“Signed to Rawkus? I’d rather be mouth fucked by Nazis unconscious.”
- El-P “Deep Space 9mm” (Fantastic Damage, 2002)
“Signed to Rawkus? I oughta just tattoo that shit on my chest from now on. It’s my biggest line in the industry…it’s the only one that even the kids who don’t even know who the hell Rawkus are like “Yeah! Mouthfuck! Nazis!” …I love it.”
- El-P from Revenge of the Robots DVD, 2003)
So kids, before we get to Diddy, let’s recap round one.
Rawkus Records was an idea germed in 1996 by two friends of James Murdoch; Brian Brater and Jarret Meyer. James Murdoch, the son of international media honcho Rupert Murdoch, had a chat with Dad regarding label proposals which ultimately gave a green light for Rawkus’ monetary backing.
1997 was the time where ‘indie hip-hop’ – the tag for the non-gangster scene - was finding its teeth. A huge underground force, manifested by an explosion of 12’’s from both coasts, was revealing itself as unsigned artists put out records any way they could to break though. Rawkus came along at exactly the right time.
Rawkus would later follow this 12'' model, but it always had two distinct advantages that struggling independents lacked when it came to success – money and a knack for picking talent.
Amongst dope artists such as Pharoahe Monch (of Organized Konfusion), Mos Def & Talib Kweli (as Blackstar), and Kool G Rap, there was one other who ensured Rawkus would be propelled into the public sphere – El-P. When El-P, Big Juss and (DJ) Mr. Len dropped their debut album Funcrusher Plus under the group Company Flow in 1997, shockwaves were sent through hip-hop land with the collective rumbles picked up by mainstream media.
Here was a seminal album which offered a dark alternative to mainstream consumption. After rave reviews, further attention was bought to Rawkus: the label found itself running with hip-hop’s baton.
A steady stream of 12''s were put out from the artist roster to test the waters. With the spotlight glaring, well received vinyl quickly became the lynchpin for the classic three-CD Soundbombing Volumes: a mix of the popular 12’’s highlights littered with exclusives hastily pressed up to meet demand.
As the hype expanded Rawkus focused on the more accessible (exec speak: marketable) records of the conscious styles unleashed by the likes of Mos Def’s “Ms. Fat Booty”. The neglect for the other artists led to a very disgruntled El-P and Company Flow hanging up their Rawkus emblazed boots in 2000.
Time passes and Rawkus continues to under-promote and misrepresent artists whilst delaying album releases. Couple this with the loss of a distribution deal, the consequent sale of Rawkus to MCA in 2004 and some spectacular marketing cock-ups, you see Brian Brater and Jarret Meyer forced out of a job along with a missed opportunity to sign Kanye West. Rawkus Records was swallowed up by Universals’ Geffen imprint, absorbed by the very machine it was supposed to be fighting.
For El-P the whole Rawkus experience served only to strengthen his resolve. Shortly after leaving he founded the Definitive Jux record label. With the help of a few artistically like minded friends such as RJD2, Aesop Rock, Murs, Mr. Lif and Cannibal Ox, as well as his own cracking solo debut, the label soon became home to a new sound of underground hip-hop. That solo smash was El-P’s Fantastic Damage album where, as one never to deny his roots, he dropped the infamous line:
“Signed to Rawkus? I’d rather be mouth fucked by Nazis unconscious.”
Fast forward five years and you’re ready for round two.
Brian Brater and Jarret Meyer have wrestled back control of Rawkus and El-P is set to release his follow up album March 20th (although it has already reached reviewers and therefore the internet.)
A cataclysm of words, disses, phone calls, retractions, apologies, blog entries and message board comments began from this one picture posted up on El-P’s MySpace:
Yes, smiling in the middle there is that bad bad boy, Diddy.
Shortly after the picture surfaced it was posted in the news section of the Rawkus website. As purists, cynics and hip-hop heads reacted with a mixture of ‘two different universes randomly cross paths’ versus ‘sell-out: when I see you with that man you’ve lost me as a fan,’ El-P received it as a deliberate resurrection of an old dispute to discredit his status just as his new album was coming out.
Here’s El-P’s explanation of the photo and reaction from his blog:
(All subsequent artist/label comments, unless otherwise noted, are re-printed in full to avoid bias.)
“So the other day me and my band took a picture with puffy. He had been in our rehearsal spot in Brooklyn the entire week and we thought it would be something we would regret if we had missed the chance to get a flic with dude. This is for many reasons. There are the obvious points of irony (El-P and puffy in the same room together!?!?!?! but how? why?), as well as the fact that he is simply one of the most famous people in the world. So we went in to the hall and asked him if he would take a picture with us. He was on a conference call but told us as soon as he was done he would come in to our room and take a flic. Yeah right, we thought. So 15 minutes pass and we had all but forgotten about it. We were in the middle of rehearsing TPC when the door swings open and puff walks in. I had a full band there so we just kept going with the song. Diddy chilled in the corner dancing (I shit you not) and waving his hands in the air. When we finished he came over and we took a flic. He shook everyone’s hand, smiled, was gracious, asked for a CD then bounced. A true gentleman (at least to us). We couldn’t wait to get home and put the picture up on our respective MySpace pages. I have met a lot of people but there was something so hilarious and wonderful about this picture. Maybe it was that we were all genuinely having a great time. The smiles you see are not sarcastic or smarmy, they are real smiles from a group of guys having a blast. And of course... el-p and puffy????? So up on MySpace it went. Out to all our friends it went. A proud and hilarious, unexpected moment of very different musical worlds converging. One of those rare funny/fun/cool moments that come out of no where and is completely unexpected but great.”
“In steps www.rawkus.com. These twisted, corrupted shit eaters (Rawkus RecordS) who stole money from everyone they worked with, fired their staff a few days before Christmas, signed amazing artists and never put their records out, blocked artists they had under contract from signing to other labels even after they had driven their label in to the ground and weren't even functioning, sycophantically attempted to attach themselves to anyone in the mainstream they possibly could, etc. etc. etc...”
“Well here they are again. The "new" Rawkus. Launching again for any sad sap of an artist who wants to wake up one day and realize they are getting screwed, for any staff member who wants an honest pay only to eventually realize they are disposable. The "new" Rawkus. The ones who are literally dispersing questionnaires in Europe to fans asking what type of music they should be releasing. The "new" Rawkus. So these motherfuckers take the picture that was taken with my camera and post it up on their site with a news piece entitled something to the effect of: "company flows el-p and puffy?" That's it. As though the picture is some sort of statement about me. As though the picture is proof of me "selling out". then they have one of their staff members go around to various message boards like OKAYPLAYER and the post about it in any and every post about my new album. Oh yeah? You like the el-p record? Check out this picture of him and puffy! Oh word? You think el is a dope producer? Check out this picture of him and puffy!”
“The ‘new’ Rawkus, eh? Great start, fellas. Jump start your new era with a half assed smear campaign against the guy that literally delivered you the first album that jumpstarted your entire label. A guy you stole dough from, disrespected, etc.”
"This is the kind of spirit that coarses through the clotted, stinking lifeblood of that label, and this is why I believe in my heart of hearts that the label is as corrupted and doomed as it ever was. There is no picture of me that exists that can wipe away the guilt of the way these guys operated and clearly continue to operate. There is no moment or image that can take away the fact that while you were whoring yourselves and destroying everyone that worked with you and believed in you I was doing what I thought was right, and still do."
"How insulting. How pathetic. How mean spirited and how completely useless and misguided. Get off my dick."
"I would sooner spend an eternity hanging with puffy than involve myself with the douche bags behind Rawkus, Be it the old one or the "new" one. As far as I’m concerned you can keep that picture up there forever. Please do. That one moment was more entertaining and fun and genuine than the entire sum of our business relationship."
Rawkus reacts by taking down the picture and after a phone call between El-P and Jarret Meyer, all appeared well when El-P updated his blog:
"I just got off the phone with the owner and co founder of Rawkus records. He assured me that they meant no disrespect and that he had the news posting taken down from his site the second he learned about it. I appreciated the call."
"So fuck it. I have no beef. I’m just trying to do my thing as I assume they are. Fact is, just because I had a less than positive experience with them doesn’t mean everyone else will. I cant and wont apologize for how I see the way shit went down, but that’s between me and them and I have no time or intention of bringing that old shit any further in to the public eye."
"So good luck, Rawkus. May the future bring you joy and success. This culture and this business is hard enough without motherfuckers beefing."
However, the animosity was only temporarily dissipated because, shortly thereafter, Rawkus published this press release on their website:
“We thought the photo of you and Puff was cool. We posted it without comment. We immediately removed it upon request. But you had to go there... Straight attack our credibility and intentions with that slanderous rant. Keep in mind WE HAVEN'T SAID A WORD to you since 1998. Why are you salty? Be happy, you are successful and rich. Regardless of our obvious distaste for one another, we’ve admired Def Jux's success and sincerely respect your roster of artists. But you had to go there......"
"El-P, your recent post has drawn attention to our intentions as promoters and marketers in the hip-hop community. Haters, like you, seem to suffer from historical amnesia. We thought it was time we directly addressed the hip-hop community and post some facts."
"Our mission at Rawkus.com is to create a vibrant supportive community for hip hop, including all factions and styles. The post showing El-P and Puffy was in no way meant to discredit El-P as an artist or producer. Puffy is a mogul and his appearance with an underground artist like El-P was news worthy and interesting. However, we have a strict policy against creating bullshit beefs and reserve the right to delete comments and posts that overtly create hate instead of fostering creative debate. This post was removed once it was brought to our attention that El-P was offended by it."
"For the past ten years our mission has been to help artists promote and make money - a mission we were very successful at. We have contributed HEAVY financial resources into promoting Black Star, Mos Def, Kweli, Pharoahe Monche, Big L and many other underground artists in our history of Soundbombing, Lyricist Lounge, and 100s of 12” releases."
"Our history is full of success and breakthroughs. Mos Def and Kweli have sold almost 1.5 million albums each and are both powerful stars now. While we worked together, Pharoahe Monche had two huge hits (“Simon Says” and “Oh No”) and sold almost 300,000 albums. We supported Common during his label transition by successfully promoting “Respiration” and “1999.” Big L went GOLD! The Soundbombing and Lyricist Lounge compilations sold over 1 million copies. Remember "Body Rock”, “Definition", "Ms. Fat Booty", "Umi Says”, “Simon Says", "The Light”, “Respiration", "My Life", "The Blast", "Get By", "Oh No", "Flamboyant”, “Fortified Live", "Universal Magnetic" and "End to End Burners"?"
"Of course we could not hit home runs every time, and some VERY talented artists experienced frustration as Rawkus hit temporary obstacles in dealing with MCA/Universal in 2003-2004. Everybody knows how treacherous the music industry is. If you stay in it long enough, you will have your fair share of doors slammed in your face- we have! You stay in the game because your will to succeed, far out weighs your fear of defeat. We are proud of Rawkus.com's growing community of driven artists and individuals. While the game has changed, our mission at Rawkus is still on point; market and promote NEW under-appreciated artists and respect the older generation of hip-hop. We firmly believe the community should decide the value of music, not critics or haters.
Jarret Myer & Brian Brater
RAWKUS
Co-Founders”
After word of this got round to El-P he issued his unhappy response:
"I just saw the Rawkus press release on "El-P’s attack". Ok. After I just got off the phone with Jarret Meyer and was assured they had no intention of continuing a negative campaign. Motherfuckers. Ok. Silly me. Silly fucking me for once again going with my word as told to Jarret and doing my part to smooth out anything negative. Awesome. At every single turn you people shit on the face of honour. Haters like me. Poor you. Yeah, I "had to go there"."
"I’m a "hater". I have "historical amnesia". Oh wait… I’m "rich". Ok fellas. I guess it looked too good on paper for you to resist. I tell you what. I’m gonna go to my rehearsal now. You guys are great. And important. Good luck with being so great."
As the hip-hop community went crazy and news reports inflamed the situation, El-P, when speaking directly to Double O (of Rawkus’ Kidz In The Hall) made a point of clarifying the fact that he had no bad blood with Rawkus artists:
"Hey man, I’m not shitting on the artists on Rawkus in any way. If anything I’m just trying to give them a bit of a heads up. Hopefully no one experiences what I did."
"Do your thing, get your dough, keep making good music (and it is good). But me and those guys got history and it wasn’t all lovely. And I’m not the only one. That being said, no I don’t think Jarret and Brian are sitting around posting pictures up. I do, however, take it as my god given right to check anyone, especially cats that have a less than stellar track record of doing the right thing with me, if they or the people that rep them wanna pop some funny shit. Jarret and Brian left a trail of bodies in the wake of the first incarnation of that label. My sense of humour when it comes to those cats is handicapped. That being said, I hope the partnership works better for you than it did for others. And I mean that. I take no joy in watching good artists walk in to bad scenarios."
He reinforces this with an addition to his blog:
"Now just so I’m not misconstrued here, I’m not shitting on Rawkus artists. I just feel for anyone who thinks at the end of the day they are gonna get fair and just treatment from these dudes. I may be wrong, though. I hope I am. Every artist on a label deserves to be treated right. Sometimes shit doesn’t work out that way, sometimes it does. I had a bitter experience, yes. But I had no intention of bringing it up publicly cause I’ve moved on and I’m happy as hell. But seeing them put the flic up of me struck a nerve. It makes me think that in fact nothing has changed. But hey, what do I know. It’s hard running a label. I know for a fact that even if you do everything within your power to make it work, sometimes you can (as a label owner) get assigned blame for things that are out of your control. But god damn there’s a classy way to do things and there’s a shitty way."
So is this all a misunderstanding gone wrong or are there equal acts of maliciousness? Arguments have cropped up pushing the ‘it’s a way to promote the new album’ theory, but seeing as it has already earned four and five star reviews from underground and mainstream media alike, would El-P, who’s already an established hip-hop icon, really bother? The statements were printed in full so that you may judge for yourself.
There are always two sides to every story. But there is always room for a third as the (edited) comments from (Cunninlynguist-producer) Kno, touch upon:
“Not everyone's ‘independent’ career can be spring-boarded by Rupert Murdoch's chequebook...And I'm not talking about MySpace. Rawkus' posting of this picture seems like some ho shit, but slow down...Plus, I have no stake in it, but to act like Company Flow ‘made’ Rawkus is revisionist history at best. El's beef with Rawkus seems warranted...but these kids are no different than him in 1997...they just want to make music and win...”
It should be remembered that without the internet it is unlikely any of this would have escalated in the first place. Perhaps this is a lesson that foreshadows the delicate nature of the modern day music industry, where relationships can be unwittingly built or destroyed from one second to the next.
Either that or no one actually likes P Diddy.
- El-P “Deep Space 9mm” (Fantastic Damage, 2002)
“Signed to Rawkus? I oughta just tattoo that shit on my chest from now on. It’s my biggest line in the industry…it’s the only one that even the kids who don’t even know who the hell Rawkus are like “Yeah! Mouthfuck! Nazis!” …I love it.”
- El-P from Revenge of the Robots DVD, 2003)
So kids, before we get to Diddy, let’s recap round one.
Rawkus Records was an idea germed in 1996 by two friends of James Murdoch; Brian Brater and Jarret Meyer. James Murdoch, the son of international media honcho Rupert Murdoch, had a chat with Dad regarding label proposals which ultimately gave a green light for Rawkus’ monetary backing.
1997 was the time where ‘indie hip-hop’ – the tag for the non-gangster scene - was finding its teeth. A huge underground force, manifested by an explosion of 12’’s from both coasts, was revealing itself as unsigned artists put out records any way they could to break though. Rawkus came along at exactly the right time.
Rawkus would later follow this 12'' model, but it always had two distinct advantages that struggling independents lacked when it came to success – money and a knack for picking talent.
Amongst dope artists such as Pharoahe Monch (of Organized Konfusion), Mos Def & Talib Kweli (as Blackstar), and Kool G Rap, there was one other who ensured Rawkus would be propelled into the public sphere – El-P. When El-P, Big Juss and (DJ) Mr. Len dropped their debut album Funcrusher Plus under the group Company Flow in 1997, shockwaves were sent through hip-hop land with the collective rumbles picked up by mainstream media.
Here was a seminal album which offered a dark alternative to mainstream consumption. After rave reviews, further attention was bought to Rawkus: the label found itself running with hip-hop’s baton.
A steady stream of 12''s were put out from the artist roster to test the waters. With the spotlight glaring, well received vinyl quickly became the lynchpin for the classic three-CD Soundbombing Volumes: a mix of the popular 12’’s highlights littered with exclusives hastily pressed up to meet demand.
As the hype expanded Rawkus focused on the more accessible (exec speak: marketable) records of the conscious styles unleashed by the likes of Mos Def’s “Ms. Fat Booty”. The neglect for the other artists led to a very disgruntled El-P and Company Flow hanging up their Rawkus emblazed boots in 2000.
Time passes and Rawkus continues to under-promote and misrepresent artists whilst delaying album releases. Couple this with the loss of a distribution deal, the consequent sale of Rawkus to MCA in 2004 and some spectacular marketing cock-ups, you see Brian Brater and Jarret Meyer forced out of a job along with a missed opportunity to sign Kanye West. Rawkus Records was swallowed up by Universals’ Geffen imprint, absorbed by the very machine it was supposed to be fighting.
For El-P the whole Rawkus experience served only to strengthen his resolve. Shortly after leaving he founded the Definitive Jux record label. With the help of a few artistically like minded friends such as RJD2, Aesop Rock, Murs, Mr. Lif and Cannibal Ox, as well as his own cracking solo debut, the label soon became home to a new sound of underground hip-hop. That solo smash was El-P’s Fantastic Damage album where, as one never to deny his roots, he dropped the infamous line:
“Signed to Rawkus? I’d rather be mouth fucked by Nazis unconscious.”
Fast forward five years and you’re ready for round two.
Brian Brater and Jarret Meyer have wrestled back control of Rawkus and El-P is set to release his follow up album March 20th (although it has already reached reviewers and therefore the internet.)
A cataclysm of words, disses, phone calls, retractions, apologies, blog entries and message board comments began from this one picture posted up on El-P’s MySpace:
Yes, smiling in the middle there is that bad bad boy, Diddy.
Shortly after the picture surfaced it was posted in the news section of the Rawkus website. As purists, cynics and hip-hop heads reacted with a mixture of ‘two different universes randomly cross paths’ versus ‘sell-out: when I see you with that man you’ve lost me as a fan,’ El-P received it as a deliberate resurrection of an old dispute to discredit his status just as his new album was coming out.
Here’s El-P’s explanation of the photo and reaction from his blog:
(All subsequent artist/label comments, unless otherwise noted, are re-printed in full to avoid bias.)
“So the other day me and my band took a picture with puffy. He had been in our rehearsal spot in Brooklyn the entire week and we thought it would be something we would regret if we had missed the chance to get a flic with dude. This is for many reasons. There are the obvious points of irony (El-P and puffy in the same room together!?!?!?! but how? why?), as well as the fact that he is simply one of the most famous people in the world. So we went in to the hall and asked him if he would take a picture with us. He was on a conference call but told us as soon as he was done he would come in to our room and take a flic. Yeah right, we thought. So 15 minutes pass and we had all but forgotten about it. We were in the middle of rehearsing TPC when the door swings open and puff walks in. I had a full band there so we just kept going with the song. Diddy chilled in the corner dancing (I shit you not) and waving his hands in the air. When we finished he came over and we took a flic. He shook everyone’s hand, smiled, was gracious, asked for a CD then bounced. A true gentleman (at least to us). We couldn’t wait to get home and put the picture up on our respective MySpace pages. I have met a lot of people but there was something so hilarious and wonderful about this picture. Maybe it was that we were all genuinely having a great time. The smiles you see are not sarcastic or smarmy, they are real smiles from a group of guys having a blast. And of course... el-p and puffy????? So up on MySpace it went. Out to all our friends it went. A proud and hilarious, unexpected moment of very different musical worlds converging. One of those rare funny/fun/cool moments that come out of no where and is completely unexpected but great.”
“In steps www.rawkus.com. These twisted, corrupted shit eaters (Rawkus RecordS) who stole money from everyone they worked with, fired their staff a few days before Christmas, signed amazing artists and never put their records out, blocked artists they had under contract from signing to other labels even after they had driven their label in to the ground and weren't even functioning, sycophantically attempted to attach themselves to anyone in the mainstream they possibly could, etc. etc. etc...”
“Well here they are again. The "new" Rawkus. Launching again for any sad sap of an artist who wants to wake up one day and realize they are getting screwed, for any staff member who wants an honest pay only to eventually realize they are disposable. The "new" Rawkus. The ones who are literally dispersing questionnaires in Europe to fans asking what type of music they should be releasing. The "new" Rawkus. So these motherfuckers take the picture that was taken with my camera and post it up on their site with a news piece entitled something to the effect of: "company flows el-p and puffy?" That's it. As though the picture is some sort of statement about me. As though the picture is proof of me "selling out". then they have one of their staff members go around to various message boards like OKAYPLAYER and the post about it in any and every post about my new album. Oh yeah? You like the el-p record? Check out this picture of him and puffy! Oh word? You think el is a dope producer? Check out this picture of him and puffy!”
“The ‘new’ Rawkus, eh? Great start, fellas. Jump start your new era with a half assed smear campaign against the guy that literally delivered you the first album that jumpstarted your entire label. A guy you stole dough from, disrespected, etc.”
"This is the kind of spirit that coarses through the clotted, stinking lifeblood of that label, and this is why I believe in my heart of hearts that the label is as corrupted and doomed as it ever was. There is no picture of me that exists that can wipe away the guilt of the way these guys operated and clearly continue to operate. There is no moment or image that can take away the fact that while you were whoring yourselves and destroying everyone that worked with you and believed in you I was doing what I thought was right, and still do."
"How insulting. How pathetic. How mean spirited and how completely useless and misguided. Get off my dick."
"I would sooner spend an eternity hanging with puffy than involve myself with the douche bags behind Rawkus, Be it the old one or the "new" one. As far as I’m concerned you can keep that picture up there forever. Please do. That one moment was more entertaining and fun and genuine than the entire sum of our business relationship."
Rawkus reacts by taking down the picture and after a phone call between El-P and Jarret Meyer, all appeared well when El-P updated his blog:
"I just got off the phone with the owner and co founder of Rawkus records. He assured me that they meant no disrespect and that he had the news posting taken down from his site the second he learned about it. I appreciated the call."
"So fuck it. I have no beef. I’m just trying to do my thing as I assume they are. Fact is, just because I had a less than positive experience with them doesn’t mean everyone else will. I cant and wont apologize for how I see the way shit went down, but that’s between me and them and I have no time or intention of bringing that old shit any further in to the public eye."
"So good luck, Rawkus. May the future bring you joy and success. This culture and this business is hard enough without motherfuckers beefing."
However, the animosity was only temporarily dissipated because, shortly thereafter, Rawkus published this press release on their website:
“We thought the photo of you and Puff was cool. We posted it without comment. We immediately removed it upon request. But you had to go there... Straight attack our credibility and intentions with that slanderous rant. Keep in mind WE HAVEN'T SAID A WORD to you since 1998. Why are you salty? Be happy, you are successful and rich. Regardless of our obvious distaste for one another, we’ve admired Def Jux's success and sincerely respect your roster of artists. But you had to go there......"
"El-P, your recent post has drawn attention to our intentions as promoters and marketers in the hip-hop community. Haters, like you, seem to suffer from historical amnesia. We thought it was time we directly addressed the hip-hop community and post some facts."
"Our mission at Rawkus.com is to create a vibrant supportive community for hip hop, including all factions and styles. The post showing El-P and Puffy was in no way meant to discredit El-P as an artist or producer. Puffy is a mogul and his appearance with an underground artist like El-P was news worthy and interesting. However, we have a strict policy against creating bullshit beefs and reserve the right to delete comments and posts that overtly create hate instead of fostering creative debate. This post was removed once it was brought to our attention that El-P was offended by it."
"For the past ten years our mission has been to help artists promote and make money - a mission we were very successful at. We have contributed HEAVY financial resources into promoting Black Star, Mos Def, Kweli, Pharoahe Monche, Big L and many other underground artists in our history of Soundbombing, Lyricist Lounge, and 100s of 12” releases."
"Our history is full of success and breakthroughs. Mos Def and Kweli have sold almost 1.5 million albums each and are both powerful stars now. While we worked together, Pharoahe Monche had two huge hits (“Simon Says” and “Oh No”) and sold almost 300,000 albums. We supported Common during his label transition by successfully promoting “Respiration” and “1999.” Big L went GOLD! The Soundbombing and Lyricist Lounge compilations sold over 1 million copies. Remember "Body Rock”, “Definition", "Ms. Fat Booty", "Umi Says”, “Simon Says", "The Light”, “Respiration", "My Life", "The Blast", "Get By", "Oh No", "Flamboyant”, “Fortified Live", "Universal Magnetic" and "End to End Burners"?"
"Of course we could not hit home runs every time, and some VERY talented artists experienced frustration as Rawkus hit temporary obstacles in dealing with MCA/Universal in 2003-2004. Everybody knows how treacherous the music industry is. If you stay in it long enough, you will have your fair share of doors slammed in your face- we have! You stay in the game because your will to succeed, far out weighs your fear of defeat. We are proud of Rawkus.com's growing community of driven artists and individuals. While the game has changed, our mission at Rawkus is still on point; market and promote NEW under-appreciated artists and respect the older generation of hip-hop. We firmly believe the community should decide the value of music, not critics or haters.
Jarret Myer & Brian Brater
RAWKUS
Co-Founders”
After word of this got round to El-P he issued his unhappy response:
"I just saw the Rawkus press release on "El-P’s attack". Ok. After I just got off the phone with Jarret Meyer and was assured they had no intention of continuing a negative campaign. Motherfuckers. Ok. Silly me. Silly fucking me for once again going with my word as told to Jarret and doing my part to smooth out anything negative. Awesome. At every single turn you people shit on the face of honour. Haters like me. Poor you. Yeah, I "had to go there"."
"I’m a "hater". I have "historical amnesia". Oh wait… I’m "rich". Ok fellas. I guess it looked too good on paper for you to resist. I tell you what. I’m gonna go to my rehearsal now. You guys are great. And important. Good luck with being so great."
As the hip-hop community went crazy and news reports inflamed the situation, El-P, when speaking directly to Double O (of Rawkus’ Kidz In The Hall) made a point of clarifying the fact that he had no bad blood with Rawkus artists:
"Hey man, I’m not shitting on the artists on Rawkus in any way. If anything I’m just trying to give them a bit of a heads up. Hopefully no one experiences what I did."
"Do your thing, get your dough, keep making good music (and it is good). But me and those guys got history and it wasn’t all lovely. And I’m not the only one. That being said, no I don’t think Jarret and Brian are sitting around posting pictures up. I do, however, take it as my god given right to check anyone, especially cats that have a less than stellar track record of doing the right thing with me, if they or the people that rep them wanna pop some funny shit. Jarret and Brian left a trail of bodies in the wake of the first incarnation of that label. My sense of humour when it comes to those cats is handicapped. That being said, I hope the partnership works better for you than it did for others. And I mean that. I take no joy in watching good artists walk in to bad scenarios."
He reinforces this with an addition to his blog:
"Now just so I’m not misconstrued here, I’m not shitting on Rawkus artists. I just feel for anyone who thinks at the end of the day they are gonna get fair and just treatment from these dudes. I may be wrong, though. I hope I am. Every artist on a label deserves to be treated right. Sometimes shit doesn’t work out that way, sometimes it does. I had a bitter experience, yes. But I had no intention of bringing it up publicly cause I’ve moved on and I’m happy as hell. But seeing them put the flic up of me struck a nerve. It makes me think that in fact nothing has changed. But hey, what do I know. It’s hard running a label. I know for a fact that even if you do everything within your power to make it work, sometimes you can (as a label owner) get assigned blame for things that are out of your control. But god damn there’s a classy way to do things and there’s a shitty way."
So is this all a misunderstanding gone wrong or are there equal acts of maliciousness? Arguments have cropped up pushing the ‘it’s a way to promote the new album’ theory, but seeing as it has already earned four and five star reviews from underground and mainstream media alike, would El-P, who’s already an established hip-hop icon, really bother? The statements were printed in full so that you may judge for yourself.
There are always two sides to every story. But there is always room for a third as the (edited) comments from (Cunninlynguist-producer) Kno, touch upon:
“Not everyone's ‘independent’ career can be spring-boarded by Rupert Murdoch's chequebook...And I'm not talking about MySpace. Rawkus' posting of this picture seems like some ho shit, but slow down...Plus, I have no stake in it, but to act like Company Flow ‘made’ Rawkus is revisionist history at best. El's beef with Rawkus seems warranted...but these kids are no different than him in 1997...they just want to make music and win...”
It should be remembered that without the internet it is unlikely any of this would have escalated in the first place. Perhaps this is a lesson that foreshadows the delicate nature of the modern day music industry, where relationships can be unwittingly built or destroyed from one second to the next.
Either that or no one actually likes P Diddy.
