Sway Negotiating With MTV for Executive Role

Adisa Banjoko recently interviewed Sway and it's a great interview.  I actually didn't know much about him beyond the VJ and DJ work he's done but he's quite politically astute and even drops some insights about Diddy that shifted my perception a bit.

However, the big news is that he hasn't been at the MTV offices for the last six weeks while he negotiates an executive position, a proposal that caught MTV by surprise.  To MTV's credit, they're trying to figure out how to make it happen, so we'll see.

Here are Sway's comments on the MTV situation:
I’m not working with MTV right now. Just to let you know I walked away from MTV six weeks ago. It wasn’t about the money. It was about the show and to prove to myself that I could work on that platform. I’m an entrepreneur, Adisa. You know my history.

They approached me in one way but I’m saying “No, I see bigger things. Let’s make a multi-media/brand deal. Let me become an executive within the company. I want to grow equity within the company. I want to put programming on the air. Let's utilize all the platforms we have.”

They agreed. They came back finally with a skeleton. But I have not been there in six weeks. I won’t go back until I feel comfortable about my contract. God has blessed me where I have the luxury to do that. You gotta know your self worth. You gotta know your value. I think MTV respects that and we gotta work it out. Otherwise I would have been on the air reporting this S!@#. . .

Adisa Banjoko then asked:
Do you think that MTV is not comfortable with an African American male in an executive position like that?

Sway responded:
Actually, I don’t think that’s true at all. I don’t think they’ve had a talent approach them the way that I approached them. I think it’s relatively new for them. The main guy I deal with, Dave, was enthusiastic about it. He was like “I did not know you were thinking like this”. In all honesty why would he because I know a majority of the talent are not approaching him on that level.

They took the contract and said “Let us look at it and we’ll re-present it to you." Which they did. We’re just working out the . . . We’re just tweaking out the little things. In my experience, no, they are not scared of the idea.

Right now, it SEEMS like they are quite welcoming to the concept. Eventually, we’ll square it out and I’ll be back. But until then, you gotta hold your ground. If for some reason it doesn’t work out then I gotta go to plan B. I gotta contingency plan. I gotta plan B, plan C and D. At the end of the day it’s business, when it comes to negotiating contracts.

For more from Sway, peep the interview at Adisa's blog, Holla at a Scholar!!.

Comments

[Hashim]

I have great respect for Sway. He's been able to play the table without selling himself out.