December 10, 2004
Jay-Z Named President of Def Jam
Rapper/entrepreneur Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, has been named president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings. Jay-Z was appointed the position by Island Def Jam chairman, L.A. Reid and will officially begin his presidential tour of duty on January 3 and will be based in Def Jam's NYC office. Jay-Z will also run Roc-A-Fella Records, a label he co-founded with partners Kareem "Bigs" Burke and Damon Dash.
Island Def Jam already owned 50% of Roc-A-Fella, which they bought for $1.5 million in 1997. They purchased the remaining 50% from Jay and the other two partners for $10 million.
L.A. released a statement that reads: "After 10 years of successfully running Roc-a-Fella. Shawn has proven himself to be an astute businessman, in addition to the brilliant artistic talent that the world sees and hears, I can think of no one more relevant and credible in the hip-hop community to build upon Def Jam's fantastic legacy and move the company into its next groundbreaking era."
Jay says, "I have inherited two of the most important brands in hip-hop, Def Jam and Roc-a-Fella. I feel this is a giant step for me and the entire artistic community."
I'm so happy for Jay-Z. He's really come so far in such a short period of time. Everyone is speculating that $10 million is a low price for Roc-A-Fella, and no one seems to know the specifics of the deal. I don't know the specifics either, but considering that Roc-A-Fella has only had one platinum selling artist for as long as its been in existence, and that's Jay-Z, it's not that cheap.
I definitely can't wait to see what the hell Jay does as president and CEO of Def Jam. Hip-hop music could use some revamping and some artists who have talent. I would love to see Jay sign some.
I really wonder where this leaves Dame Dash and what he plans to do next? Dame always has a plan in motion and it will be nice to see him remain successful without Jiggaman by his side.
Matthew Knowles Hates Jay-Z
In other Jay-Z news, the National Enquirer reports that Matthew Knowles, father and manager of Jay's girlfriend Beyonce, does not like Jay-Z. Matthew allegedly told a reporter, "I don't care for Jay-Z at all. I'm certainly not close to him." An alleged friend of the Knowles family says, "From the very beginning Jay-Z and Matthew never got along because he didn't approve of Jay-Z's past life. But Beyonce asked her father to give him a chance because Jay had changed his life and was no longer involved in drugs. Matthew wanted to see his daughter happy so he allowed them to develop a relationship.
However, Jay-Z is now starting to make noise that if he were Beyonce's manager he would handle her and Destiny's Child differently."
According to this "friend" Jay-Z would like Beyonce to have an image with more edge and get rid of the girl next door image created by her father. The source continued with, "Jay-Z feels that although Mathew Knowles has done 'all right' by his daughter and the other members of Destiny's Child, he feels he could do much better -- making Beyonce a little edgier.
Obviously, this leaves Beyonce in a very uncomfortable position with her father and fiance feuding over who will manage her career. Beyonce has been seen in tears, trying to figure out how to solve this problem without hurting her father or losing the man she loves."
This story is from the Enquirer so it must be taken with a grain of salt. At the same time, it sounds quite believable. Matthew Knowles is way too attached to Beyonce. So much so, it's scary. I could easily see him not liking Jay-Z, especially if Jay is trying to steer Beyonce career in a new direction. The fact that Jay-Z used to be a drug dealer should not even play into the equation of Matthew not liking him. Jay-Z is so far removed from his drug dealing days, it should really be irrelevant. He went from being a drug dealer to being one of the most important people in hip-hop. That's says way more about his character than the fact that he sold drugs in his teens and into his early 20's.
I was watching Destiny's Child on "Good Morning America" and they performed their song "Cater 2 U". The song is basically about bending over backwards for your man and doing anything and everything for him, except brushing his teeth. At the end there is part where Beyonce sings, "I don't care what my mama say, my daddy say, etc.. During that part, she jumped up from the stool she was sitting on and went off. It was the most passionate I've ever heard her sound. It sounded like she was trying to get a point across. It was to the point where Kelly and Michelle were looking at her like, "damn". Michele even said, "That's right, let your man know."
I didn't read too much into Kelly and Michelle's reactions though, because we all know that they worship at the feet of Beyonce, they are pretty awed by anything she does. The point is, listening to her sing that part of that song, I figured their must have been some tension between her parents and her man.
Beyonce is a grown ass woman and she should be able to make her own decisions. At this stage of the game, she needs to have more control of her career and drop her father and Jay-Z as far as management if concerned. What the hell is so 'girl next door' about Beyonce's image? Nothing. What the hell is Jay-Z going to do with her, dress her up like Foxy Brown? He wasn't able to do anything for the careers of those other artists on Roc-A-Fella, so Beyonce would be a fool to follow in his footsteps. But Matthew Knowles needs to back up off of Beyonce. Yes, he's done a great job for her career, but if she wants to be with Jay-Z so be it. There's really nothing he can do about it. If Jay-Z is as bad as Matthew thinks he is, their relationship will probably run its course without him getting involved.
Either way, I hope these men are not driving Beyonce crazy with their antics and/or demands. She has songs to sing and other endeavors that are conducive to her career, she does not have time for the tomfoolery of Shawn Carter and Matthew Knowles.
Free And Jay-Z
I'm sure by now have all heard the rumor that Free, host of BET's "106 and Park" is pregnant by Jay-Z. Also included in the pregnancy rumor was the fact that Free was resigning from her job as co-host of the television show. Free has yet to speak out publicly, but BET felt the need to address the situation and released the following statement: "There is no truth to the negative rumors or conjecture being reported about the private life or on-air status of Free. She has not resigned. Nothing has changed."
The latest rumor is that Free was in fact pregnant by Jay-Z and she has either had a miscarriage or an abortion. I have no idea where this rumor started from, but it sounds ridiculous. It could very well be true though. Why would someone randomly just throw Free and Jay-Z's names out there like that? I don't know if Free is or was pregnant, but she is pushing 40 and if ever she were going to have a baby, now would be the time.
I don't know anything about this situation and, I don't even want to get into it, because I am clueless.
Carmelo Anthony
NBA basketball star Carmelo Anthony has been having a rough time over the past few months. His numbers are down a smidgen from last season. Last season as a high caliber rookie, Anthony averaged 21.0 per game. This season, he is averaging 20.5 points per games. This wouldn't be such a big deal if he wasn't expected to improve greatly from season 1 to season 2, and
if fellow second year players, Lebron James and Dwyane Wade, had not elevated their games tremendously. Even though the point average from last season to this one isn't that great, Carmelo has to struggle to get those points this year, while everything seemed to flow so effortlessly last season.
He also doesn't seem to be focused and it may have something to do with his life off of the basketball court.
The media has been having a field day with Carmelo, because he seems to have run into trouble at every turn since the summer. First there was the Olympic debacle: Carmelo, among other star players, did not receive much playing time during the Olympic games over in Athens. Carmelo had a bad game where he was trying to do too much and force plays, and the coach, Larry Brown, publicized the fact that Carmelo was a selfish player, didn't know how the game was to be played and young Melo never saw another meaningful minute of playing time during the Olympics. Also benched were former high school phenoms, Amare Stoudemire and Lebron James.
While Stoudemire and James may have sulked on the sidelines during these games, Melo spoke up to the media and made it known that he was displeased with Larry Brown's decision making. That forced some back and forth banter via various media outlets to ensue between the veteran coach and the disgruntled young player. Once the Olympics ended Carmelo was involved in a fight with the former fiance of his current girlfriend, who happens to be MTV host La La. This just added yet another blemish to the public persona of Mr. Anthony. Once that altercation was all but forgotten about, Anthony was the victim of an extortion attempt by three men who claimed that they had the video of him from the fight in the nightclub and would gladly relinquish it to him for a mere $3 million. Carmelo got the police involved and those men have since been arrested.
To add to the drama, he was caught with a small amount of marijuana in his knapsack at the airport while preparing to fly out of Denver for an away game. Carmelo maintained his innocence and a friend stepped forward and took the blame for stashing the marijuana in the bag. Finally to add insult to injury a DVD was released showing Melo on the block with a group of criminal misfits. The video is a warning to Baltimore criminals turned police informants. Melo's friends are talking about killing snitches throughout the video. Carmelo appears in at least 6 minutes worth of footage and the most damaging statements he made were about putting some "money on the motherfuckin'" brains of a particular snitch. He also made some disparaging comments about coach Larry Brown, and he claimed that he "threw his Olympic bronze medal in a lake."
Anthony recently spoke to his hometown newspaper the Baltimore Sun and tried to put some things in perspective for the public. Anthony says, "It takes a strong person to deal with all this stuff, to be the same person. Even though all this stuff is going on, I'm still the same person. Nothing has changed, and I realize that. Nothing in this world will be able to take my family, my identity and this game of basketball, which is something that I love to play." Carmelo claims the biggest lesson he learned from the Olympics was "to keep my mouth shut, regardless. If things aren't going your way, keep your mouth shut and just keep going with it, keep going with the flow. Everything can't go your way."
Some of these incidents were unavoidable, such as the fight in the nightclub. La La's former fiance spit in her face and Melo has always maintained that he did what any man would do in the same instance. He defended La La's honor, by knocking her ex-fiance out. As for the DVD, Melo makes no apologies for spending time in the old neighborhood with his friends, nor does he think he should be held responsible for their actions. He says, "I don't really understand. I just want to be myself. And now, you mean to tell me that I can't go home and chill and go visit my people that I grew up with all my life?" For people to say 'Get rid of them, no. I'm not going to get rid of them. They're still going to be my friends. At the same time, I know how to handle the situation better now."
In the midst of all of Carmelo's misfortune, it's rumored that Michael Jordan, Anthony's mentor is upset that Carmelo is the face of his athletic brand, "Brand Jordan". Not only is Melo the face of the brand, but Nike has been running a series of commercials featuring the future all star. Carmelo isn't happy with all the things going on and he feels that people
now have a warped perception of who he is and while making judgements and generalizations of his character, "people fail to realize and see the good stuff that I do."
Melo is very involved in a number of Denver charities and has held Christmas and Thanksgiving parties for the less fortunate residents of the city. He has also raised over $100,000 for these and other charities, along with donating his own money for various causes.
While Melo has all of this going on and facets of his game are suffering, he claims that he has never slacked off where basketball is concerned and claims that once practice is over he goes home and has an additional workout with former Nuggets player and general manager, Kiki Vandeweghe. Being that it's only 2 months into Carmelo's second season in the NBA, it seems that these dramas may only be the tip of the iceberg. He has made some mistakes and plans to get his image back where he wants it to be. He feels that people will see whatever they want to see in him, regardless of what he does to spruce up his image.
At the end of the day, he wants his family and his hometown to love him as they always have. He says, "People love me back there, from what I know. I haven't been back there since the summertime, but people love me. And I will always want that, for my hometown to love me."
Poor Carmelo. He has really been going through it. At the same time, he is going to have to stay mentally focused on his job. He gets paid to play ball, simple and plain. He can not be slacking. His team is really struggling right now and he's going to have to do better. I'm sure he doesn't mean any harm. Carmelo seems a bit slow. I also hear that he's quite impressionable, which could play a part in a lot of the nonsense going on in his life. If he's that impressionable, he needs to surround himself with people that are going to be conducive to his image. The fight in the club was just too much for me. Had La La not run off to a corner to talk to her ex-fiance, the entire situation could have probably been avoided. She knew what kind of person her ex Sugar Jay was, and she seemed to have instigated this whole mess. He wasn't wrong for defending her, but after that altercation, maybe he should have re-evaluated being with La La at all, at least in public.
He can't just go around getting into fights because La La wants to feel needed. I'm not saying that was La La's m.o. but it seems that way.
I don't think Carmelo is a bad person, but he's awfullly dumb. Listening to him sometimes, I wonder if he isn't mildly retarded. I don't mean this in a facetious way at all. He just always seems confused and he says the damnedest things. He just never seems like he has it altogether mentally. Really, it seems like he lacks common sense. The marijuana thing, I won't even get into, but he just has to be more careful. Getting caught in the airport with marijuana, regardless of who it belongs to is just not acceptable.
I don't knock him for going back home and hanging out with his friends. I think it would be more disturbing if he didn't. At the same time, he has to realize that he cannot just stand out on the block with these guys. He definitely shouldn't be smiling pretty for any cameras they have in his face. Friend of foe, he must realize that damn near everyone he knows is going to try to make a profit off of him one way or the other. You don't cut people off that you've known and cared about your entire life just because you suddenly have a high profile job and you're in new tax bracket. You just have to know when, where and how you can deal with them.
Carmelo claims that he now knows how to handle the situation better, but the vagueness of that statement leads me to believe he does not. He's just talking to be saying something. I am still begging this boy to get a publicist because his statements are so outrageous, it's ridiculous. He should be banned from speaking to the public without a publicist or some other voice of reason by his side. He also needs a life coach or some type of mentor that is going to help him with these situations.
It's nice that Jordan is his mentor as far as basketball and if Melo's face up jumper ever needs work, he can call him. He needs someone in his corner that is going to be the voice of reason when Melo may be confused or uncertain, and Carmelo seems confused and uncertain a good portion of the time. He claims that no one can take basketball away from him, which is a game he loves to play, and they can't. He can play basketball on any court, at any time. But the NBA can damn sure take away his job. I'm sure that none of these things are serious to the point of his job being in jeopardy, but this could definitely hurt him as far as endorsements and other deals that could possibly come his way.
I definitely hope all of this works in his favor, and I hope he gets his personal life together. He's still a kid, only 20 years old and still trying to find his way in the world. That must only become harder when you have to do it while being a public figure and you're making millions of dollars. I hope everyone is willing to cut him some slack while he works on doing things the right way and hopefully he will make a conscious effort to stay out of trouble.
Ludacris and Chingy
A while back we talked about the Chingy article in the December issue of XXL magazine. In the article Chingy talked about leaving rapper Ludacris' Disturbing Tha Peace camp, who basically put Chingy on the map. The reasons for leaving stemmed from management problems, as Chingy did not legally have a manager and claims that Luda's manager and partner Chaka Zulu
was cheating him out of a lot of money. Chingy said that he didn't have any beef with Ludacris or Chaka, it was just time for him to handle his own affairs.
Chingy's story sounded sincere, but Luda says that Chingy is lying. MTV caught up with Ludacris and he says, "This is the first time we heard about his accusations, in a tabloid or through different media outlets, so all respect is lost. He keeps saying it's cool. It's not cool. ... It's completely over. Financially he still is signed to Disturbing Tha Peace, and we'll do what we have to do, but we don't want anybody representing the crew who's gonna make false accusations like that. We have no respect for this individual, basically."
When Chingy was questioned by MTV, his story remained the same. He claims that there is no beef and his issues stem from being mismanaged by Chaka. Chingy says, "It's a contract thing. I don't want to get into that. Me and the management had our differences. Plus I'm trying to develop my business mind. Ain't nobody going to do for me like I'ma do for me. Ain't nobody gonna look out for me like I'ma look out for me. I had to step aside, start my own thing. Now I'm watching what's going on, giving my opinion and word. If something gets messed up, then blame it on me."
Chaka, who would not speak with anyone from XXL for the interview has finally responded to Ching-a-Ling's accusations. He says, "Everybody from his lawyers to his accountants said there was no money missing. There was no problem. From there we was like, 'Now can we sit down and talk?' We repeatedly said, 'Anytime you want to talk, let's discuss it. What's going on?' My thing is, Chingy is fabricating things to make everything make sense to the public. Don't put out false information. He has repeatedly come to us and said, 'I want to talk to you about this situation' and that's all he says; 'I want to talk to you.' He has never talked about it, and now he forces us to talk and speak out against him."
Ludacris went on to say, "You can tell when somebody's a leader or not. What was given to him, you can make your own situation out of it. That was perfectly fine. We're gonna encourage you to do that. Nobody wants to be an artist for the rest of their lives. We want you to make entrepreneurial moves; that's what business is all about. I'm the CEO of the company. I'm also an artist, but I sign artists with the expectation of every single artist being as big as they can possibly be. That's what makes me happy, because we are a family. You can still internally do your own thing, but still be a part of the family. No one's going to pigeonhole you. We're here to make you as successful as possible because it in turn makes us successful."
In completely other Ludacris news, Luda has sold his DTP label to Island Def Jam for a whopping $11 million dollars.
The whole Chingy, Ludacris, Chaka thing is getting kind of old. If Chingy were in any way relevant to hip-hop music, maybe it would be more interesting. I have no idea whose lying or who isn't, but I still believe Chingy. Ludacris' loyalties are to Chaka, so there's no telling what he was liable to say. If my best friend bamboozled an acquaintance out of some
money and needed me to stick up for her on television, radio or in print, I totally would. Even if it was unethical and
I didn't agree with her actions, I'd never say it publicly. It's not right, but there are so many people who would handle the same situation that way. I don't see why Ludacris should be any different. I'd have been awfully surprised if Luda told MTV that Chaka was a liar and a cheat, even if he was. Please, it means nothing to Luda to lose Chingy, so let Chingy take his jackpot winning ass elsewhere.
It appears that Chingy has learned a good lesson from this experience and that is the silver lining to this dark lingering cloud of story. We will no longer discuss who did or did not steal what money from Chingy. We are just so over it.
I am happy that Ludacris got as much money as he did for selling DTP to Def Jam. I had no idea it was worth that much money. Other than Ludacris, there aren't any high profile artists on the label. Chingy wasn't even actually on the DTP label. Whatever, I love Luda and I'm happy to see him doing big things.
Halle Berry
Rumor has it that actress Halle Berry and her latest boyfriend, Michael Ealy, are moving into a Malibu, California home together. The couple met while filming a movie together earlier this year. Michael Ealy is also an actor, his most notable role was as Ricky in the movies "Barbershop" and "Barbershop 2".
This is the shit I'm talking about with Halle Berry. After she left Eric Benet's sex addicted ass, she claimed she was going to take time for herself and blah,blah,blah. Not 5 minutes after Eric Benet cleared the last of his belongings out of Halle's house, she's dating Michael Ealy and they're moving in together. Halle seems about two steps away from insanity. I really hope this relationship works for her. Michael Ealy is seven years her junior, so maybe he is bringing something to the table that the older men weren't. Who knows? I do wish her well though.
- reported by Keshawnta J.