S. Samuel
Grand Hustle rapper Iggy Azalea recently cleared up confusion surrounding her relationship with Interscope Records and said fans can expect her to continue working alongside label executive T.I.
Iggy said complications with Interscope Records do not have any impact on her Grand Hustle ties.
“I’m with Grand Hustle and I can distribute my album through whatever major I’d like to when I’m ready to do that, and I guess that’s what Tip meant when he said I’m a free agent,” she explained in an interview. “People misconstrued that and thought it meant that I not with Grand Hustle — I don’t have a distribution deal, so I’m free to sign with whatever major in conjunction with Grand Hustle, which is what was originally going to be happening with me, Grand Hustle and Interscope, and we didn’t agree on [a particular deal] but when I’m ready I can. … We had an agreement [with Interscope], and Tip and Grand Hustle weren’t a part of it, and when they came along and we tried to restructure things differently, pieces of the pie get cut up differently and sometimes, people aren’t happy with their piece of the pie. So it was a little bit of that and it was a little bit of feeling a little bit misunderstood by the type of artist I’d be and the type of artist they perhaps had in mind for me.” (AHH)
Last month, the Australian rapper clarified her role on Grand Hustle.
“I wasn’t dropped by Interscope,” Iggy told XXL moments after her performance in front of a sold-out crowd at SOBs in New York City on Thursday night (May 7). “I’m still managed by [Interscope], but when T.I. came on board and it became a Grand Hustle thing. We were working on restructuring and we worked down to the final deal. There’s things that change when other people get involved. For me, I choose my involvement with Tip because that’s my family over other things, so I’m thankful that I have him and he can kinda get me out of that situation; now it’s just strictly Grand Hustle.” (XXL Mag)
Tip recently broke the news of Iggy’s Interscope deal falling through.
Iggy Azalea announced that she had signed a deal with Interscope Records earlier this year, but it may have been premature. According to her Grand Hustle boss T.I., the Aussie rapper is still unsigned. “Iggy is a free agent,” Tip told Bu Thiam, VP of A&R at Def Jam, on “MTV’s Hip Hop POV.” The blonde bombshell had touted a deal with Interscope and a summer release for her debut album The New Classic. “Interscope, if you were wondering,” she tweeted in January. “Get used to me + jimmy [iovine] smashing sh*t, cause thats the plan.” According to sources, a deal was never actually in place. However, she did release the T.I.-assisted “Murda Bizness,” which was billed as the lead single off the album. The Hustle Gang member is currently in talks with other labels including Def Jam. Her EP Glory is due this month. (Rap-Up)
In mid-April, she talked about re-structuring her Interscope agreement to join Tip’s Grand Hustle family.
“I didn’t know I was gonna sign to Grand Hustle,” Azalea told MTV News, explaining how she managed to stick with both imprints. “There’s no way I thought that would happen. Not because I didn’t like them, just because my deal was all sewn up, and I restructured the whole thing.” The 21-year-old Australian rapper revealed that Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine was “cool with it,” helping her tailor a new deal that pleased all parties involved. “[Jimmy] likes Tip, and they’re good friends, so it worked out,” she explained. “But it made everybody so confused, because everyone was like, ‘I thought she was signed to Interscope; Grand Hustle is with Atlantic.'” (MTV)
Check out a recent Iggy Azalea interview below:
