EL-Producto has launched into angry tirade against his former label Rawkus Records in his recent blog post. For those that have followed El-P over the years, you already know he’s hated the razorblade since he left the label years ago to form Def Jux. This is underground hip hop beef at it’s best. Angry over a picture they distributed on the internet showing the Def Jux honcho chillin’ with Diddy, EL-P believed the label was attempting to smear his reputation as he prepares to release his incredible new album, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead. Here are some excerpts from his blog:
“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 motherf***ers 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!”
RAWKUS RESPONSE
Well.. It didn’t take long. Here is Rawkus’s Official Response.
“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 Hiphop 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”
