Ayana Soyini, a
music promoter (www.goldeneyes.com), was served with a lawsuit for posting an
MP3 of a new Jay-Z song apparently given to her by Universal (rumor? fact?)
to promote to her constituency… Def Jam then sued; her website was shut down…
Chuck D wrote a response which she posted to her website… slightly inflammatory…
Peace Ayana, Chuck
D. from the mountains of Brazil where real black folk answer the greed of the
rich haves. Really they (Lyor, Russell) need to get a life.. and see the big
picture and think outside the box they are in.
So these cats get
the say so on what is and what is not promotion?
Do we wait for
the big white man to finally say its legit and cool, just as they finally accepted
mixtapes…which to me are no
different?
Again when these
companies went digital some knew exactly what they were dealing with in order
to triple charge the consumer. With digital comes liquid risk, and these Gestapo
tactics are stupid as immediately files are in Singapore, New Zealand, China,
Budapest and East St. Louis. What the f*ck is one American company gonna do
here when increasingly American opinion is becoming a smaller part of the world?
Earlier this year
there was a television commercial with a backing of what was obviously an older
Isley Brothers song. I fiended to find this song, and it happened to be ‘I Turned
You On’ which I bought in the stores in both catalog and the "Live at Yankee
Stadium albums. I’ve played it 1000 times. So much for people saying downloading
hurts, which proves that people will continue to support and buy was great,
not just barely adequate.
Def Jam built its
company on sampling and the swap meet trade to get people alerted on rap music,
all so Russell and Lyor could sell it to Universal for $160 million
They press up 5000-10,000
pieces of vinyl on most rap artists, shipping them to DJs in hopes that they
would play it over some radio….how prehistoric and $$$ wasting is this?
Video clips cost
$300,000-600,000 average, with no residual benefit other than promotional, plus
the fact that 85% of outtake footage is a waste, never used again and no one
seems to know where they are ultimately stored.
A Jay-Z promo record
is not as accessible in places like where I’m at now, Rio DE Janeiro Brazil.
The web promotes that beyond a shipment.
Some white business
cat(s) now navigates how word moves in the streets? Well maybe the streets were
his in the first place, eh?
I was told by these
same Universal legal cats, I wouldn’t see royalties ever..after 10 million records..because
of legalities. Well aint this a……"Cool" I said and began to tear
the whole **** down. They know my name and I know theirs and the truth is they
don’t give a damn about any of this…it’s a control issue of
the format.
Universal bought
MCA which bought Chess (pioneering label that recorded such greats as Bo Diddley,
Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Etta James, etc.) amongst many other
companies….how many Blues/Soul cats see Universal checks?
They shouldn’t
even dare go after you…as you’ve been trying to help in a progressive forward
manner..only simple minds stay stuck in old rules that no longer apply. So it’s
war with me. I deal with 50 countries…and connected into peeps like the World
Zulu Nation.
Universal’s Slave
pimp Doug Morris sicced LL and Lyor on me in DC last month. Here’s what I had
to say about that:
A Family Letter to Lyor and LL: The p2p File Sharing Senate Hearings in Washington
DC September 30th 2003
Well I don’t really
know what good to say. I think Doug Morris has pimped your brains out or something.
The R.I.A.A looked and called Morris who probably rang your bell thus you and
LL proceeded to do a tap dance in front of the US Senate with your strings in
his back, Doug Morris’ strings in yours and the R.I.A.A in his. Thinking that
it would neutralize the grassroots effort of all this.
I didn’t get into
this digital whirl for fanfare …you know me. I never sucked no ass to get
to a place…it’s about the art, integrity and commitment as well into the connection
to the world, because I refuse to be submissive to the corporate dominance and
collusion of the Radio networks, TV outlets and film, record and
media companies that now feel they own and dictate the culture.
This collusion
has stifled the growth of grassroots businesses who can’t afford to build themselves
without some drug dealer backing. Seriously you guys have separated yourselves
into the same aristocracy we rebelled against in the first place. Being that
I spend half my time outside Amerikkka and you have such international ties
abroad, we should know that stuffing your pockets and altering a domestic law
in the U.S. has little bearing on world thought, even in music.
The masses of the
people are important and somehow using mass media to control their thoughts
is becoming a more expensive task with dwindling result. The public opinion
swayed by propaganda, marketing, and promotion will not make the masses sorry
for perceived millionaires. It’s arrogance.. typical Amerikkkan arrogance that
increasingly is becoming a symbol of world angst and anti-opinion.
The haves over
the have-nots ..although it may not be true, it seems that you’re responsible
for keeping the artists of your company dumb or seemingly dumb to reach the
dumbed down masses to buy dumbed down product.
At the end of the
day the black artists remain childlike under your wings with no world opinion
whatsoever, pending the existence on "Soundscam" and units sold while
people still look to White icons like Bono, Paul McCartney, Madonna and even
"Governator" for the statements on where we really stand.
It’s hypocritical
for LL to say what’s stolen from him when 75% of his and most of our catalog
was also taken from musicians who never controlled their copyrights..
LL is family as
well as you musically speaking, but really your calling misses the points of
origin that allowed us to do this in the first place…
Some points:
I’m aware that
my copyrights were never really mine and were unprotected anyway to the point
of Universal lawyers saying I’d never receive a royalty from them again.Well
aint this the blues all over again
1. If I knew that
LL or any rapper was on some government hearing opposing my view, I would’ve
bowed out regardless because all they would do is play up two dueling blackmen
against each other..like they did. The last thing I expected was that you and
he would be positioned against me. Or maybe I should’ve expected it….yeah.
2. Def Jam and
other 80’s started rap labels were built off swapmeet and mixtaping throughout
the years, sampling and unauthorized usage, which made $$$$ for you to sell
the company in the mass millions..and now you wanna get righteous?
3. Isn’t Russell
a board member of Altnet (a company that does business with Kazaa)?…How many
sides of the fence do you guys play?…oh, the one that lands in the biggest
pile of cash?
4. The companies
knew that the second they digitized music into a CD that it was let out of the
bag unprotected and easily transferable. Its was a matter of time a compression
such as mp3 would roll along…we’ve all profited off that technology and now
you wanna say its evil?.
It aint bitterness
but its clarity. I thought that making music was a great way to make a living,
thank you. Aligning yourselves with the same peeps we fought against has
altered this game into "The Greed That Has To Make A Killing" so I
can survive. But others must have a grassroots of a chance (since most are shut
out from the club of the music business).
These conglomerates
have really have you in the wrong place on the right stuff you built and sold
your thing on..
If you have any
threats from Universal, or anyone, send them to me. They should be screaming
on their Nation’s President spending $87.5 billion dollars of their $$$
instead worrying about some damn record….
I’M VERY ACCESSIBLE
AND WAITING and can get my e-mail in a country of 80 million black people who
are puzzled at the backwardness of American blacks dancin the ‘electric slave.’