"Anyone read "Kanye West owes me $300" by Jensen Karp aka Hot Karl?"
Plowed through it in about two days. Fairly interesting/entertaining read. It's sort of reminiscent of parts of the J-Zone book, except Hot Karl got signed to Interscope and was given a huge budget, only to get shelved months before he was about to release his album.
It's a fairly fascinating look at the hip-hop music industry in late '90s/early '00s, ***right*** before Napster really changed everything and when label spent tons of money on artists and even worked on artist development.
It also shows the process of how someone who made his name as a battle rapper had to put together a "complete" album, with club songs and guest appearances and "hot" producers. How these type of artists can work with their heroes like MC Serch, "street" rappers like Redman, but also record tracks with guys like Mark MacGrath.
It also shows a moment in time when Interscope would pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into Hot Karl's album but wouldn't take phone calls from Will.I.Am.
The anecdote can be pretty amusing too, especially his brushes with Kanye West, Suge Knight, Pink, 50 Cent, the Rhyme Syndicate circa '92, and a pork-hating Busta Rhymes.
I'm a little surprised I'd never heard of dude when he was coming up, but I figure that's because he was an LA radio phenomenon. First time I heard of him was when I got mailed a promo copy of the indie album he eventualy put out. I'm not sure I ever listened to it. Then I saw him interviewed in the "Adult Rappers" documentary that dropped earlier this year.
5. "He acknowledges the Em comparisons head on." In response to Reply # 4
As in "white guy who 'sounds white' that uses a lot of pop culture references when he raps." According to the book, they were coming up at vaguely the same time, or at least he starting to make noise in the LA scene just as Em was making noise at Interscope. Em is a big part of the book, even though he never actually "appears." If for no other reason than lots of people keep warning Karp that Interscope may have signed him just so he didn't compete with Em. I don't know if that theory holds water, because the label spent LOTS of money on him. Even though it's Interscope and even then Iovine had more money than God, it would seem like a waste. However, Karp also notes that Interscope snapped up him, Bubba Sparxxx, and Haystak all at roughly the same time.
6. "Just finished the audiobook" In response to Reply # 0
It was ok. I liked the Will.I.Am, Bubba, 'Ye (reminded me of how far 'Ye came since his early producing days) & Mack 10 stories the most. Listened to his music to get an idea of what 'the industry' saw in him and I couldn't see him going past one hit (if he would've gotten his album released on Interscope). The similarities with Em are definitely there, but his pop culture references were weaker/cornier and the beats were, for mainstream early 00' standards, not good.
I read this back to back with J-Zone's book. First part was great, second part didn't grab me at all.
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