MTijn schreef op 11-06-2007 @ 23:43
premier

Saigon is pissed! 10 days ago The Yardfather used the power of his myspace blog to let the world know just how disgusted he is with his recording home, Atlantic Records, due to the label’s seeming disinterest in releasing his major-label debut. Having just returned from touring overseas – a trip Saigon notes was coordinated without the assistance of Atlantic Records – one of the most provocative MC’s of our generation vented to HHDX regarding the delay of his self-proclaimed classic hip-hop album, Greatest Story Never Told, and for the first time publicly reveals whether or not he plans to continue working for Atlantic Records and with his musical guide, Just Blaze.

HHDX: Why did you take the June 1st blog post down [off of your myspace]?

Saigon: I took it down because I guess it offended Just Blaze for some reason. I don’t understand why it would offend him, but he hit me on myspace like it bothered him for some reason. So instead of me just adding fuel to the fire, I took it down and was like we’ll deal with it on a personal level.

HHDX: Was there a particular event, a straw that broke the camels back moment that motivated you to write what you did?

Saigon: It’s been going on. A lot of times I find myself, not lying to the press but sometimes trying to pull the wool over ya guys eyes about what’s really going on over there. I been sitting on that label almost 3 years. And the album that they eventually approved [to release] was the same album that I had [done] 6 months into the deal. So it’s pretty much I been sitting over there for 2 years doing nothing.

HHDX: So was it your intention to get Atlantic’s attention with the blog post?

Saigon: Not really, because I been *****in’. I been told ‘em, “Look, y’all can drop me.” Most artists, they try to run from that. I’m like, “Let me go. Let me out the contract.” I don’t wanna sit around on your shelf and become irrelevant to the world, and that’s what I see happening.

I’m like, Okay, if you guys don’t wanna push me and give me the proper attention that I feel my project not only needs but deserves, then let me try my hand somewhere else. That’s only fair.

HHDX: So as of today, do you want off the label or do you wanna still try to make this project work?

Saigon: If it’s gonna continue to be how they working, of course I want out. Yeah, I want out. For me to even have a career, it’s either I stay over there and do nothing or I go somewhere else and try to put out music.

I put out one song since I been over there. And that was a song that I pretty much put out myself. They didn’t even wanna put out “Pain In My Life.” They were against it. They were like, “No, no, what are you doing?”

HHDX: Now your album is largely produced by one of the most successful hip-hop producers of this decade, Just Blaze, your A&R is a young hip-hop DJ, Sickamore, and you’re not signed directly to Atlantic, but through Hip-Hop Since 1978 – the same label that put Kanye West on. You got all the pieces in place, so why hasn’t that arrangement produced a product?

Saigon: The product has been there, but it’s all about distributing it and getting the product out there. That’s why on the blog I said if they don’t put it out, I’ll put it out. If you guys are creating the perception that with all those pieces in place - like you said, with Just Blaze, with [Hip-Hop Since 1978 co-owners and Atlantic VP’s of A&R] Hip-Hop and G [Roberson] - that I can’t produce then that looks like it’s me. People is like, It must be Saigon who can’t come correct, who can’t make a single, who can’t make songs, when I have over a 100 great songs.

HHDX: So who is that barrier then? If it’s not Just Blaze, if it’s not Sickamore, if it’s not Hip-Hop Since 1978, who’s the barrier to putting this album out?

Saigon: It’s the powers that be [at Atlantic]. If they were turning down the music, if we were submitting music and they were saying it’s not good enough that’d be one thing. But they hear the music and they go, “Oh it’s great. We love it!” And then nothing happens.

My album is geared toward the upliftment of black people. I don’t know if they’re scared of that. I don’t know if they don’t think it’s gonna sell. But there has to be balance in music. And I guess they want the detriment rap. That’s not me. At the end of the day I gotta look in the mirror. I can’t do that.

HHDX: So what are they telling you then?

Saigon: They’re not telling me nothing. I’ve never seen somebody wait and sit around for three, four months for a sample to clear. And the sample still hasn’t been cleared.

HHDX: What’s the sample clearance issue?

Saigon: Supposedly my single called “Don’t Cha Baby,” which was recorded by me over two years ago, they’re realizing right now that they can’t clear the sample, two years later. That’s the reason why I don’t have a song out right now, or I don’t have a single out, because they can’t clear [a sample].

I don’t have a budget. Just Blaze ate up my budget. So I can’t really go and work with other producers like Pharrell, Timbaland, and Kanye, ‘cause it’s not in my budget anymore. So all I’m doing is sitting around, just waiting for something to fall out the sky. We can’t clear the sample, **** it, let’s move on. I’m a artist, Just [Blaze] is a producer, let’s go in the studio and make a new record. We could do that in one day. But it never gets done.

Just Blaze is still very active. He’s still working. He’s still doing beats for other artists. These dudes are still working with other artists, but when it comes to Saigon it’s like, “Uh…” People get choked up.

HHDX: So who is the boogeyman in this situation?

Saigon: I don’t know, man. It’s like everybody is playing hide the stone. The only person I really communicate with is G. Roberson. He tells me the most, but I still never get to the bottom line.

HHDX: When I called G. Roberson – I called around to different people to try to get comments earlier in the week – I was told he wasn’t in, and I was told that Hip-Hop doesn’t work there anymore, can you clarify the situation?

Saigon: Hop doesn’t like the way Atlantic is structured. He feels like they don’t let artists be artists. They want cookie cutter ****. So he left. He left as an A&R. He left his position. He had a high-level position. And he’s the one who signed me. So this really makes it even harder for me, when the person who signed you [leaves].

HHDX: Have you talked to anybody else within the A&R department, or anyone else within the label recently?

Saigon: Nah, man. A&R’s don’t listen. A&R’s are not A&R’s anymore. They’re pretty much just getting checks. They just get a check. They find something that’s getting a certain amount of spins, that’s a regional record that’s hot, and they say, “Hey, these guys are getting 500 spins over here, we should sign ‘em.” That’s all A&R’s do.

There’s no artist and repertoire. There’s no artist development. Not that I even need that. They just want that one catch phrase to run with. “We want jingles,” that’s what they’re pretty much telling me. They’re sitting around waiting for something that they’re never gonna get from me.

So either put my album out, which everybody on my team is happy with, or let me go. I know I can get another situation. I’m not worried about that. I’ll go to Koch. I’ll go to Babygrande. I don’t care. I’m not in this game to try to be a billionaire and have a twenty-car garage. That’s not why I rap. A lot of *****s rap for that, but that’s not why I rap. Money is not my motivation.


die dropt dus niet meer..

Liquid schreef op 08-04-2008 @ 19:37
Volgens mij heb je gewoon vaak dat een producer en een rapper samen werken, een dope nummer maken en dan denken ey man laten we een heel album doen. En dan komt het er nooit van maar hebben ze t wel al de wereld in gegooid.