S. Samuel
Terror Squad leader Fat Joe recently detailed the nitty gritty aspects of his recording contract with E1 Music and explained why he finances his own solo projects.
Citing past DJ Khaled releases under E1 as motivation, Joey Crack said his move from EMI Music allowed him to own the masters to his music.
“I moved everything to E1, I started out with Alan Grunblatt,” Joe explained to DJ Envy, “and with all the success we had with DJ Khaled, all his albums, I feel real good about their marketing and promoting team and we’re just going in…I put up my own money for my projects so in the back end I can see the most…I’m into owning my own masters, that’s the only thing I really, really care about is just owning my own stuff so 20 years from now my kids can eat off of that. That’s what’s important to me…” (Sucker Free)
Last month, Joe said his past projects suffered due to poor marketing.
“I’m just trying to go hard. I need the right team,” Joe said in an interview. “The right promotion is right for me. I ain’t have no team to really promote my stuff. It was important for me. I had a couple of offers on the table, but I went with who I know really knows how to roll up their sleeves and work and really get it done…It was a matter of getting the right deal structured. With me, it’s all about owning my masters. If I don’t have ownership of my music, I don’t really wanna do it. A lot of labels ain’t comfortable giving people the ownership of their masters. Basically, I wanted my cake and eat it too. I wanted to own my masters, plus I wanted the illest team that works radio and works video harder than anybody…And I got it.” (MTV)
Joe confirmed the move to E1 via press release last month.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he stated. “I have a long history with Alan Grunblatt and everyone at E1. Although it’s a small label, they have the best marketing and promotion staff in the hip-hop game and I’m looking forward to working with them on my new album, ‘The Dark Side.'” (E1 Press Release)
In February, the rapper said artists like Trey Songz, R. Kelly and Young Jeezy will be featured on the album.
“The dude Scoop DeVille, the guy who produced the Snoop Dogg [‘I Wanna Rock’] joint,” Joe said referring to his “Slow Down” single. “We coming with that album, The Dark Side this summer. Early June, whatever the case may be. The album is crazy — I got this crazy joint with me and Trey Songz and we got me and [R. Kelly] after that. They hard, they hard. Basically, I don’t want to say what they are on the radio but they hustler anthems…we gotta a couple more announcements to make, you gonna see the movie unfold…We’re making probably the biggest move you can make in hip-hop. It’s gonna be splashing news in the next two weeks…It’s a movie…[Young] Jeezy’s my man. I played him [‘Slow Down’], it was done, hook and everything. And he was like, ‘I gotta get on that thing, Crack.” (“Jenny Boom Boom”)
Fat Joe’s The Dark Side drops Tuesday, June 29th.
Check out Fat Joe’s interview with DJ Envy below:
