Nelly: Chief Keef Made Mistake With Record Deal

[McSpacey]

The rules still apply b. Lets say he records a song with a sample. What he gon do when them old cacs hit him with a law suit?


Unless you think you jus gon be a megastar by cranking out bangas messin with Fruity Loops from ya mommas basement, you gotta think about the liablities of having a music career. Jus even getting a proper radio mix and master cost like 2gs b. Where is all this money gonna come from?

Wrong. Everybody can't own the masters. If he creates the beat and owns the masters where does that leave the artist? The artist is usually the one who owns the masters to a song if the artists label doesn't own it. Besides that everyone who know's anything about industry politics knows it is the artists responsibility to clear the sample if he uses it on his project. The producer is just a work-for-hire, so the producer gets paid upfront and on the back-end via publishing since the composition of a beat is technically composition of the overall track, so essentially the producer is credited as one of the songwriters and compensated with Royalties.

 

[QuisMoney]

Everyone in this thread would sign to a major if you could.

 

[Rominati]

Wrong. Everybody can't own the masters. If he creates the beat and owns the masters where does that leave the artist? The artist is usually the one who owns the masters to a song if the artists label doesn't own it. Besides that everyone who know's anything about industry politics knows it is the artists responsibility to clear the sample if he uses it on his project. The producer is just a work-for-hire, so the producer gets paid upfront and on the back-end via publishing since the composition of a beat is technically composition of the overall track, so essentially the producer is credited as one of the songwriters and compensated with Royalties.

 

[spliz]

Nahh man. Im not here to crush nobody dreams. But like I said I used to intern. Ive seen the in's and out's of certain shyt. You can make a career off doing things indie. But it will be 100x times harder.


Most importantly getting a 360 aint the end all be all. You can still sign to a major without a 360 EASILY. You just aint gonna get as much money.


Watch this video from 10:00 on b , homie a well known DJ from around here in Harlem. He has been in the biz for YEARS. Worked with Diddy, Jay, Def Jam errybody



Interview With DJ SNS & Lil SNS At The Breakfast Club Power 105.1 - YouTube

one of the best interviews ive seen on the subject in a minute..props...

 

[Rominati]

Matta fact, neva mind. Ya'll right, times have changed. You can do it bruh. Indie is the way to go in 2013.


You can make ya shyt pop with jus Youtube and Twitter b.

 

[MegaTronBomb!]

These nikkas talking like that shyt is easy. Even with a 360 deal, hypothetically speaking lets say the label takes a 10% piece of your touring and merchandise.


Ya dumb nikkas, if ya wasnt signed to a major, how would ya even fund your TOUR n PRODUCE merchandise?


You gon buy your own tour bus?, hire your own driver? Book all those hotel spots? And holla at a clothing company to make your shirts and stuff all by yaself on ya own dime? All the while paying for insurance at these large venus?


I used to party promote, insurance at a small club alone is like $10,000 lol


Some of ya need to be realistic with this shyt b lol

shyt, just pressing up 50,000 CD's is gonna cost types of money that the average Indy artist can't afford.

you're looking at almost 40k just to even put out a physical copy of an album..

after that...are you gonna just sell them out the trunk, or broker up a deal with local retailers.. you gonna have an online site? who's gonna be shipping the albums to people?


i think people are so caught up in the idea of being their own boss, that they forget exactly how much work/money goes into it.

 

[nalej]

Chief Keef probably doesn't know how to calculate 1% of 100,000.

 

[McSpacey]

Nahh man. Im not here to crush nobody dreams. But like I said I used to intern. Ive seen the in's and out's of certain shyt. You can make a career off doing things indie. But it will be 100x times harder.

Most importantly getting a 360 aint the end all be all. You can still sign to a major without a 360 EASILY. You just aint gonna get as much money.

Watch this video from 10:00 on b , homie a well known DJ from around here in Harlem. He has been in the biz for YEARS. Worked with Diddy, Jay, Def Jam errybody

Interview With DJ SNS & Lil SNS At The Breakfast Club Power 105.1 - YouTube

Just watched the video you suggested and this is what I heard:

Angela Yee: What would you think is a ideal situation for Lil SNS to be in?

SNS: Uh.. NOT doing a 360 deal, they can keep that. I rather go independent than that.

Angela Yee: It's hard to do a deal now if it's not a 360

SNS: No, not really

He even commented on Chief Keef saying:

"I looked at the structure of his deal and he was doomed from the start"

why did you point me to this video when it just validates what I been saying?

I give you the part where he said Chief Keef was making 20k a show, but that's below the radar of the label. To a major 20k is peanuts. Under the terms of a 360 if they wanted to they could take it, but they're after the big pay days. It's like how you could do odd jobs under the table/off the books and avoid paying taxes, but once you really start making money and it isn't accounted for you're gonna have some problems on your hands. If he got to the point where he was making 150k a show like I heard Drake and Kanye make you don't think the label will be coming for their cut? That's basically what I'm saying about the 50 deal. He allegedly made 100 million off the vitamin water deal, you don't think those cacs would've tried to scheme their way into getting a cut off that deal especially if they have paperwork that could justify it?

And at the end of the day if signing a 360 deal is so beneficial for the artist like you say how come he is only making 20k a show when there is artists like Drake, and Kendrick who are from his same generation and make a lot more, but didn't have to sign a 360 deal?

Matta fact, neva mind. Ya'll right, times have changed. You can do it bruh. Indie is the way to go in 2013.

You can make ya shyt pop with jus Youtube and Twitter b.

Who is saying all you need is a Youtube and Twitter account? It is absolutely ridiculous to assume that.

Let's just agree to disagree

 

[threattonature]

Everyone in this thread would sign to a major if you could.

I think the big question is are you trying to make money strictly off music or trying to use music to open up other avenues. If I was trying to make money off music I think I'd be on the grind trying to go the independent route. Yes being on a label can help make you a star but doing so can also completely cripple your career. If you make music the label deems not marketable or they just don't know what to do with you then you can fukk around and sit on the shelf and kill any buzz you had. I'd rather take my chances grinding locally and slowly building and expanding.

But me personally I would sign to a major with the hopes of using the stardom to open other doors. Go the Ludacris/Mos Def route and study acting as well or use my stardom for endorsment or to put me in touch with the right people who can open up a whole new world of opportunity. I would so expecting not to make as much money off of music outside of tours. To reach that level of popularity though you definitely need a major behind you and be prepared to grind either route.

 

[McSpacey]

Did a quick Google. Just incase anyone is interested...



"If you're a producer and concerned about sampling; don't be."

"When I've sold sample-based beats to major labels they send over the contract, but then they also send over something called the sample-replay form. Sometimes they wanna know the sample information. They wanna know who you sampled, what the name of the song was, the album the song was on, what's the name of the label that released the song, the year it was released, so they're legal department can handle everything. They're not expecting someone who makes 100 beats a day to clear every sample."

 

[Majestic Pape]

mac miller must be making some serious money mountain dew deals and gold singles

Not all rappers are fortunate enough to be born white.

 

[MegaTronBomb!]

And at the end of the day if signing a 360 deal is so beneficial for the artist like you say how come he is only making 20k a show when there is artists like Drake, and Kendrick who are from his same generation and make a lot more, but didn't have to sign a 360 deal?

Drake is 2 albums in,about to drop his 3rd.. has had radio hits, is on Cash Money, and has the album sales,coverage to justify what he's gets a show.

Kendrick already has the critical acclaim, full label backing, radio spins and has leverage to do things his way.

at this point.. for what reason would Chief Keef be getting Drake/Kendrick money?

 

[Malik]

shyt, just pressing up 50,000 CD's is gonna cost types of money that the average Indy artist can't afford.

you're looking at almost 40k just to even put out a physical copy of an album..

after that...are you gonna just sell them out the trunk, or broker up a deal with local retailers.. you gonna have an online site? who's gonna be shipping the albums to people?


i think people are so caught up in the idea of being their own boss, that they forget exactly how much work/money goes into it.

These nikkas talking like that shyt is easy. Even with a 360 deal, hypothetically speaking lets say the label takes a 10% piece of your touring and merchandise.


Ya dumb nikkas, if ya wasnt signed to a major, how would ya even fund your TOUR n PRODUCE merchandise?


You gon buy your own tour bus?, hire your own driver? Book all those hotel spots? And holla at a clothing company to make your shirts and stuff all by yaself on ya own dime? All the while paying for insurance at these large venus?


I used to party promote, insurance at a small club alone is like $10,000 lol


Some of ya need to be realistic with this shyt b lol

You nikkas tryna make this shyt sound harder than it really it is. Its no harder than starting a business.


You think Meek Mill started off by dropping Dreamchasers or did he drop multiple mixtapes to jump start his career? You think Wiz dropped Kush & Orange Juice or was he bubbling for years before that? It cost Meek nothing to record The Real Me or Mr. Philadelphia. It cost Wiz nothing to record Prince of Pistolvania. You obviously dont jump out the gate doing large venues, driving elaborate tour buses & hiring huge street teams. You start small, make your return, then reinvest.


If you an artist, drop a couple mixtapes & videos to introduce yourself (e.g, what ASAP & Chief Keef did, what nikkas like Vinnie Cha$e doing now), get your buzz to the point that you can do shows locally. You should be getting anywhere from 2-5 stacks per show. I remember Meek used to get that back in his earlier days. After you've dropped 2-4 mixtapes, focus on getting your next mixtape to blow (e.g., KOJ, So Far Gone, The Warmup, Overly Dedicated), put everything into that project.....if you can get to that point, you can charge more to tour......if you as hot as you think you are, at that point, you'd be at where Drake was at during those label bidding wars You should have the visibility and some money at that point. If you can't scrape up $50,000 to record an album at that point, you've been mismanaging your funds somewhere along the line

 

[MegaTronBomb!]

You nikkas tryna make this shyt sound harder than it really it is. Its no harder than starting a business.


You think Meek Mill started off by dropping Dreamchasers or did he drop multiple mixtapes to jump start his career? You think Wiz dropped Kush & Orange Juice or was he bubbling for years before that? It cost Meek nothing to record The Real Me or Mr. Philadelphia. It cost Wiz nothing to record Prince of Pistolvania. You obviously dont jump out the gate doing large venues, driving elaborate tour buses & hiring huge street teams. You start small, make your return, then reinvest.


If you an artist, drop a couple mixtapes & videos to introduce yourself (e.g, what ASAP & Chief Keef did, what nikkas like Vinnie Cha$e doing now), get your buzz to the point that you can do shows locally. You should be getting anywhere from 2-5 stacks per show. I remember Meek used to get that back in his earlier days. After you've dropped 2-4 mixtapes, focus on getting your next mixtape to blow (e.g., KOJ, So Far Gone, The Warmup, Overly Dedicated), put everything into that project.....if you can get to that point, you can charge more to tour......if you as hot as you think you are, at that point, you'd be at where Drake was at during those label bidding wars You should have the visibility and some money at that point. If you can't scrape up $50,000 to record an album at that point, you've been mismanaging your funds somewhere along the line

"it's not different than starting a business"

you do know that it's a reality that most businesses fail?

you just used a terrible argument... Wiz already had a major label deal years before he dropped Kush & Orange Juice.

on top of that, he was already signed to Atlantic when that came out..

There was no "bidding war" for Drake... that was just a tactic to draw interest in him, and it worked.


you're over simplifying it...

 

[McSpacey]

Drake is 2 albums in,about to drop his 3rd.. has had radio hits, is on Cash Money, and has the album sales,coverage to justify what he's gets a show.

Kendrick already has the critical acclaim, full label backing, radio spins and has leverage to do things his way.

at this point.. for what reason would Chief Keef be getting Drake/Kendrick money?

Breh, Drake's deal isn't up he hasn't renegotiated yet therefore the deal that he is in now is the exact same deal he came in with. Meaning before he had a 2 album sales history he was able to negotiate a contract that was in his favor (or at least fair). You are correct with Kendrick, but who's fault is it that Chief Keef didn't do the same? Kendrick dropped Section.80 independently. He could have taken a deal a dropped it with a label, but he didn't. He only sold 5k first week, but he was establishing a sales history and showed labels that he could be profitable with or without them, so if they wanted to get down with his movement they had to be fair and not treat him like any artist just walking off the street who they jerk.

The thing that Nelly is saying in this video and what I'm backing up is Keef was HOT already! He already had a million youtube views, was getting radio play in the CHI, had a Kanye West co-sign, was doing shows, had a movement, etc. If he would have stayed on the indie grind to establish a sales history to show labels that he was ready, willing, and capable of doing it on his own then he would have had leverage walking into those meetings. Who's fault is it that he didn't wait it out?

Drake had a co-sign from a Weezy that was on top of the world and a major following from his Degrassi days, so he wasn't just some regular dude begging for a deal. J Cole has a 360 deal, but he had ZERO buzz. When he was introduced to the game via his first mixtape he was marketed and promoted as "the first artist Jay Z signed to Roc Nation", so in his case a 360 was beneficial because for whatever reason he had the talent, but couldn't do it on his own. Keef on the other hand may not have the lyrical talent that Cole has, but he was successful at getting himself hot. Like I stated earlier I understand his decission because going indie isn't for everybody. You have to be highly educated to do it, but just commenting on what Nelly said, if Keef could have done it it would have been very beneficial and he was on his way.