Recognize Game: The Quiet Gangsta of Chris Lighty

[Sir Hambone]

Good Interview.........


Looking at Chris Lighty, you probably will feel he's hiding a private joke. There is always a slight smirk on his face. Maybe he knows something we don't. Maybe success is that good. Who knows. The resume of Chris Lighty is long, but below is the severely condensed biography.

Chris Lighty got started carrying crates for the famed Kool DJ Red Alert. Eventually, a friendship spawned with Red’s nephew Mike G one half of the Jungle Brothers and soon he became the "road manager slash DJ slash take out the garbage do what ever to make it happen" person It really got big when Lighty got down with Lyor Cohen, Def Jam’s head honcho and Russell Simmons’ Rush Management. After 11 plus years at Def Jam, he cultivated the Violator imprint through Relativity and signed the Beatnuts and Fat Joe. Then, in a short time, he brought the label over with Lyor when he decided to start RAL eventually signing Warren G, Foxy Brown and did LL’s Mr. Smith album.

Nowadays, Chris Lighty and partner Mona Scott are on some "good cop/ bad cop" ish, with a Violator, a label/management company. "You may not like us or you may not like our business tactics but nobody can throw dirt and say, ‘Yo they shitted on me," he says with confidence. "I feel that all our agreements with our clients are on a gentlemen’s contract." With a roster that includes Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliot, LL Cool J, Capone-N-Noreaga, Mobb Deep and newer acts like Jojo Pellegrino and Da Franchise.

Here, he talks about the gangsta nature of the music world, The Jay Z/Prodigy beef, issues with Nas nemesis Cormega, and his come up from the bottom.

Recognize Game.

Allhiphop: What is one of your favorite cuts on the Violator album?

Chris: "Sexual Chocolate" by Cee Lo is one of my favorite records, just because of what it’s talking about and how he produced it and how he put it down. It shows the creativeness and that there are no boundaries in hip-hop.

Allhiphop: You manage Cool J. What up with LL?

Chris: This is his last album on Def Jam contractually. Not saying he’s leaving or not leaving it’s just his contractual last album, number 10.

Allhiphop: You don’t have word of whether he’s going to stay or not?
Chris: If the price is right, we’ll see.

Allhiphop: I interviewed Red Alert and he showed a lot of love for you helping him, because he tried the management thing for a little while but it didn’t work out.

Chris: Red put me on so there no question if I got a dollar he got ninety cent of it. So no question I gotta pay tribute to whatever Red want.

Allhiphop: So how much clout in the city does Chris Lighty have?

Chris: What’s clout? Lyor told me a long time ago don’t worry about the Mr. Chow profile. Mr. Chow’s is a restaurant all of the music industry frequents. He said don’t worry about that profile that you got to have that table so everyone can see. Worry about when’s the next check and how you made it and what’s the next hit record. Can I get Ken Barry on the phone that runs EMI and Virgin, yeah so I guess I got a little clout? But that’s all relative.

Allhiphop: What would you say as far as your accomplishments what is your greatest?

Chris: Greatest? I don’t know what would be my greatest.

Allhiphop: What are you most proud of?

Chris: Probably the years working at Def Jam where I was able to do a lot of different things. Like to be able to say yo I’ve done a soundtracks, compilations, we’ve done a female rapper, albums with LL cool J and multi-platinum records on all types of levels. So my greatest accomplishment would have to be being able to transcend the homeboy one on one management to the next level. And that’s really by submitting and learning from people like Lyor.

Allhiphop: So how Gangsta is Lyor?

Chris: Lyor is Gangsta. It’s unbelievable, you gotta be a Jedi Knight fuckin with Lyor. Fuckin with him is like fuckin with Vegas for real you’ll lose all your paper. And you look at him a be like how is this Jewish dude, but it’s not about color or race it’s about culture and music and the validity. Nobody ever questions Lyor.

Allhiphop: What have you not achieved yet that you would like to?

Chris: At some point I’m going to put stock in whoever is going to be the smartest corporate head and say, "Chris, run thus division and run it right." I learned a lot from Lyor.

Allhiphop: What else did he teach you?

Chris: Another thing Lyor taught me is if you got paper, it’s all good, you can’t be put under pressure. You got money you control your own destiny.
.
Allhiphop: Were You at Summer Jam (where Violator artist Prodigy was disses when Jay Z displayed Prodigy in dance leotards)?

Chris: No, I wasn’t there, but you know me and Jay talked..

Allhiphop: What did he say?

Chris: It’s over we all putting the mics down and chillin. "Don King" Flex (Hot 97’s Funk Master Flex) is blastin’ the freestyles and everything but we going to keep it controlled. Prodigy took his shot. Jay took a iller shot but we going to put it down. We all seen the [Biggie] VH1 special Sunday lets keep it focused its just music. Just dead it cause it won’t be none of us (shooting), it’ll be the knuckle heads around. So, we shuttin’ it down.

Allhiphop: We sent it out via our 2-way (sign up here!) alert but we didn’t put P’s name in it, just because we didn’t want things to get out of hand.

Chris: It’s crazy right now Queens is losing their mind right now. But "Don King" aka Flex is promoting it like it’s a heavyweight bout. Where not having it, we told him he has three days to play it then you gotta dead it. It’s cool to be competitive in hip-hop as long as it has its limits. For me it’s a little frustrating because I’m friends with Jay and P’s my people so it’s hard being caught in the middle.

Allhiphop: So you’ll putting a muzzle on Flex?

Chris: Naw we just asked him to chill out. We know you got to get the ratings and the streets are askin for it and Queens is heated at you so give it three days and put the mics down after that.

Allhiphop: What happened with Cormega situation?

Chris: You can bring someone to the table to have a Thanksgiving dinner but you can’t make them dine. The problem with Mega was he had a great opportunity coming out of jail NAS said put him on and we sat down and talked about it. Mega wanted to do things his way when we was like we blowing cats and everybody out the frame, how you going to tell us to make records. Just ride this fuckin train right now. Just go full speed down the mountain just ride it and he ain’t want to ride it. The he started flippin on NAS; he could have had a gold album off of NAS's back, off of nothing. When it starts getting derogatory "fuck NAS" "fuck everybody" alright cool. The short on Carmega is, cause I know he said some ill shit in XXL and they called and asked if we wanted to respond. My track records is a little longer, if you working with me something is going to happen. If you’re not working with me, nothings going to happen that’s just the reality.
Allhiphop: Word is he physically assaulted Steve Stout?

Chris: That was pre Puffy attack, it wasn’t like nothing major Steve is a big cat compared to Mega. It was nothing worth breathing about.

Allhiphop: Give me something deep off the Violator album. Was there any thing particularly difficult, strange?

Chris: Everybody approached it really on some fun lovin shit, it was more competitive than anything. It was a good project. Silvia tried to shit on us by not clearing Missy.

Allhiphop: But you manage Missy…

Chris: Yeah, but you know whatever. She tried to fuckin go left on us. It’s some gangsta shit going on, but you got to be prepared to do whatever you gotta do. Paybacks a bitch in this muthafucka, and when I’m hot and I gotta come renegotiate I’m gonna get you. So I try to approach things cool and as respectful as possible with everybody.

Chris: I think what was the most special and probably the most difficult thing about the project was getting everybody to approve their drawings. That was the most difficult thing; "Naw I don’t like my nose change it," "Yo shave my teeth a little bit" " I’m lookin old I need to bling some more" "I can’t be fat you crazy?"

[Sir Hambone]

some other newz also...

Answers to Hip Hop Quiz#1
by - Davey D

Answers to Hip Hop Quiz #1

1-What city are Tha Liks originally from?  

CINCINATTI

2-What Hip Hop pioneer was known as the Master of Records?  

AFRIKA BAMBAATAA

3-What famous rap group was initially known as Spectrum City?  

PUBLIC ENEMY

4-Before Lil Bow Wow, Jermaine Dupri had another kid group.. who were they?  

KRISS KROSS

5-What famous rap star owned a record store in Richmond California before selling millions?  

MASTER P

6-What famous rap star created and hosted a call in talk show that dealt with gang violence? What was the name of the show?

MC HAMMER CREATED STREET SOLDIERS WHICH IS NOW HOSTED BY MARGRET NORRIS AND JOE MARSHALL..

HOT 97 IN NEW BIT THE NAME.



7-Who did Salt-N-Pepa try to dis with their first recorded song?  

THE SHOW STOPPA DISSES DOUG GE FRESH



8-Name Big Daddy Kane\'s two dancers?  

SCOOB AND SCRAP

9-Before WC hooked up with Ice Cube what was his original group? Who was his DJ?  

LOW PROFILE WHICH FEATURED DJ ALLADIN

10-Ice T and Melle-Mel were in a group together, what was the name of that group

THE ZULU KINGS

[Sir Hambone]

Juvenile Newz.........................


Mose Burton, a Jackson, Tennesse promoter stopped New Orleans rapper Juvenile from continuing his show because of his use of profanity. After 10 minutes of performing in the Carl Perkins Civic Center, Burton called everything to halt. MTVNews reports Burton saying "We do not usually have rap, we haven't had one in 11 years. I said I'd try it if it is clean. I told them I would pull the plug if it wasn't. I take full responsibility." An estimate of about 500 people attended the event to see the show that featured nine other acts including Billy Cook, Young Buck, Corey C, Skip and Wacko. Albert Williams of the rapper's entourage, said that Juvenile did not know it was a clean show. "[Juvenile] was not told it was a clean show, and I wasn't told it was a clean show, he's a rap artist. Most of his songs have explicit lyrics. When you book Juvenile, you know what you're going to get. People came to see Juvenile, not PG Juvenile." He also said that there was no written contract around the explicit language issue.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

uhhh, reduce your pic size, than i'll read it...