Thirty Three Jones | Desktop Site
About 10 years ago, if you were a rapper with the intent to go platinum, there were two labels you dreamed of joining: Bad Boy or Death Row. Hard to believe today, what with the main artists on these labels now being MTV's Da Band and Petey Pablo, respectively. Back around 1995, though, these two labels had the rap game on lock. Roc-A-Fella had just started up, Def Jam was about 3 years away from redefining itself and Nervous Records still wasn't paying its signed artists.
Recently, the C.E.O.'s of these two record labels have been put on blast by various internet sites. Marion Knight, a.k.a. Sugar Bear a.k.a. Suge is on the verge of bankruptcy (either to avoid paying a co-founder of Death Row, or because he actually is dead broke). Sean Combs, a.k.a. Puffy a.k.a. P. Diddy a.k.a. Diddy, on the other hand, seems to have his finances well in hand, by virtue of getting his artists to sign some of the worst contracts in the industry. This got me to thinking, given what has happened to the rappers that signed with each label over the past decade, who would you rather have worked for: Puffy or Suge Knight?
Let's examine choice A, Puffy, first. The first problem you're going to have is the ridiculous contract you'll be forced to sign. Both 112 and The Lox have had problems with their contracts, with Puffy going so far as to sue 112 a few years ago just to keep them from leaving the label. Claims have also been made that Biggie's contract has allowed Puffy to keep much of the royalties from being paid to Mrs. Wallace.
The second issue you'll have to deal with is that, as a Bad Boy artist, there's a better than average chance that you'll be doing some hard time as a result of dealing with Puffy. One example is Shyne, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail after a night out on the town with Puffy. Or, if you're name is Black Rob, you'll be looking at 7 years in jail because you were so broke you had to jack pocketbooks, despite releasing two well-reviewed albums under the Bad Boy label.
Finally, if you do manage to make the rap game's ultimate sacrifice (that is, get murdered), you will see your work posthumously rereleased and remixed to death, and even have guest rappers who were barely in grade school at the time of your death appear on your songs.
Doesn't sound too good, but it could be worse. Let's examine choice B, working with Suge Knight's Death Row. There's really only one drawback to this option: you're going to be around a whole lot of violence. If you ever owe the man money, you might find yourself hanging by your ankles over a balcony. Or maybe you'll end up being forced to undress and walk naked through the hallways of your office building. You might even get sentenced to life in jail for following Suge's orders to hand out a beat down to a former founder of Death Row. Even if you're name isn't Tupac, you just might end up dead as a result of your association with Tha Row.
So the choice boils down to either being broke and in jail with a slight chance of being murdered, or dead and buried. Upon further review, I guess I would just sign with Rawkus. Nobody would have ever bought my album, but I'd still be around today.
4/17/2006 10:05:10 AM posted by Fresh