Irv Gotti's Rap Fix Interview..Responses from an Essence POV

[Jimi Swaggart]

Thanks for posting. Great interview! He's the right man for the job. He's accomplished more than enough for a shot. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?

 

[traestar]

yea thats what I'm saying!!

 

[stupot0607]

Great Interview, i can tell he's passionate about def jam. but i doubt he'll get it for himself. but i agree the historical role Def Jam needs to play in him hop. its a solid corner and achievement for the culture.

 

[traestar]

Great Interview, i can tell he's passionate about def jam. but i doubt he'll get it for himself. but i agree the historical role Def Jam needs to play in him hop. its a solid corner and achievement for the culture.

There was a woman on twitter that put me on a petition to make Irv Gotti as president of Def Jam. One of my peoples who is a fellow emcee was like "Please help me understand why I should campaign for some rich guy to get a new job?". After explaining about the interview, he said that its not going to effect us little guys in a good way (he's an underground hip hop emcee). Now IMO both the woman and my homie are correct in their positions and goes along to what you said stupot0607, I believe and even Irv said it that they need someone FROM the industry that knows and communicates with hip hop everyday. Alot of the A&Rs out there now only care about what makes money, and they've replaced that with IMO gimmicks that really don't show much talent or drive. I don't mean to shit on the mainstream like that, because there are artists out here now that get constant plays on the radio everyday, but of those people out there are JUST them ( like Nicki Minaj, Soulja Boy, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Drake, etc) after those guys, thats basically it.

Alot of those A&Rs want the NEXT Nicki or the NEXT Drake, and are not concerned about new talent unless they've sold records. I'm not putting all my chips on Irv, but I know that he has been apart of that hip hop culture for a long time and knows whats hot and not. The real reason he hasn't been granted a chance is because of the laundering scandal in which even he said that if he really did that, he wouldn't be sitting there with Sway. Because of that * or title on his name, it tells people not to trust him (similar to how they did Mike Vick, or Mike Tyson, or Michael Jackson, or ...I hope you see where I'm going). Def Jam in the late 90's- '00s in what I call the last hurrah, was the best years in mainstream hip hop IMO and it's good for him to try to bring that back.

Now my homie is right too, because if one thing that has happened during this change in hip hop, and thats the significance of the underground hip hop culture (this Essence thread is an example of the sort grassroots hip hop culture). Now Irv's proposed move doesn't effect the underground culture of course, but of course it doesn't because it has become a bigger community within itself. Everyone that comments and shares music on here have their own story of how they have gotten into underground hip hop, they even have their own definition of what underground or indie hip hop is and sounds like. I don't know Irv's preference but I believe he's about making a change in the mainstream culture and I'm all for that, he hates to hear the same song every 5 mins. But the indie culture is so big and varied, you have an expanded artist base that some interconnect with each other. So you have the artists' collection of music plus new music they release and its easy to access.

So the homie's position is not even being concerned about the mainstream or Irv's proposed rap union(which at the time was a good idea) because he says it would only drive up already high album sales and make it even harder to get deals. He also says that the mainstream is all about money and radio and payola dictate that, so one label wouldn't change that.

 

[stupot0607]

@ Traestar

Yeah i totally agree, Noway Irv will get the position due to his convictions and run ins with the FED's. i like how he keeps saying he loves new energy in hip hop (DMX the classic example) he knows his stuff cause he's been in the game a long time. He knows what could sell and impact mainstream. at Least he would give us something a bit different artist wise. i think he might be able to push a act who could potentially break the mould. i mean when Jay was head of Def Jam he focused on R&B acts and pushed legends like LL & Meth back. although marketing and business wise you can totally see where he's coming from (although that 4:21 day after by meth was his best stuff since Tical)....

i rarely check for mainstream releases anyway...... but i think the underground needs mainstream to umbrella under, and the mainstream needs the underground to fall back on. so it does make a difference who gets it i suppose.

 

[traestar]

@ Traestar

Yeah i totally agree, Noway Irv will get the position due to his convictions and run ins with the FED's. i like how he keeps saying he loves new energy in hip hop (DMX the classic example) he knows his stuff cause he's been in the game a long time. He knows what could sell and impact mainstream. at Least he would give us something a bit different artist wise. i think he might be able to push a act who could potentially break the mould. i mean when Jay was head of Def Jam he focused on R&B acts and pushed legends like LL & Meth back. although marketing and business wise you can totally see where he's coming from (although that 4:21 day after by meth was his best stuff since Tical)....

i rarely check for mainstream releases anyway...... but i think the underground needs mainstream to umbrella under, and the mainstream needs the underground to fall back on. so it does make a difference who gets it i suppose.

Absolutely correct with that one bolded argument!!

And at the BET awards, everybody was rapping along with DMX, thats how much of an impact he's had on hip hop! (Heavy D not as much, but he's had a major impact in the early 90's) One thing I loved about the interview was that Irv was pulling no punches, talking about Jay-Z (except for the confrontation with DMX and him during backstage). It is really a shame how Jay-Z was, from his beefs to him shunning other legends from selling. (LL, DMX, Meth, etc) I think thats what also killed mainstream hip hop, too many greedy people that were out for themselves especially the higher ups and they're not doing business right!

 

[harry knucklez]

Is the full interview of this still out there? I went to the hiphopstan site but video wouldnt play at all.

 

[traestar]

Is the full interview of this still out there? I went to the hiphopstan site but video wouldnt play at all.

Check your plugins on your browser, hiphopstan is the only site that has that interview, all others are removed!

 

[CuddlyMuppet]

Neither Irv nor Dash should run Def jam

 

[traestar]

Neither Irv nor Dash should run Def jam

They don't and you see the results right now!

 

[achewon87]

I think Irv should run Def Jam, can't be any worse than when Jay was running it...lol, eating up all the other artist budgets for himself so they get no shine. As long as Irv does not give all the budget to Jeffery I think it would be a good move as Irv knows enough about the culture and I think he does respect it more than some. Funny story about Jay and X on the Mic Geronimo joint, what is even funnier is, there are a slew of rappers out now that would body Jay and that are better than him but the old man don't give a fuck now.

 

[dalyricalbandit]

i mean aint no one doing nothing at defjam might as well give irv a job

 

[traestar]

i mean aint no one doing nothing at defjam might as well give irv a job

Yea exactly why he wants the job!

 

[traestar]

wanted to bump this for reference