"Crew love, Rocafella till we die/Long as you and I keep it movin' like a driveby"-Jay-z
"The richest man ain't the one with his first dollar, dog, it's the one that still got his first friend"-Beanie Sigel
"If my life's a movie, Sig's gon' be the sequel"-Jay-z
Word spread around fast Friday morning that Beanie Sigel addressed his issues with Jay-z on wax. He allegedly took shots @ Hov at Powerhouse in Philly, so seeing this isn't a total shocker. But still, it's like no one expected it to come to this. In the wee hours of Friday morning, DJ Kay Slay premiered Beanie Sigel's "Average Cat", a song in which he addressed his issues with Jay-z. I personally didnt take it as a "diss record", but the most revealing and interesting parts come near the song's end. Take a listen:
Beans also called into Charlemagne's show to address the issue. This was interesting to say the least. From revelations that Jay only paid the Young Gunz a little over 1K for a show (with them splitting it) to talking about Dame's reportedly crooked business practices to saying that Jay never visited him in prison, the interview was a little disturbing for me as a HUGE Roc fan.
Then you have Jay's response from a press conference:
Jay-Z answers Beanie Sigel from la rue du hiphop on Vimeo.
Ok, it's entertainment. On the outside looking it we can only take the shit for face value. But there's 2 sides to every story and then there's the truth.
- I do feel bad for Beans. GREAT talent. However, his personal demons have affected his artistry. No one told him to get a fed case or let off shots. He just has a history of being a live wire and has talked about it on wax with songs like "I Can't Go On This Way" and "Dear Self". "The B.Coming" was his BEST work but the promo game was messed up because of the Fed trial. (Public Enemy #1 was a helluva mixtape). You can't hold a man's hand. Much less in the music industry. It's like "Goodfellas" when Paulie had to dead Henry because of certain things that he was involved in. It's a business first and the impression of Beans that I get is that he's a loyal dude. Not saying Jay is a snake because we dont know all the facts, but in the business, people will definitely protect their own interests. It was interesting to note that Beans said Jay never visited him in jail. I can understand both sides. Beans thinking that that's his man and he cant even visit him in prison; however, Jay wasnt responsible for the decisions that got Beans in prison in the first place......
- Jay giving Young Gunz $1250 a show with them splitting it and Dame reportedly embezzling funds behind Beans back? O_o. As an artist, Jay is legitimate...but personally, signing to a label owned by another artist is something I would NEVER do. Your project will never be a priority and the majority of the marketing dollars will go to the bigger artist (who in turn usually has a track record of justifying the budget anyway). Artist development is dead as is, and labels aint got time to hand feed someone and watch them grow into a star. That's the thing with a lotta artists as well. They're from adverse situations and look for a way out so labels offer them contracts with clauses (Ibelieve nothing is hidden. If you're a hustler, you'll look at terminology, etc) and they dont understand them. If that's true, Dame is wrong for that.
- Jay did give Beans a label, clothing line, etc and he never went platinum on any individual album (2 gold albums with around 2.1 million sold for his career. I did an artist roster @ Def Jam and that's what it said anyway). It's been said that Beans had two Bentleys, but he admitted that he didn't have an accountant or a management team on his side. Those things definitely hurt his positioning as an artist. A good management team can get an artist cross-branding initiatives (Ex: Hip Hop Since 1978 with Wayne and Jeezy; Violator) and it's just plain common sense to have an accountant.
- As a fan, it sucks to see the lack of promotion for good albums. "The B.Coming" and "Free At Last" were very solid releases. But it's a business. If you have an artist that's multiplatinum, a label aint gonna funnel money to promote an artist with a gold discography (much less, decreased sales in this climate). Much less in the time period where the bigger artist has a history of good sales. Hov in the 4th quarter is a legitimate investment for the label and that's exactly what they did. Just sayin' that from a business standpoint, it was logical.
- State Property did bring an edge to the Roc that previously wasnt there. Cue Hot 97 Takeover Freestyles I and II. Beans WAS the frontline soldier whenever the Roc had an issue with an outside camp. The "street cred" was there and from the outside looking in, it was a good move for the Roc. I think Chris was the biggest loser in this whole shit as he had the bars and most potential. Beans and Freeway are "niche" artists...not to disrespect them or put em in a box...but Chris...Chris had "it" man....i hate to see good artists in limbo....or get begged to get dropped which brings me to another topic.....
- Side Note: I've seen that some label contracts have clauses that say if an artist sells over 200K records, they're legally obligated to make another album. Obviously, this depends on the amount of albums they owe a label as a result of the signing. To my understanding (and I may be wrong), how labels work (or used to anyway) was that an artist has to sell X amount of CDs to pay back his total budget (now there's 360 deals that take a piece of everything), but the artist wouldnt get paid royalties until that amount of units are sold + more. So lets say I sell 200K units but my budget is set up to get me gold sales (500K). I now owe the label ANOTHER album, AND I'm in the red and have to make up those albums and if worst comes to worst, I gotta argue with a label about my follow up singles and possibly come outta my own pocket to promote the shit via tour/other avenues...it's real interesting stuff....
- Just for the hell of it....I wanna see Beans address this more on wax....He's served Hov bar for bar on a majority of the tracks they were on (another blog entry for another time....*plays "It's On") and this song sounds like it was just a "warning shot"
I grew up listening to Rocafella. Classic records and flicks. Sad to see that all this had to go down like this.....
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