Some Aftermath rumors...............

[Meho]

Why should people care about Aftermath as a label anymore? They dont put out any projects and if they do, they aren't that great. A GREAT label would be putting out records without fear. Oh and when was the last time Dre produced a hit?

Crack A Bottle couple months ago.

[SoilSavy707]

Why should people care about Aftermath as a label anymore? They dont put out any projects and if they do, they aren't that great. A GREAT label would be putting out records without fear. Oh and when was the last time Dre produced a hit?

Crack A Bottle couple months ago.

I'm talking some classic shit, not some bullshit that comes and goes.

[Jimmy H.]

I'm talking some classic shit, not some bullshit that comes and goes.

That's all objective though. If I were to say people still bump Eminem or 50 Cent's shit, I'm sure somebody would say it was only pop fans or suburban white kids or something like that. The biggest-selling hip-hop album of this year was released on Aftermath. Nearly the entire album was produced by Dr. Dre. That is the last time Dre had a hit. But I see your point, Dre isn't relevant. I mean, who is talking about him on these boards at all? I mean, it's not like anybody is still talking about The Chronic or Doggystyle or asking about old songs from those days. I mean, "A GREAT label would be putting out records without fear." Like what label? This isn't the 90's. You drop an album and it don't do the projected numbers, that's three artists who get dropped and a whole bunch of label people who lose their jobs. It's easy for someone behind a keyboard to comment on this and we can all argue about what we'd do if we had this or that but we don't and have zero idea of the consequences behind making these kind of decisions. As a counter-argument, who is dropping albums like No Limit in '98 these days? If Aftermath is the fucking punchline, who is the hip-hop super-label that is embarassing them with non-stop hit records and major new artists?

[k-dogg]

Way to shut that fool down Jimmy H......I mean fools need to realize that shit done changed forever in the industry...You can add Bad Boy along with No Limit back in the day but even with all Puff/Diddy Combs connections, Bad Boy is just as bad as Aftermath these days as far as dropping more rappers than releasing new music. 

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

yeah they want what sells now but not what sells tomorrow otherwise imagine ROYCE, BLACK MILK, LA COKA NOSTRA, TECH N9NE ETC...ALL ON A MAJOR SCALE...be crazy but the jews dont want the real talent but rather have that young joc, wayne, lil bow wow, tpain wack shit

JACK YA PLAQUES AND PUT EM DOWN ON EBAY

FUCK THA INDUSTRY


and muffuccaz think signin with a label is a good thing or somethin to go round speakin highly of....til this shit like this happens or in the case of real life NUTHIN HAPPENS and you have to walk away jus like rakim, king t, stat quo etc...

Way to shut that fool down Jimmy H......I mean fools need to realize that shit done changed forever in the industry...You can add Bad Boy along with No Limit back in the day but even with all Puff/Diddy Combs connections, Bad Boy is just as bad as Aftermath these days as far as dropping more rappers than releasing new music.  

[Jimmy H.]

yeah they want what sells now but not what sells tomorrow otherwise imagine ROYCE, BLACK MILK, LA COKA NOSTRA, TECH N9NE ETC...ALL ON A MAJOR SCALE...be crazy but the jews dont want the real talent but rather have that young joc, wayne, lil bow wow, tpain wack shit

JACK YA PLAQUES AND PUT EM DOWN ON EBAY

FUCK THA INDUSTRY

and muffuccaz think signin with a label is a good thing or somethin to go round speakin highly of....til this shit like this happens or in the case of real life NUTHIN HAPPENS and you have to walk away jus like rakim, king t, stat quo etc...
 

But who's to say that stuff is gonna sell tomorrow? It's a bad time for the industry. Period. I think a comment like "the jews dont want the real talent" shows a relative ignorance to the real problem. The music industry has always been a mother fucker! What can you do? 

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

yeah but see someone like tech...imagine if he had the support years ago to build his empire etc....he could have been a bigger name but the industry never wants to take a chance on something other than sounds wack 2 us but "dope to them" as if young joc, lil bow wow are dope lol but thats what they think
yeah it might not sell but IMO it would sell more than the 22,000 he sold in his first week
but its too late and tech would be bowin down to someone that didnt do nuthin for him in the beginnin in which hes at a place where he can release muzik now how he wants without jimmy sayin nah nah you need tpain on this etc....
look at game, look at 50, look at dre people trippin if they think these rappers are their own bosses

yeah they want what sells now but not what sells tomorrow otherwise imagine ROYCE, BLACK MILK, LA COKA NOSTRA, TECH N9NE ETC...ALL ON A MAJOR SCALE...be crazy but the jews dont want the real talent but rather have that young joc, wayne, lil bow wow, tpain wack shit

JACK YA PLAQUES AND PUT EM DOWN ON EBAY

FUCK THA INDUSTRY

and muffuccaz think signin with a label is a good thing or somethin to go round speakin highly of....til this shit like this happens or in the case of real life NUTHIN HAPPENS and you have to walk away jus like rakim, king t, stat quo etc...
 

But who's to say that stuff is gonna sell tomorrow? It's a bad time for the industry. Period. I think a comment like "the jews dont want the real talent" shows a relative ignorance to the real problem. The music industry has always been a mother fucker! What can you do? 

[Jimmy H.]

But of the artists you named, at least Dre and 50 understood the politics of the game. The music business itself may have been dropped on its head in the last few years but the industry politics have always been what they've been. Dre, for the most part, seems content with working under Jimmy. He's making money, gets to be left alone to make his music, and doesn't have to deal with the business hassles. From what others have said about Dre, that seems to be how he likes to work. His arguments with Ruthless and Death Row seemed to have more stemmed from not getting what he felt he was owed. With the arguments, it seems like a lot of hearsay to me. Obviously, Jimmy runs the show over there but if it all just came down to Dre being Jimmy's bitch, we would have had probably twelve Detox albums by now because Jimmy sure isn't making any money by Dre taking his sweet-ass time to make this record. Dre may not be the owner or boss over there but it sounds to me like he's getting what he wants. He doesn't have to handle the issues of running the business end but is left alone to make music how he wants.

In terms of other artists, yes, there is a compromise in dealing with the majors. But that is the way the story has always gone. 50 came into his Interscope deal with one of the best offers he could possibly get and that's because he showed what he could make on his own without Interscope. That's what it comes down to. It's the music BUSINESS. If you're walking into a two-million dollar deal and you've never generated two million dollars in your life then the guy with the bank book is probably gonna make a lot of the calls. There is a good and bad to everything. Some artists work great at being artists and others have more of a business sense. In the case of Tech, he seems to be doing good on his own.

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

tech is doin good, but who helped him? noone IMO
even tho he gives credit to yuk which is comedy to me cuz tech has accomplished more than yuk and many more artists
but tech didnt wait around for a handout and is now a force, of course along the way he made wrong moves and to this day is payin for it<<<<<accordin to himself
so its dre's fault then otherwise why would you want to release a masterpiece album by RAKIM?
who gives a fuck if it doesnt sell a million the first week?
forget stat, joel, hittman, etc... but RAKIM? 
DRE FUCKED UP RIGHT THERE

[Jimmy H.]

tech is doin good, but who helped him? noone IMO
even tho he gives credit to yuk which is comedy to me cuz tech has accomplished more than yuk and many more artists
but tech didnt wait around for a handout and is now a force, of course along the way he made wrong moves and to this day is payin for it<<<<<accordin to himself
so its dre's fault then otherwise why would you want to release a masterpiece album by RAKIM?
who gives a fuck if it doesnt sell a million the first week?
forget stat, joel, hittman, etc... but RAKIM? 
DRE FUCKED UP RIGHT THERE

But who says it would have been a masterpiece? Yes, Rakim is a legendary rapper. Yes, Dre is a legendary producer. But that doesn't automatically mean they will work well together. From all I've heard on the subject, Dre did not drop Rakim. They both decided that they wanted different things from the project. If such is the case, that's already the formula for a subpar album. It sounds great on paper to have a new Rakim album produced by Dre but if one doesn't like the other's ideas, what the fuck is the point?

Everyone has the view point of how it shouldn't be about what sells and why not release it because it's Dre but he dropped "Big Bang" which was a phenominal record and the general public still views it as an "L" for him. If Dre had dropped Busta from the label before it was released and those songs had dropped on the Internet or came up through an independent label like King T or Hittman's Aftermath albums then everyone would say, "Dre is a fucking idiot. Why didn't he put out Busta's album. That thing would have been huge". So who the fuck can really say what's gonna be a hit and what isn't. 

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

but IMO rakim was a different case than any other artist
nwo of course dre/jimmy etc..they gon do what makes the most money and not what the fans want, even tho some of the same fans have been down since day 1
but a rakim album executived produced by dr. dre could have very well been one of the greatest albums of all time if executed the right way
now does that mean, if a nobody or someone else less known comes along and makes a rakim album it wont be the greatest album of all time?  it doesnt mean that, but chances of them gettin the best of rakim are slim (CHANCES OF THEM GETTIN WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A DRE/RAKIM FINAL PRODUCT ARE SLIM)
my point is this rakim album IMO should have been dre's priority cuz it was one of the rare cases this might have ever happened
that busta album is aite but that rakim album was already comin together as somethin else
difference IMO is the production made the album for busta not busta's DOPE vocals
but wit rakim its different cuz hes one of a kind, and the twos chemistry together would have been like some say HEAVEN IMO
i agree with some of the points you bring up, but IMO this rakim case is different than any other aftermath case

tech is doin good, but who helped him? noone IMO
even tho he gives credit to yuk which is comedy to me cuz tech has accomplished more than yuk and many more artists
but tech didnt wait around for a handout and is now a force, of course along the way he made wrong moves and to this day is payin for it<<<<<accordin to himself
so its dre's fault then otherwise why would you want to release a masterpiece album by RAKIM?
who gives a fuck if it doesnt sell a million the first week?
forget stat, joel, hittman, etc... but RAKIM? 
DRE FUCKED UP RIGHT THERE

But who says it would have been a masterpiece? Yes, Rakim is a legendary rapper. Yes, Dre is a legendary producer. But that doesn't automatically mean they will work well together. From all I've heard on the subject, Dre did not drop Rakim. They both decided that they wanted different things from the project. If such is the case, that's already the formula for a subpar album. It sounds great on paper to have a new Rakim album produced by Dre but if one doesn't like the other's ideas, what the fuck is the point?

Everyone has the view point of how it shouldn't be about what sells and why not release it because it's Dre but he dropped "Big Bang" which was a phenominal record and the general public still views it as an "L" for him. If Dre had dropped Busta from the label before it was released and those songs had dropped on the Internet or came up through an independent label like King T or Hittman's Aftermath albums then everyone would say, "Dre is a fucking idiot. Why didn't he put out Busta's album. That thing would have been huge". So who the fuck can really say what's gonna be a hit and what isn't. 

[SoilSavy707]

Dre makes it real easy for west coast people to not give a shit about aftermath and some bullshit rumors. Dre doesn't rep the west coast like he once did. I am not saying he has never, or he is not doing what is right for him to make his pockets fat. This is about what he has done lately for the west. And by the way, there is a label on the east that puts out record after record. Have you heard of Def Jam? At least they support their artists and not just drop them.

[Booz]

but IMO rakim was a different case than any other artist
nwo of course dre/jimmy etc..they gon do what makes the most money and not what the fans want, even tho some of the same fans have been down since day 1
but a rakim album executived produced by dr. dre could have very well been one of the greatest albums of all time if executed the right way
now does that mean, if a nobody or someone else less known comes along and makes a rakim album it wont be the greatest album of all time?  it doesnt mean that, but chances of them gettin the best of rakim are slim (CHANCES OF THEM GETTIN WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A DRE/RAKIM FINAL PRODUCT ARE SLIM)
my point is this rakim album IMO should have been dre's priority cuz it was one of the rare cases this might have ever happened
that busta album is aite but that rakim album was already comin together as somethin else
difference IMO is the production made the album for busta not busta's DOPE vocals
but wit rakim its different cuz hes one of a kind, and the twos chemistry together would have been like some say HEAVEN IMO
i agree with some of the points you bring up, but IMO this rakim case is different than any other aftermath case

tech is doin good, but who helped him? noone IMO
even tho he gives credit to yuk which is comedy to me cuz tech has accomplished more than yuk and many more artists
but tech didnt wait around for a handout and is now a force, of course along the way he made wrong moves and to this day is payin for it<<<<<accordin to himself
so its dre's fault then otherwise why would you want to release a masterpiece album by RAKIM?
who gives a fuck if it doesnt sell a million the first week?
forget stat, joel, hittman, etc... but RAKIM? 
DRE FUCKED UP RIGHT THERE

But who says it would have been a masterpiece? Yes, Rakim is a legendary rapper. Yes, Dre is a legendary producer. But that doesn't automatically mean they will work well together. From all I've heard on the subject, Dre did not drop Rakim. They both decided that they wanted different things from the project. If such is the case, that's already the formula for a subpar album. It sounds great on paper to have a new Rakim album produced by Dre but if one doesn't like the other's ideas, what the fuck is the point?

Everyone has the view point of how it shouldn't be about what sells and why not release it because it's Dre but he dropped "Big Bang" which was a phenominal record and the general public still views it as an "L" for him. If Dre had dropped Busta from the label before it was released and those songs had dropped on the Internet or came up through an independent label like King T or Hittman's Aftermath albums then everyone would say, "Dre is a fucking idiot. Why didn't he put out Busta's album. That thing would have been huge". So who the fuck can really say what's gonna be a hit and what isn't. 

It would've been some fake gangsta tough talk shit, Rakim already said he wasn't feeling Dre giving him instructions on what to rap about. Dre is about making hit records and Rakim is not (well not without any content at least).

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

yeah i mean im against that too...if i were a god mc like rakim id be mad as fuck someone tellin me this 50 cent duke is gon write me lryics, theres no way in hell that would match up cuz 50 will never ever be what rakim is...to this day even, and you can give him the edge as bein better than his number 1 ENEMY gameface but damn still i mean that holy you are song is somethin else and with dre's input, could have been somethin outta this world

but IMO rakim was a different case than any other artist
nwo of course dre/jimmy etc..they gon do what makes the most money and not what the fans want, even tho some of the same fans have been down since day 1
but a rakim album executived produced by dr. dre could have very well been one of the greatest albums of all time if executed the right way
now does that mean, if a nobody or someone else less known comes along and makes a rakim album it wont be the greatest album of all time?  it doesnt mean that, but chances of them gettin the best of rakim are slim (CHANCES OF THEM GETTIN WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A DRE/RAKIM FINAL PRODUCT ARE SLIM)
my point is this rakim album IMO should have been dre's priority cuz it was one of the rare cases this might have ever happened
that busta album is aite but that rakim album was already comin together as somethin else
difference IMO is the production made the album for busta not busta's DOPE vocals
but wit rakim its different cuz hes one of a kind, and the twos chemistry together would have been like some say HEAVEN IMO
i agree with some of the points you bring up, but IMO this rakim case is different than any other aftermath case

tech is doin good, but who helped him? noone IMO
even tho he gives credit to yuk which is comedy to me cuz tech has accomplished more than yuk and many more artists
but tech didnt wait around for a handout and is now a force, of course along the way he made wrong moves and to this day is payin for it<<<<<accordin to himself
so its dre's fault then otherwise why would you want to release a masterpiece album by RAKIM?
who gives a fuck if it doesnt sell a million the first week?
forget stat, joel, hittman, etc... but RAKIM? 
DRE FUCKED UP RIGHT THERE

But who says it would have been a masterpiece? Yes, Rakim is a legendary rapper. Yes, Dre is a legendary producer. But that doesn't automatically mean they will work well together. From all I've heard on the subject, Dre did not drop Rakim. They both decided that they wanted different things from the project. If such is the case, that's already the formula for a subpar album. It sounds great on paper to have a new Rakim album produced by Dre but if one doesn't like the other's ideas, what the fuck is the point?

Everyone has the view point of how it shouldn't be about what sells and why not release it because it's Dre but he dropped "Big Bang" which was a phenominal record and the general public still views it as an "L" for him. If Dre had dropped Busta from the label before it was released and those songs had dropped on the Internet or came up through an independent label like King T or Hittman's Aftermath albums then everyone would say, "Dre is a fucking idiot. Why didn't he put out Busta's album. That thing would have been huge". So who the fuck can really say what's gonna be a hit and what isn't. 

It would've been some fake gangsta tough talk shit, Rakim already said he wasn't feeling Dre giving him instructions on what to rap about. Dre is about making hit records and Rakim is not (well not without any content at least).

[Jimmy H.]

There's as much politics and artist issues at Def Jam as there are at any major label and comparing it to Aftermath is apples and oranges. Aftermath is a sub-label of Interscope so it's not run in the same capacity as a Def Jam. Def Jam is not associated from a label standpoint as being the extention of an artist or producer's brand name in the same sense that Aftermath is to Dre or G-Unit to 50, so on and so forth. The difference being that executives are put in charge of different aspects of each project. At Aftermath, for an album to come out, it is expected to have not only a bulk of the production handled by Dre but he's also expected to oversee it. Same deal with Bad Boy, Roc-A-Fella, Murder Inc., etc. I don't know where you get the idea that Def Jam just supports their artists and doesn't drop them because there are plenty of artists that will say otherwise. Maybe I've just been somewhere else, but who are the big stars over there at Def Jam right now? What are the big projects?

Dre makes it real easy for west coast people to not give a shit about aftermath and some bullshit rumors. Dre doesn't rep the west coast like he once did.

Dre has never pledged to be exclusively "West Coast". If anything, since leaving Death Row in 1996, he's made it pretty clear that he is intent on ignoring coastal boundaries and working with whoever is hot. He's said it in several interviews. He more or less made it the theme of his career with the early Aftermath compilation and his work with The Firm as well as his signing of Eminem. He's still done plenty to help the West with the Up in Smoke Tour, continued work with Snoop, and helping to bring Xzibit to the mainstream. Let us not forget that the last major West Coast artist to cross over was The Game, who Dre helped put on. It seems more like some "beggers want to be choosers" shit. Everybody wants to talk shit about the guy and blame him and downplay what he does then bitch because he won't devote more of his time to helping out the West. It's like people want to hold out one hand for help and use the other one to flip him off.

nwo of course dre/jimmy etc..they gon do what makes the most money and not what the fans want, even tho some of the same fans have been down since day 1

Sorry but to me, that's empty logic. It's kind of like that "real hip-hop" argument. If it's what the fans want, it will make money.

my point is this rakim album IMO should have been dre's priority cuz it was one of the rare cases this might have ever happened
that busta album is aite but that rakim album was already comin together as somethin else

I can't really comment on that one. I've heard nothing but speculation. I've heard one record that Rakim did for Dre and while it was dope, I'm not sure I'd say it was the type of shit that would cry out that everything else should be put on hold for it. Internet folks tend to get caught up on what looks good in print or on paper. Rakim and Dre sounds like it could be something else but who the fuck knows? It's not like Dre and Snoop where it's a proven chemistry between them. I've never heard anyone say that there was some completed Rakim album lying around that he did with Dre that is just the greatest thing ever heard but is never coming out because Dre and Jimmy just feel like being assholes. All the gossip I heard from both camps was they made some alright records but they could never quite agree on the basic concept of how the album should be put together. This sounds like a more than valid reason for them to part ways and abandon the project.

difference IMO is the production made the album for busta not busta's DOPE vocals
but wit rakim its different cuz hes one of a kind, and the twos chemistry together would have been like some say HEAVEN IMO

I don't agree. I think the album worked because Dre understood Busta's energy and knew how to bring something special out of him. You can argue hypothetically about the heavenly chemistry Dre and Rakim would have had but the fact was they were in the fucking studio together and we never got that game-changing collabo between them.