[NEWS] Nas Slams Def Jam Execs In E-Mail

Now see, this is why I love me some friggin' Nasir Jones. This man is the epitome of a person that stands firm for music. When I sit around and debate with like-minded music fiends and people look at me like I've lost my mind or have nothing better to do, I look at them and give them the eye of sympathy because they just don't get it and that's fine because we all can't.

But enough about me, lets get into this e-mail...


Nas sent an e-mail to the execs over at Def Jam demanding a bigger budget and some promotion for his project. if you can recall, last year Nas announced that he would be releasing another solo project sometime this year following the release of his collaborative LP with Damian Marley. We haven't heard anything about it so I'm sure most have just chocked it up to the album being axed.

On the contrary, as told by Nas' e-mail.

In said e-mail complete with the subject "Put My Sh*t Out," Nas tells the execs that they are messing with his dreams and want to put out good music. One of the funny parts for me is when he reads them and point out that they are not the stars that they think they are (one of the execs CC'd in the e-mail was pictured in my mind with that last statement).

Without spilling all of the juice, go on and read for yourself...

From: Nas
To: LA Reid, Steve Bartels, Steve Gawley, Michael Seltzer, Joseph Borrino, Chris Hicks
Subject: PUT MY SHIT OUT!

Peace to all,

With all do respect to you all, Nas is NOBODY’s slave. This is not the 1800′s, respect me and I will respect you.

I won’t even tap dance around in an email, I will get right into it. People connect to the Artist @ the end of the day, they don’t connect with the executives. Honestly, nobody even cares what label puts out a great record, they care about who recorded it. Yet time and time again its the executives who always stand in the way of a creative artist’s dream and aspirations. You don’t help draw the truth from my deepest and most inner soul, you don’t even do a great job @ selling it. The #1 problem with DEF JAM is pretty simple and obvious, the executives think they are the stars. You aren’t…. not even close. As a matter of fact, you wish you were, but it didn’t work out so you took a desk job. To the consumer, I COME FIRST. Stop trying to deprive them! I have a fan base that dies for my music and a RAP label that doesn’t understand RAP. Pretty fucked up situation

This isn’t the 90′s though. Beefing with record labels is so 15 years ago. @ this point I just need you all to be very clear where I stand and how I feel about “my label.” I could go on twitter or hot 97 tomorrow and get 100,000 protesters @ your building but I choose to walk my own path my own way because since day one I have been my own man. I did business with Tommy Mottola and Donnie Einer, two of the most psycho dudes this business ever created. I worked well with them for one major reason……. they believed in me. The didn’t give a fuck about what any radio station or magazine said….those dudes had me.

Lost Tapes is a movement and a very important set up piece for my career as it stands. I started this over 5 years ago @ Columbia and nobody knew what it was or what it did but the label put it out as an LP and the fans went crazy for it and I single handlely built a new brand of rap albums. It’s smart and after 5 years it’s still a head of the game. This feels great and you not feeling what I’m feeling is disturbing. Don’t get in the way of my creativity. We are aligned with the stars here, this is a movement. There is a thing called KARMA that comes to haunt you when you tamper with the aligning stars. WE ARE GIVING THE PEOPLE EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT. Stop throwing dog shit on a MAGICAL moment.

You don’t get another Nas recording that doesn’t count against my deal….PERIOD! Keep your bullshit $200,000.00 fund. Open the REAL budget. This is a New York pioneers ALBUM, there ain’t many of us. I am ready to drop in the 4th quarter. You don’t even have shit coming out! Stop being your own worst enemy. Let’s get money!

-N.Jones

Whew! Right?!

What's interesting is that Q-Tip said a similar thing about those who work behind the desks in the music industry. In an interview with XXL Mag Q-Tip mentioned that "A lot of people who curate in the business, and curate the art don’t really have good artistic sense. They may know commerce, but they aren’t savvy enough to know how to balance commerce and art, you know?"

It's good to see artists fighting for their craft instead of just settling.

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