Author: JD

THIS IS THE TITLE OF PIECE WRITEN IN THE NY TIMES ABOUT BRANDS GETTING IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS,SHOUT OUT TO MY MAN GEOFF COTTRILL Geoff Cottrill of Converse at a 5,200-square-foot space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that the company is converting into a recording studio. THE STORY BASICALLY TALKS ABOUT BRANDS AND RECORD LABELS DOIN BUSINESS,THEY BRING UP TAG RECORDS AND THIS WHATS SAID Two years ago the Island Def Jam Music Group announced Tag Records, a joint label with Procter & Gamble’s Tag Body Spray that promised a “multimillion-dollar marketing effort.” A Brooklyn rapper, Q da Kid, was signed, and the veteran producer and music executive Jermaine Dupri was established at the helm. But in less than a year the new label collapsed, Mr. Dupri left Def Jam, and Q da Kid was stuck in contractual purgatory. “I was with a company that didn’t understand the music business,” the rapper said in a telephone interview. “They‘re used to their brands flying off the shelves like it ain’t nothing, and they thought, ‘If we put enough money behind this, he’ll be big.’ And it wasn’t like that.” Whether Tag fell apart because of a clash of corporate cultures or a more typical major-label power struggle — Mr. Dupri was known to feud with Def Jam’s chairman, Antonio Reid — is not clear. (In an e-mail Steve Bartels, Island Def Jam’s president, leaned toward the culture-clash explanation. “I think the interaction could have been more focused,” he wrote. “The nuances of developing a new artist can take years.”) But Tag Records’ fate points to the reality that sneaker and soda companies are ultimately in it to sell sneakers and soda, not music. NOW THE REAL STORY ,TAG RECORDS DID’NT WORK BECAUSE DEFJAM COULD’NT UNDERSTAND WHY TAG WANTED TO INVEST ALL THIS MONEY INTO A NEW ARTIST.Q FIRST VIDEO, BUDGET AND PROMOTIONAL LAYOUT WAS 10 TIMES MORE THAN THEY GIVE A NEW DEFJAM ARTIST AND I DONT THINK THEY KNEW HOW TO JUSTIFY THAT.I WAS APPOINTED THE PRESIDENT CAUSE THE PEOPLE AT TAG KNEW MY LOVE AND COMMITMENT FOR BREAKING NEW ARTIST.BOTTOM LINE IS THIS, IF BOTH PARTIES AGGREE AND WORK TOGETHER THIS IS THE NEW WAVE OF WHERE WERE SUPPOSE TO BE .