50 Cent & Greg Street Talk Music Industry Politics
50 Cent recently appeared on DJ Greg Street’s popular Atlanta radio show on V-103 to discuss his new album, Before I Self Destruct. If you’re in to industry insight, then you’ll dig the interview. We transcribed some key talking points, but you can also watch the full video is below. -Hiptics Staff
On finding out that Before I Self Destruct leaked online: “I was upset the first ten minutes that the record was out, but then it blew over because I realized that they got the record in it’s entirety, so they understand artistically what the record was about.”
On Interscope Records transition-period: “If you put the first record out the right way, you’re good from there. To clarify to the public what’s going on behind the scenes, I reached a point where I was making up 70% of the successful black music at Interscope Records. When I complained about the growth of the records, they offered me more money. They gave me more money and I said ‘thank you,’ and I went home smiling.Then I realized [I had to pay the money back to Interscope]. So, you didn’t give me anything. Pretty much you just told me to go learn how to ‘do’ the radio. Now I take the money. I get the radio staff. I put my records out. I get them to 500 spins before the [Interscope] kicks in and takes me where I need to go to sell the [album]. So when I drop “Get Up,” I get to 400-500 spins, and this is at the point where the major record companies are letting go 60% of their staff. That’s a huge transition on the mothership. I got ["Get Up"] to where it needed to go with the first 400-500 spins, but then they were out of whack because they just fired half of their staff. The person [at Interscope] that [handled my] new media is now my product manager. She’s doing the job that three people used to do.”
On positioning records on radio: “It’s taking longer to position the records at radio. [What used to take] six to eight weeks for a hip hop record to reach it’s peaking point is now taking twelve to sixteen weeks like an R&B record. Because the consumers of hip hop products have low attention spans, kids are not sure who’s hot at that point. They get off that record [and] on to another record…”
Video Credit: DJ Greg Street
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