StickyGreen said:
yea...like e-40. dude sounds almost kinda silly on the mic now. :x
Well...my gut feeling is that JIVE dictates part of why 40's recent CDS are inconsistent. I remember in a '99 issue of MURDER DOG, 40 said that Jive was "on some pop tart shit", in that they cared more about promoting boy bands, Britney Spears, etc.
Whenever an underground artist starts incorporating pop touches on later records after signing w/a major, I believe that it happens not because the artist WANTS to change, but because the major label A & Rs demand it. BROTHA LYNCH told MURDER DOG that when Black Market hooked up with Priority, the A & R's there wanted LYNCH to "tone down" his evil nature on LOADED (which was still a dope CD), for instance.
Once you sign your John Hancock, the A & Rs have basically got you by the nutsack--if they don't want to release your CD because they "don't hear a single", can they not release it? Unfortunately, if your name's on their contract, you bet they can. Or, the company may have the artist record, say, forty songs, and the A & Rs may ultimately pick the more poppish stuff over the more street stuff (i.e. when "The Bay" got left off GRIT & GRIND). Maybe 40 needs to get off Jive and do like THE MOSSIE did when they got POINT SEEN, MONEY GONE released independently.
I do agree, though, that someone younger like SAN QUINN would be more appropriate as far as getting someone to act as a leader if the Bay were to blow up commercially. PEACE!