Now the story can be told.....

The magazine that was orginally supposed to publish the article dubbed it: "The Greatest Story Never Told" but I'm happy to announce that it's finally seeing the light of day.


Read the sidebar that the Philadelphia City Paper wrote about the feature:
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/101801/cs.roots.side.shtml

Then, check out the cover story:
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/101801/cs.roots.shtml

peace,
Celine

let the war/drama/gossip/rumours/... begin.

I hope The Roots and other MCA artists find a new home that treats 'm with respect.

thanks Celine !

Perhaps the funniest part of this article has to be the quote from Avant:

"Everything is great now. I have a label that believes in me."

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Go on and do your lil' la-di-da thang. You ain't Donna Summers!"
-the Honorable Ike Turner

"It's hard to do riiiiight...."
-Tony and Harvey, the Mayfield Bros.

Who knew he went platinum?

But I guess when you come out on the first single and try to sound like R kelly and do a remix with a member of destiny child, follow it up with a cover of a song that was already a hit and you can go platinum.

Let him drop a second album and then let's see what happens.

The girl that sang on My First Love is suppose to be dropping an album soon on MCA. Let's see what happens with her too.

and thorough. props.

Very well written. Long.... but what you brought up and how you brought it up was very well done

excellent

That this was posted on the same day at the exact same time as the Roots vs. MCA post?....thats freaky....

Peace,
Steve
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ma
meudontno@hotmail.com

Glad to see this found the light of day.
Q

tough article - good shit!
Dove
~Sheepish Lordess of Chaos~

Be sure to check out the October issue of Elemental Magazine - available at Tower!! (Dilated Peoples & Cormega)
ps: the September issue was running late - so it might still be there too!

>Be sure to check out the
>October issue of Elemental Magazine
>- available at Tower!! (Dilated
>Peoples & Cormega)
>ps: the September issue was running
>late - so it might
>still be there too!

Check out the september issue too cuz okayplayer's own poster Stylus got a positive review of his Mix CD, something y'all should peep.

Peace,
Steve
OkayArtist Board Moderator
Please Read Guidelines:
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that makes 3 okp's in the issue then - chrisco, editor, then me & stylus, writers. My J-5 article is in the Sept issue too (#34)
imagine that....

Yea Dove I didnt buy the mag maybe I should have didnt know you wrote anything in it. anyways dj stylus "headphone addiction" good shit!!


Peace,
Steve
OkayArtist Board Moderator
Please Read Guidelines:
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yeppers - and 2 articles in the Sept issue....

the past two times i've gone into tower the guy in the magazine section looked at me like i was from mars or some shit.

so any clue as to what it looks like would be a big help

those fucks haven't distributed copies of Elemental to their seattle stores in the past 2 months either.
Try Borders or Barnes & Noble perhaps?

the sept issue (#34) has a graph drawing of Res and (I think) the Arsonists....

the oct issue (#35) has Dilated on the cover - although I haven't seen the issue yet myself.... I heard it's dope tho

Thanks for my copy...I have to read it str8 through, but I know you did good, dovey

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

Thanks for the love!

glad to see you got some light for your work!

keep it up ...


Much love,
Kyle



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all those mca artists should gang up on the label and ditch it... if that's even possible.

i'm all about helping each other. you're a band, your friend owns a small time label.. sign with them... oh what? your boy makes his own clothes.. buy em. bartering and exchanging goods and services within a community. thats how i wanna live.

sundae

~~~~~

time i got one of these:

"this feeling of, um.. embarassment, this um... shyness, this bashfulness... if you take that out of the people then these people will do whatever they wanna do. and that is the very definition of america: a people who have no shame and therefore they do whatever they want to do."

-intro to tcq's "get a hold"-

good writing too :)

Okay im going scatterbrained here..let me slow down.

First of all, I feel that the company is just trying to cover it's ass (of course) by saying, hey we aren't the bad guys, look Richard Nichols is guilty too. That is so elementary. Then the comments of the "two former MCA employess" killed me, they were contradicting to an extent. This Boberg guy, might develop artists, but whats the point in doing so if youre gonna jerk them around. How can you pick singles for music that you don't listen to? They (MCA) must be guilty to threaten a magazine from printing an article. I feel that Boberg, is kicking himself in the butt now for not using the "You Got Me" version with Jill, but come on lying on your artists' isn't the way to go, if it's one thing I know if they (the Roots & their management) have something to say in regards to their preference of something
they VOICED it, so for this guy to say, that the Roots' preference was "never commuinicated to me at the time" is a outright lie.

It just seems as if the Hip-hop side of the company is suffering. I mean how in the hell do u expect a group to make a any profits for themselves and/or record company if you give them budgets like $100,000-300,000? Setting them up for a suicide mission. Hell I don't blame Rich for being difficult
I mean what does he (Boberg) expect, for him to become grin & be satisfied with getting it with no vasaline? Okay, I see that Boberg says that they tried to develop a reputation as a label where artist would want to come, especially the ones who are innovative and pushing the envelope artistically...They may come but once they are there, they die. Can anything worth listening to thrive over at MCA? Im like what happens to Jaguar? Her album is the bomb, and with the right push, she could easily blow up, but with out some kind of backing what happens to her?
Rahsaan Patterson, is another example that first album of his should have put him on the map. Financially they are just being plain cheap. My thing is if you don't want the act let them go.

Then there's Avant's two cents...yeah everything may be great now....but give it time. Come on now, they lost the final version of GZA's video...BS, man..BS.

It also seems like if he asks the promotion department for their thoughts are for a radio single, he picks the one they don't mention. Hey Jay how about letting someone else pick singles for a change, eh.

Then Boberg goes on to say, " few record companies...would stick with acts for second and third singles"..question, what exactly was the Roots' second single? and if it was "Adrenaline" how are u gonna release a single and get it no airplay?

Question: Could Motive become a "real" indie label and find a good distrubution deal?


"Ain't gonna be no Confusement, Jerry" - A guest on the Jerry Springer show...where else would something like that come from?

"We are all spiritual beings having a human experience"-Maxwell

I have some questions regarding their relationship with MCA:
how many albums are The Roots obligated to release w/ MCA?? (not that it helps with other artists)

It's very simplicistic to say that they can become independent and have some creative control over their music, but - at least according to the article - would it hurt them that much to be indie??? Granted, they'll prolly have a larger budget for their next album, but how much will we hear about the next Roots album from mainstream media???
Will their next album be platinum?? I doubt it... but not because of lack of effort.

Interesting insight on Shaggy and K-Ci and Jo-Jo.

Questions though:

1. Regardless of whether or not the Jill version of "You Got Me" was better, do you think that it would have popped off like Erykah's version. Don't you think the song benefitted from Erykah's presence, as planned. Could you see radio picking up on a single by The Roots featuring a then unknown Jill Scott? Ultimately the grammy opened up alot of doors for these cats. I noticed The Roots started popping up on a lot of soundtracks since TFA and don't you think ?uest has probably gotten more work as the result of being "Grammy Award Producer" Ahmir Thompson. I understand the importance of integrity of your craft, but the music BUSINESS, by nature is one of compromise. So overall, wasn't having Erykah on the song a good thing for all parties involved. Roots got a grammy,long overdue recognition, a gold album, and a radio hit, Jill and Eve got some dough in their pockets, and eventually their own platinum records.

2. Can anybody blame MCA for the commercial failure of Dice Raw and Melky Sedeck? Not excatly what you would call stellar debuts.

3. What is Common complaining about? He certainly can't complain about MCA picking bad singles 'cause according to "Label Guy", the Geto Heaven re-mix (bad idea) was his call, and the label supported it. And by the way he probably also benefited from Erykah's presence via music video. Whose idea was that?

4. What the hell was Jag talking about when she compared the MCA roster to Roc-A-Fella?

I'm sure MCA ain't perfect, just as I know there's much more to this story that we still don't know. Comments ?uest, Label Guy.

Peace,
Steve
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wellwritten and on point.