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Jay-Z and the rest of the Def Jam executives have been taking a lot of heat lately for the way they mishandled the joint releases of the Method Man and The Roots albums and there have been some legitimate questions raised about whether or not Jay knows what he's doing as President of the label. For all his faults, though, I feel confident in saying that Lupe Fiasco's career outlook would be a lot brighter if he had taken Jay's offer to join Def Jam instead of signing with Atlantic Records. Since signing him in the spring, Atlantic has made several mistakes that could have a major impact on his album sales.
Of course the most notable mistake, and the one that is going to have a direct impact on Lupe's album sales, has been Atlantic's inability to keep Food and Liquor from leaking onto the internet. When it first leaked a few weeks before its originally scheduled June release, it was not much of a surprise. Albums get leaked all the time and artists manage to survive. Atlantic made the decision to push the album release back a couple of months so that Lupe could go back into the studio, add a few guest appearances and a new Neptunes-produced track. Now, with the album about to be released in a week, the newly revamped Food and Liquor has once again leaked onto the internet.
These days album leaks are inevitable, but when it happens to the same artist on the same album twice, the blame has to fall on the record label that is in charge of things. I still haven't heard any of the leaked album, because I'm an upstanding citizen like that, but you have to imagine that a sizable percentage of Lupe's fans have downloaded the leak. If you've already got two "free" versions of the album, are you likely to pay $15.99 for a third version of it? Probably not.
Perhaps even more significant, in terms of how Atlantic handled the album leak, was their decision to push the release date back in the first place. Last spring, the name Lupe Fiasco was everywhere, from blogs to MTV to magazine articles. There were a couple of other hip hop artists that people were looking forward to (Rick Ross, Obie Trice, The Roots) but none of them could match the buzz that Lupe had heading into the summer. Now we're two weeks into September and the album still isn't out. News of his album release has been overshadowed by talk of Jay-Z's upcoming album, its been months since his Kick, Push video came out, and there's been a lot less talk about Lupe than there was in the spring.
Another mistake Atlantic has made has been their complete lack of understanding when it comes to the internet and its use in artist promotion. There have been several sites that have been giving Lupe free promotion and Atlantic's reaction has almost universally been to threaten these sites with legal action. Back in April, I wrote about the original album leak (which, at the time, I said wouldn't turn out so bad for Lupe). Despite the fact that I praised Lupe, announced that I had not downloaded the leak and discouraged the use of P2P, I received a rather unfriendly email from Atlantic's corporate thugs demanding that I take down the post. A few months later, Eskay over at NahRight received a similar email from Atlantic after posting a link to a Lupe Fiasco video that was on YouTube. Several other hip hop sites have had similar interactions with Atlantic. A big part of Lupe's initial appeal was that he was "one of us," not like the gangsta or high roller mcs that had flooded the market, but that appeal quickly fades when his lawyers are bullying anyone who writes something online with the dude's name in it.
The latest mistake, coming on the eve of his album release, has been Lupe Fiasco's blog entry for XXL online: Byron Crawford is a bitch ass nigga. In his blog post, Lupe responds to a post by Byron Crawford made several months ago that argued it was a mistake not to release the album after the first time it was leaked. This inevitably led to a response from Byron that has the internets going nuts.
Don't get me wrong, Lupe's post was no doubt genuine. And I appreciate that the guy is keeping it real, using his guest blogger appearance at XXL to speak his mind when most other artists would have just thrown up a generic piece announce their upcoming album. I'm not Lupe's public relations expert, though, and I have to question why people in his camp allowed him to put that out there. The post, peppered with the phrase "bitch ass nigga", seems to go against the entire image he's cultivated for himself as the clean cut rapper that everyone can listen to. Byron's not quite up to Howard Stern numbers in terms of his audience, but he does hold some sway over his audience. Is it really a good thing to get into a war of words with him right before your album drops?
When I first heard of Lupe Fiasco last winter, I thought he had the potential to change the game. He was creative with his rhymes, his flow was as good as anyone out and he seemed different from all of the thug rappers that were crowding the scene. The nonsense I've had to deal with from Atlantic has soured me a bit, though, and I don't think I'm the only one that feels that way. I still have every intention of going out and buying Lupe's album next week, and I think at the end of the day his album will do alright, but I doubt he will live up to the potential he showed last spring. And I think one of the main reasons for that is Atlantic Records.
Here are a couple of mixtape tracks from Lupe, before he signed with Atlantic:
Jedi Mind Tricks
Lupe the Killer
9/14/2006 10:35:13 AM posted by Fresh