam, seeking a release for his project, Lost Tapes Vol. 2.
Fuck Def Jam, Def Jam sucks
Get Reid the fuck out & bring back Gotti he’s not a fucking fool… he gave us DMX, Jigga & Rule!
wrong
Fair,not full of boikiss-ass editorials.Rather Fly NBA
eh, i kinda understand LA’s point. The main point of Def Jam is to sell hits. Why put tons of money in a project that’ll barely sell when people like us on this webpage won’t even go out to buy his album. He’ll make more selling pop records than investing in guys like Nas. It’s the harsh reality of the music business. Not saying that Nas won’t sell, but he’s not going to sell out either. People will purchase pop music 10 times before purchasing anything underground.
But thank god for indies because they’re at least willing to invest a bit into thought-provoking artists.
I couldnt agree more with what VD said. This is a business. But at the same time, Me being a hip hop head, it makes me sick to my stomach that this is the music business today.
that’s bullshit. la reid doesn’t know HOW to sell hiphop period. if you relate to it you understand it and from there you’d know how to sell it. reid is r&b pop dude, of course that’s gonna be his approach. i say bring back cohen and lyles.
Nah man! I understand if LA doesnt pay close enough attention to rap but you also gotta think about who we are talking about here……NAS! NAS ADMITTEDLY doesn’t make music to care about sales while LA REID is on the hot seat because of sales. So what is he to do? Shyne just plain came out of jail sounding EXTRA wack. SO he is kinda playing on the Nas thing. But Shyne is WACK. Nas is dope (to me) but he is wack for having to depend on a label at THIS point in his career. He should have his own situation and be putting his OWN records out by now. But if LA REID can sign and market OUTKAST, he can handle guys like NAS who already have an audience. But NAS has to help with that.
The main point of Def Jam is to sell Hip Hop. Period. When Rus Simmons invented Def Jam, it was to sell Hip Hop, not Mike Jackson Records or Madona Records or Sting Records. DEF JAM is suppose to sell Nas, Fabolous, Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, Roots, Ghostface Killah, and Ludacris albums, not Nsync, Britney Spears, or any other gimmicky bullshit pop project.
bring bacc russel…. nuff said
I thought that Nas letter wasn’t him? now DX sayin he wrote it… anything confirmin that?
nevermind i just checked the letter story. ha
Maybe I am just getting old but um… who is Big Sean? and why is he getting love from a label if I haven’t even heard of him. Nas is a legend who never fell off. I mean, two years ago his album debuted at #1 with Hip Hop is Dead. That is like Miles Davis not being able to get backed while Kenny G gets all the love. Nas is a proven commodity and he has a strong following. This is why hip hop really is a joke these days. Big Sean???? Will he even be around in a year? Has Nas not sold records? Has Nas not stayed relevant for over 10 years in the game? Wake up LA Reid, Def Jam is suppose to be a hip hop label, go make some music with Janet Jackson if you want to pop music.
Big Sean is an artist found by Kanye with GOOD Music. He was in the cypher this year with the rest of the GOOD music crew, and he’s actually pretty damn talented. It’s okay, I hadnt heard of him either.
The reason you don’t know who Big Sean is, is because you aren’t as hip to what’s going on as you think you are. Just because you don’t know what’s up doesn’t make him irrelevant. Rap fans just ain’t up on it like they used to be.
To whoever understand this socalled music man executive hear this
LA REID IS MICROWAVE!!!
LA RIED IS PURE MICROWAVE
Shyne needs to get off Nas dick. The difference between Shyne and Nas is Shyne is wack and came out the bing sounding extra wack and constipated. Lastly who the fuck is Big Sean…and why do small short niggas like him put big in their name. Sean it’s probably not a good look to be talking bad about your label this early in your career.
LA Reid is hot garbage. How you gonna run DEF JAM the label built off of pure hip hop, the hip hop label with the largest back catalog of classic hip hop music, and not know how to sell a GHOSTFACE KILLAH album or a NAS album or a REDMAN album or a JADAKISS album or a FABOLOUS album or a ROOTS album or a YOUNG JEEZY Album or a LUDACRIS album or a METHOD MAN Album? And thats not to mention JUELZ SANTANA(Cam Ron, Beamer Benz Bentley, I Cant Feel My Face), CURREN$Y ( worked wit Wiz Khalifa and Lil Wayne), and ACE HOOD (Rick Ross homey) all of whom have a buzz but have no projects in sight. He can go run Jive with that “I want Pop hits” bullshit. LA reid out here looking for the next NSync or Hanna Monatana while the greatest collection of East Coast rappers ride the pine. Damn Shame. La Reid is turning Def Jam into Disney World and he can kiss my ass, he dont get no love for his inability to sell hip hop records at the worlds first hip hop label.
This resposne isn’t really at you but all the comments of this nature. LA Reid just like all music execs are looking for records that will make the label and in return themselves money. This same argument people are having about Def Jam was the same arguments before Jay, DMX and who ever else came out in that period. All these things are cyclical. Only a couple of the artist you mention in this post are platinum status artist and it was in a different time when products were being moved. The record labels model is outdated with music being transfered online. There will only be a handful of artist who will continue to push big numbers. Those mid 90’s platinum artist are a thing of the past.
@ctallday
LA Reid is suppose to be selling hit Hip Hop records tho, not pop records. He’s not even trying to sell hip hop records and he works for Def Jam. Yall see whats wrong with that? Nintendo sells games, Toyota sells cars, CocaCola sells Pop, and Def Jam is suppose be selling Hip Hop. Period. He can go to Atlantic, Koch, Jive, or Sony if he wants to sell Pop Records.
And before Jay and DMX, we was buying Redman Albums, EPMD Albums, Methodman albums, Warren G albums, etc. and it goes all the way back to LL.Cool J and Run DMC. Def Jam was always a force in terms of selling hip hop records up til when Jay Z retired. Def Jam aint never been as suspect as it is now
This is the first era of Def Jam where they sold out hip hop and I thought Id never see the day. People still buy hip hop music its just that some executives are better at selling it than others and LA Reid is an other.
Ludacris
Nas
Fabolous
Young Jeezy
could easily be platinum even in todays climate.
You ever hear a Funeral Fab mixtape? They’re fire! You ever hear the last Def Jam issued Fabolous album? Soft, and I blame Def Jam for making him compromise.
hiphopbaby76
co-sign
i say we hip hop fans boycott all def jam releases untill they releease quility music not hit th they think can sell substance in the music… fuck u la reid i would personal spit in ur face nigga
It’s official. The boycott of DefJam is on…
who’s worse though? i cant call it, L.A, Reid or his fat-goofy-spoiled-non-jamaican-non-musical-never-made-or-been-on-a-good-song son Sean Kingston. a douche bag like l.a reid shits out someone as shitty as sean kingston, can u imagine what the next generation of babies will look like???/
This is the sad song that is Hip Hop nowadays. But it’s not solely on LA Reid. Fuck the radio stations, fuck BET, fuck US for not buying the good shit when it comes out, and last but not least, FUCK THE CLUB. That’s where most of these wack ass tracks get burn. I’ve always felt there needs to be a separation within the genre itself, between hip hop and rap, if possible. All that made for radio shit can get played on other radio stations under the pop music genre. Hip Hop should have it’s own class and have management that concerns itself with the art first, numbers second(if at all). I’m off my soap box now before I fuck around and cause myself to lose sleep tonight.
hiphopbaby76
so right i stand beside you if your ready for a boycott on all these radio stations,bet,clubs..etc. hiphop is coming back, but we hiphop heads need to go and physically buy these records, i know i do.
co-sign this
I’m with you. I’ve been saying that we need to boycott these radio stations, BET, MTV etc for a minute now. Hopefully real hiphop heads will wake up and stop supporting this bullisht that’s passing for music.
First of all Nas and Shyne must stop complaining because that defjam sucks is nothing new! Then defjam is not the label from 1985-1990 with the classic releases. defjam is a factory now who is only interested in money. if rappers have a problem with it then don’t sign with defjam but all those rappers are the same as defjam and want money. So we gotta boycot not only defjam but also these money hungry rappers!
by the way atlantic records, badboy and all these labels suck
DEF JAM has become DEF JAM SOUTH, ’cause the only acts thats really doing something is Luda, Jeezy & The Bawse……oh yeah, and the R&B acts.
YEP!
why are people mentioning shyne in the same sentence as nas. Shyne is just wack. 2 completely different situations.
Hip-hop is mercurial and doesn’t remain inert like most genres, but the avarice nature of executives like LA has changed hip-hop for the worst. Commerce wins over artistic integrity, so hip-hop’s traditional, indigenous fan-base who apreciate authentic music are forgotten about. The disparity between Top of the Pops rap music and underground hip-hop is so vast, we need to find a new name to differentiate the two styles. Lost Tapes Vol. II is the kind of rap album the game is missin’; raw beats, smart lyrics, no RnB hooks and real producers. I’d love for an album like this to come out and do Eminem numbers, but that’s bein’ a little quizotic.
labels are a dying breed. in 20 years, i can almost guarentee most artists will be indie, which will be good. radio stations these days are all controlled by record labels, they promote pop music, ie pop records are going to sell. no record labels meen the radio stations are free to play what they want. that with stricker lawls for p2p downloading, and we have artists going platinum again.
not like they care, rappers get rich off live performances.
laws*
mc’s like skyzoo who’s album is going to be like twenty times guarenteed better than hov’s when his shit hit’s the market this fall. sell’s a meazly 2,400 units because cooporations won’t to back this type of material.
It’s like they have so much nfluence up to a certain level and could probaby sell anything with the right backing but want to be able to control and dictate to people whats good or bad to keep a generation down and unknowledgeable
Learn how to write dumbass. Whatever you said doesn’t even make sense. I’m suprised you were able to use a computer to type this comment
This is what happens when you employ an R&B legend to run a legendary Hip-Hop label. You end up with disgruntled Hip-Hop artist. What a shame.
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