Rapper Trinidad James gives good interview!<\/p>\n
In 2013, I wrote about an interview he did with The Fader<\/a> four months after he signed with record label Def Jam<\/a> on the strength of his independently produced “All Gold Everything” video. He seemed like a sensible guy to me. When The Fader asked him, “Is getting a Def Jam deal kind of like winning a national championship?”, James said, “It\u2019s definitely a blessing. But the real championship is being able to keep longevity in music, and getting the deal is just the beginning. ” He continued:<\/p>\n “Getting the deal is like going to college, but to play and then win the national championship, that\u2019s like the ultimate glory. Because you can get a full ride to go to Duke or North Carolina and then not be shit. Like I can get a deal to go to Def Jam and it\u2019s cool, but if you never even put out a record? You want to be on a label where the artist works to keep going and the label works to keep pushing.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n A little more than a year later, Def Jam dropped him<\/a>. The issue of label support that he hinted at in the earlier interview came to be a problem. In an interview published by BuzzFeed<\/a> last week, James said of major labels like Def Jam “if you\u2019re gonna get behind somebody and hold them back, that\u2019s a waste of their time.” He described what happened this way:<\/p>\n “It\u2019s like being an independent store owner and then having that same independent store be inside of a mall. You can\u2019t just throw parties like you wanted to or have in-store events however you wanted to when you were in your own private place. Now that you\u2019re in the mall, you gotta ask permission because you\u2019re in somebody else\u2019s location.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n There’s no reason to turn up one’s nose at a YouTube artist.\u00a0 Justin Bieber was one of those<\/a>. But he got a lot of professional grooming and support. Meanwhile, other YouTube successes like James sign with major labels only to disappear. Azealia Banks was one of the outspoken ones<\/a>, taking to Twitter<\/a> to beg to be released from her deal with Interscope. “I’m really in hell here,” she wrote. “I’m tired of having to consult a group of old white guys about my black girl craft. They don’t even know what they’re listening for or to.” She finally got her way, secured the rights to the songs she worked on while with the label, and released her album Broke With Expensive Taste<\/em> <\/a>to good reviews<\/a>. It was three years after her video “212<\/a>” brought her to the music industry’s attention.<\/p>\n In the BuzzFeed interview, James took some responsibility for his problems with Def Jam, citing his inexperience in the industry. “I feel like I have to play catch up now as far as understanding the game and understanding how to be an artist.”\u00a0 But, he said, the big labels don’t give the emerging artists time to develop. So he has a recommendation for the next generation of YouTube artists:<\/p>\n “…what they need is just a good investor, not a major label, just a respectful, loyal, worthy investor, somebody who gets what\u2019s going on and let them be the label.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n That advice is actually applicable to a lot of creative endeavors, not just music. A big deal isn’t necessarily the best thing for your long-term success. In the fashion world, department stores can put small designers out of business by not paying for merchandise in a timely fashion. As for investors, James’s “respectful, loyal, worthy” qualities are more important than money. Go back to my 2012 post on shoe line Sigerson Morrison and award-winning menswear designer Simon Spurr <\/a>to see what can happen when investors and small-business owners don’t see eye to eye.<\/p>\n If you’re an entrepreneur of any sort, heed the lessons James is sharing … but don’t cry for Trinidad! His story has a happy ending, thanks to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, who last year sampled some the lyrics of \u201cAll Gold Everything\u201d for their long-running No. 1 single \u201cUptown Funk<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n