A Reputation of Integrity ... or Lack Thereof

On Friday November 12, 2010 Jay –Z announced the signing of Jay Electronica to Roc Nation.  This came as surprise to many including Sean “Diddy” Combs who was the unofficial manager of Jay Electronica and had hopes of signing him to his Bad Boy imprint. The decision to sign with Jay-z's ROC Nation led to an interesting twitter exchange between the two.

First, Diddy expresses disappointment in a twitter post that was seemingly directed at Jay Electronica.

The posting of this tweet prompted twitter followers to post several responses speculating that the comment could have been directed at either Jay-Z or Electronica.  

Then, Erykah Badu (the mother of Jay Electronica’s daughter) tweeted shortly after …

The next day, Diddy made a half-hearted attempt to clear the air with this tweet. 

Electronica responded to Diddy with the following comments.

Diddy responded with:

…wanna do is see you win! All love.

And Jay Electronica made this statement to end the conversation.

 

Diddy is obviously hurt at the missed opportunity of signing Jay Electronica and he has never made any direct statement to indicate otherwise.  Diddy of all people should know that the business is never personal and to make a business decision solely based on a friendship would be foolish.   After all, he has a very well established reputation of verbally abusing and taking advantage of his artists.  Day 26, Shyne, The Lox, Black Rob, G-dep, Mase, (and pretty much everyone else who has been signed to Diddy) have all made claims of shady business practices on the part of Diddy.   Although Diddy seemingly continues be successful, his lack of integrity will always hold him back.  Whether or not all these things are true is not necessarily important.  The fact still remains that the rumors have let to a consensus on Diddy as a shady businessman.  That’s not to say he couldn’t change his reputation but he has a long way to go.  As for Jay Electronica…. Who can blame you??

Kanye West Speaks His Mind: On The Media, Michael Jackson, George Bush & Being "Cheated" From Winning At Award Shows

Kanye West is one of the most creative minds that we have in the music industry.  He constantly challenges the antiquated concepts that restrict us as artists and people.This blog post is in response to a video interview in which Kanye West speaks on many of his most memorable media moments including the infamous Taylor Swift stage crashing incident.  However, I wanted to concentrate on the portion of the interview where he discusses the  influence that society and the media has had on his career and the industry as a whole.  Kanye speaks of his struggle to stay creative while the media and society encourage us to conform to the standards that they deem appropriate.  In the interview he recites these thought provoking lyrics from one of his songs:

"Jesus died for our sins.  Michael [Jackson] died for the sins of our media.
Jesus had the bible, [Michael Jackson] had Wikipedia."

He goes on to explain how he fights the same battle that Michael Jackson and other brilliant minds have fought, only he does it with explanations.  And in doing so he feels as though he speaks for all creatives.  He talks about being subjected to the scrutiny of the media as well as the blogs and how that has impacted him as a person.

"I don't base my taste level on the what the trends are or what the common perception is."

In my opinion,  Kanye's non-conformance is what has made him so successful as an artist.  After all, the main goal of an artist is to be creative but the industry allows for some artist to experience success by following a certain formula or presenting the public with concepts that are not necessarily unique.

He goes on to explain his frustration with the music industry award system and how many artists do not get the recognition that they deserve.  He provides some very interesting insight into his perspective as a well respected artist in the industry and his take on the inequities that he has experienced in the industry.
He feels that his recent experiences have made him a much more expressive artist due to the fact that he has had so much taken away from him and ultimately has relieved him of the fear that suppressed his creativity.

Kanye West is a true genius.