"I saved DEF JAM" - Redman

[OnlyInCalifornia]

come on cali...you're a businessman yourself...

one word OVERHEAD...... if you read THE BIG PAYBACK book and that other text DEF JAM INC. that was a common theme with def jam during the 90s...big budgets and uneccesary expenses

for every gold or platinum act they also yielded 3 or more acts that were total flops.......

like the Flatlinerz and your "favorite" South Central cartel ...just joking

I don't think they were going broke every year is what I am getting at.

WC, Warren G, Redman, LL, DMX....all these guys 'saved' def jam from going under. It sounds cool. I doubt it is true. Especially since a company that big could borrow money.

 

[Surreal]

Reg bought the streets to mainstream on the East with his gully videos and guns all in videos when West Coast was winning. He made it safe for DMXs out there to blow up

 

[KENNY DA COOKER]

I don't think they were going broke every year is what I am getting at.

WC, Warren G, Redman, LL, DMX....all these guys 'saved' def jam from going under. It sounds cool. I doubt it is true. Especially since a company that big could borrow money.

Borrowing money is what got them in trouble in the first place since their first distribution deal Russel and Rick Rubin had with Sony/CBS in the 1980s when they had Public enemy and the beastie boys...

all those advances just kept eating away at their equity....by 98 at the time of the sale to Universal ...Polygram already had a 60 percent stake in the def jam brand.......

and within the next fukking year....Universal already ponied up the 100 million to buy that 40% share that russell sold them

a sad day for the "culture" of hip hop

Seagram in Talks to Buy Remaining Stake in Def Jam for $100 Million


Seagram in Talks to Buy Remaining Stake in Def Jam for $100 Million
Music: A deal for the 40% of the black record label the company doesn't own could be struck next week, sources say.
February 19, 1999|CHUCK PHILIPS | TIMES STAFF WRITER
Seagram Co. entered advanced talks this week to pay about $100 million for the remaining 40% of Def Jam Music Group that it doesn't already own, sources said.

Although several elements of the deal are still unresolved and there is a remote chance that the pact could unravel, sources predicted that an agreement is likely to be consummated as early as next week. Def Jam--currently the hottest record label in the music business--was previously 60% owned by PolyGram, which Seagram purchased in December for $10.4 billion.

Last month, Seagram's Universal Music Group restructured its U.S. record division and combined Mercury with Island and Def Jam to form one of its two major outposts on the East Coast. Sources said Seagram has plans to turn Def Jam into the black music arm of the newly restructured unit, where Def Jam Chief Executive Lyor Cohen is expected to take on expanded duties. Label founder Russell Simmons will retain his title as chairman of Def Jam.

 

[Tom Foolery]

this is exactly when his career started declining....while Red and Jay released classic lps (muddy waters and life and times vol 1)

LL dropped the pitiful and barely platinum "Phenomenon" lp......only good thing about that lp was the posse cut featuring ..Meth..Red..Dmx and Canibus (4,3,2,1)

LL was no longer the def jam cash cow by this time in 1996

Phenomenon dropped in late '97.....and still went platinum with hit singles. This is well after Muddy Waters.

'96 was still Mr. Smith and All World. Plus Foxy.

 

[I love Latina women]

this is exactly when his career started declining....while Red and Jay released classic lps (muddy waters and life and times vol 1)

LL dropped the pitiful and barely platinum "Phenomenon" lp......only good thing about that lp was the posse cut featuring ..Meth..Red..Dmx and Canibus (4,3,2,1)

LL was no longer the def jam cash cow by this time in 1996

Vol. 1 ain't no damn classic

 

[Piff Huxtable]

low key Michael McDonald saved Def Jam

 

[Jerz-2]

every def jam personality has thier "i saved def jam story"....LL....DMX....DAME DASH...IRV...

That's cause Lyor the Liar probably told them ALL that, with his snake ass.

 

[FromBillionsCameOne]

im starting to think so too...........

every def jam personality has thier "i saved def jam story"....LL....DMX....DAME DASH...IRV...


when in reality i hate to say this....but Russell said bottom line ..it was Lyor that kept def jam afloat...particularly when they lost that 50% stake to Polygram in 1992....lyor was involved in every "salvation moment" from warren g to jay z...to murder inc and beyond....

Lost? They sold the shyt

 

[KENNY DA COOKER]

That's cause Lyor the Liar probably told them ALL that, with his snake ass.

Exaxtly!!!!

 

[Kool]

If anybody should get credit for saving Def Jam when they weren't doing so well financially it should be Warren G.

 

[Cynic]

Im confused on how a label could have so many gold and platinum plaques running out of money every single year.

Legal, sample clearances, overhead nevermind the budgets

 

[Jplaya2023]

low key Michael McDonald saved Def Jam

they keep forgetting....

 

[gluvnast]

Warren G "saved" Def Jam when the label was on the verge of bankruptcy. Reggie Noble, by his own admission that during 1994 he was in a bad space with too much drugs and being unfocused. Plus his 2nd album came out in late 1994 whereas Regulate back out months earlier. I think he like to think he "save" the label, but even it wouldn't of been Warren G, Method Man came out the same month as Redman and was the bigger smash all the way around. So.... no, Redman wasn't the label's "savior".

 

[tuckgod]

That's cause Lyor the Liar probably told them ALL that, with his snake ass.

That’s called being a good coach

 

[Ghostface Trillah]

Redman did save Def Jam. They had nothing moving before Reds first album. All the acts they put out had flopped.