They Got A Right To Be Hostile Part 2

Continuing where I left off, discussing great acts who are getting the shaft from their recording homes.

Artist: The Roots
Label: Def Jam
Releasing Albums Since: 1994
Their Case: Whether or not you’ve heard an album from The Roots, you know one thing: Their live show has no peer. They switch up sounds with each new release, and have established a reputation for killing most of their competition with their production plus Black Thought is pretty nasty on the mic. The Roots have pretty much set the mold for ‘the good music isn’t promoted’ vs. ‘this is what people want to hear’ argument. Some idiotic executives just don’t believe that a Hip-Hop band can sell albums, thus they’re forced to tour at least 2/3 of every year. ?uestlove has said that they record albums so that they can perform new material and tour so that people know there’s a new LP in stores. The good thing is that in one night they take in more than a lot of peoples’ salaries, 200+ nights a year. So they aren’t hurting even though they can’t seem to get a break with good promotion.

Artist: Ghostface Killah
Label: Def Jam
Releasing Albums Since: 1996
His Case: Pretty Tony may be the greatest story of the last decade or the saddest. He’s come from the monstrous Wu-Tang unit into his own, quietly has the group’s best solo catalogue and never sells records in line with his talent. He’s a great storyteller with imagery plus comedy, battle raps, insane slang and boundless creativity are at his disposal. Ghost can make a good mainstream record, yet he sounds out of place when he goes too far to the right. On paper he has 2007’s album of the year, with Swift and Changeable being his upcoming collab with the equally amazing MF Doom. He could retire today a legend with gems like “Get up in that bitch face and tell her ‘Ghost said take your clothes off’” and rhyming over a Delfonics song without sampling it. Here’s to hoping he doesn’t get fed up and just hang it up soon, because no one wants to be rapping for nothing. Maybe his paper is straight through GZA’s bond analysis tips though.

Artist: Rhymefest
Label: J Records
Releasing Albums Since: 2006
His Case: He won a Grammy for co-writing Jesus Walks before his album came out, and Kanye is his pal. This should have been a surefire plan for marketing success, unfortunately J Records is tax write-off paradise with Alicia Keys being their only hitmaker at the moment. Blue Collar is a sleeper, no thanks to the somewhat lackluster single “Brand New”. Just Blaze and No I.D. gave him bangers, he makes great songs for the layman and still manages to have a good time with his music. But with hardly anyone knowing the album existed, he was pretty much doomed. He’s overcompensated by putting on a hell of a live show, but that still doesn’t make up for his label’s failures.

Artist: Little Brother
Label: Atlantic/ABB
Releasing Albums Since: 2003
Their Case: They went from internet wunderkinds with a classic debut in The Listening and horrid distribution at the hands of ABB, to the limelight and Atlantic Records wound up dropping the ball with The Minstrel Show. Supposedly BET said the group was too intelligent for their video to get played with a song about enjoying their careers; so like The Roots and Rhymefest, Little Brother has to amaze those who have slept by tearing it down on the stage. For a few weeks earlier this year Phonte was the talk of the town over at XXLmag.com, as he was taken to task for preaching to the choir about corporate interests responsible for programming what people wind up loving. Add to this a scorching DJ Drama mixtape and LB has a serious underground buzz, as they’ve dedicated themselves to bringing music with fierce lyricism and feeling back to the mainstream. Earlier this year a group of females asked me what was hot that I would recommend, I played Tanya Morgan’s Moonlighting (find it if you haven’t). and the immediate knee-jerk response was “They sound like Little Brother”. My point is at the very least people know the name, and hopefully with their upcoming effort Get Back Atlantic will do right so that more know the music.

P.S. Yes, 3 of the acts I talked about are on Def Jam. Dont blame Hov, he's not a businessman he's a business, man.