OK this has to be the single greatest news in new Hip-Hop history!!! I geeked all over the house when I read the article. If you can not tell by the title then you are pretty dim. My favorite two man group, while besides Little Brother has left on of the worst majors for Hip-Hop to one that is turning out to be the best. That's right folks those Clipse boys have left the house that Clive Davis and LA Reid built for the house that Rick Rubin and Hip-Hop (famous for managing Just Blaze and Kanye West) are rebuilding.
So here is how it happened. It has kind of been a slow process but good things come to those who wait. Everybody knows by now the kind of drama the Clipse, The Neptunes, and Star Trak (The Neptunes label) had with releasing the Clipse second album Hell Hath No Fury. If you don't I will do a quick run down for you. The Clipse first album Lord Willin came out in the summer of 2002. With the hit “Grindin'” and “When the Last Time” fueling the album it quickly became a classic album and certified gold in its first month and the Clipse became a household name. The album also took The Neptunes sky rocketing into super producer-dom as they became the go to guys for any album. And the star of the label got even brighter when The Neptunes released there Attack of the Clones album. But when the Clipse started working on material for their second album things went into a full stop.
The Neptunes and their Star Trak label along with artist the Clipse, Kelis, Fam-Lay on Def Jam, and N.E.R.D on Virgin got caught in the Jive being redone by their parent label Zomba. The merger caused all of the project for Star Trak to be halted. The contract tie up with Jive resulted in a four year hold up for the Clipse album, Kelis leaving the label, Fam-Lay's debut on Def Jam to never happen, and N.E.R.D to have problems with Virgin Records resulting in them leaving the label. Star Trak did not take long to get back up though The Neptunes signed a label deal for their artist with power house label Interscope who also has Dr.Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, Timbaland's Mosley Music Group, and Swizz Beats' Full Surface. But in order to do that The Neptunes had to leave Kelis and the Clipse on previous parent label Jive because those two acts already had steady contracts. When the Clipse, Star Trak, and Jive finally worked out a deal for the Hell Hath No Fury album it was a bitter sweet one. The Clipse were no longer signed to Star Trak, but would still have the album produced by The Neptunes, and the album would be distributed by the Clipse label Re-Up Records and Jive. The album that finally came out after four years and two dated push backs was a dark, brooding album that got tons of praise and another classic rating. Despite the classic rating and rave reviews the album was a commercial disappointment not striking gold like the last but straight lead with a mere 78,000 copies sold. But while Jive had cut them off before the album was even dropped someone was paying attention.
Hip-Hop the man famous for constructing Jay-Z's Blueprint album and for taking two unknowns by the names of Just Blaze and Kanye West and turning them into the elite of new school Hip-Hop producers, was paying attention to the Clipse boys. Also a man by the name of Rick Rubin was paying attention to Hip Hop and the work he was doing and called him to be President of Columbia Urban, the label that Rick Rubin was redoing. As a side bar, if you do not know who Rick Rubin is delete every Hip-Hop/Rap song on your iPod and don't put them back on till you know who this man is and what he has done. Ok back to the editorial. So with Hip Hop becoming the new president of a urban department that has seen its share of trouble he automatically started recruiting. He had his eyes set on Jim Jones, Remy Ma, and the Clipse to start out with. It seems Hip Hop's dream starters started arriving before anyone could blink. Jim Jones was the first to sign. His deal resulted in a joint deal between Koch and Columbia, in which Koch handled all of the radio promotion and marketing with Columbia handling distribution and everything else. Not even a week and a half later the Clipse were official signed. The Clipse deal resulted in distribution for their Re-Up label and deal for them and their artist. Now as a result the Clipse plan on releasing an album in 2009 along with a Re-Up Gang (the Clipse, SandMan, and Ab-Liva) album. Also their new album is not only being worked on by The Neptunes, but also fellow VA producers Timbaland and Danja, and Dame Grease.
Here is also something interesting, not even a week after the Clipse were dropped by Jive and picked up by Columbia, former labelmate Kelis was also dropped from Jive. And a few months ago Papoose who was suppose to be Jive's poster child was also dropped even though he signed a multi-million dollar deal. So is Jive weeding out there core urban department? I mean they still have UGK, T-Pain, Chris Brown, The Pack, Ciara, Anthony Hamilton, Huey, J-Kwon, Dre, Donell Jones, Lil Mama, OutKast, R.Kelly, Sean P. of the YoungBloodz, Too $hort, and Usher. Now their actually cash cows are R.Kelly, OutKast, Usher, Chris Brown, T-Pain, and maybe Ciara. But the rest are expendable. Like Jive does not even need a urban department at all. And what about Columbia? They have DMX, John Legend, Beyonce, Three Six Mafia, Bow Wow, Ray Cash, and Omarion...really as far as Hip-Hop goes Columbia is a little light. So things are changing the industry again. Some for the better, some for the worst.
Aight Lil X is signing off!!! Enjoy!!! I'm out like ummmm ummmm damn!!! I'm running out of stuff to say!!! Uggggg!! I'm out...
Xcalibur Prime
