Interesting piece on Damon Dash in New York magazine:
“Not many people understand how important having a butler is, but it is,” Dash says. “I need somebody to help me get everything I’m going to wear for the day all set up, know what I’m saying?” A day with Damon Dash is like a Britney Spears concert, with a change of outfits for every phase (he’s currently doing a sort of matchy-matchy homeboy thing with below-the-knees shorts, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and spotless leather high-tops, all in red). “You’d think it’s easy, but I’ve got a lot to put together, accessory-wise, especially at night. Cuff links are a motherf*cker.”
Found the above via Nah Right where there’s also news regarding the first issue of Cam’ron’s Platinum Entrepreneur, now available as a free .pdf download.
The Dash article does discuss his business history and fallout with Jay-Z but Platinum Entrepreneur offers an article called Cam’ron: Self Made Millionaire with fresher and more revealing biz information. Although, given some of Cam’ron’s nutty public statements, it’s kind of hard to take his numbers at face value.
Update:
After looking back at our discussion in the comments of how much Cam gets per album, I realized that the problem isn’t the claim of 6 dollars to 2 dollars [or similar figures] but more of a question of who’s responsible for paying what, how does the recoupment process work and so forth. What I think Cam did was keep more of his cut by not spending on publicity. The album, whatever is was, got little attention despite Cam’s crazy public statements that apparently stood in for a publicity campaign and basically flopped for an artist at his level of visibility.
I really liked the magazine. It was a good read, and has given me some ideas… Anyway like you I find it kind of hard to take his numbers at face value too. He was exaggerating BIG TIME!!!
And as for Damon Dash. No one gives a toss about his butler (who in reality is probably one of his long time dregs from the hood) and his wardrobe. Idiot!
Janice, it was the writer and I who focused on the butler in the Dash story but I couldn’t resist.
With Cam, just the amount he claims to be getting per unit on the dvd and his albums doesn’t sound believable but I haven’t looked at the article closely.
I’d do a little more research but I just focus on marketing now. Though I guess lying about how much you make is one of hip hop’s classic marketing strategies!
We were discussing Cam’s per album take at my site too, and I was saying that although I also find it hard to believe, I have yet to see anyone prove him wrong. Or any of the other Koch artists who have made similar claims for that matter. I mean, wouldn’t somebody have exposed them as liars by now, or am I just being naive?
Eskay, you’re just being naive. Think about how long it took news to come out of Russell Simmons’ public lies about how much Phat Farm was making. That didn’t come out till he was under oath during a largely unrelated court case:
http://www.prohiphop.com/2005/05/russell_simmons.html
I bet most people don’t even know that about Russell’s claims.
There are many incentives for insiders to hush things up and for opponents to not raise such issues. Even Cam’s enemies know better than to shine too much public light on such claims and deals.
Eskay, as you get more connects in NY’s publishing world, (if you haven’t already) you’ll trip at how much writers know that they will never reveal publically. Nobody wants to lose their position in the food chain, especially in the music industry.
Ditto for radio deejays. One of the reasons they talk so much junk about nonsense (besides the fact that fans live on nonsense) is that they aren’t really allowed to get real.
Ironically, hip hop artists seem to talk about realness as much as they do because, at this point, hip hop is one of the least real of all art forms.
I remember Rah Digga saying in an interview that she almost signed to Koch, but decided against it in the end. When asked about her reasons for changing her mind she said “Well, I was going to do a Koch thing. Dipset was all singing about the big $7 an album and I’m like, Let’s see what’s good with that. I wanted to try to slip one of those out before I joined the major label circuit, but I came to find out that it’s not as cut-and-dry as getting $7 an album. So, after a careful evaluation, it sounded like a waste of time, so I passed”.
And wasn’t it Cam who was complaining just the other day about Koch not wanting to pay him?
Thanks, Janice. Lil Jon had public issues with Koch not wanting to pay him as well. It’s too bad because as much as they get dissed, they do occupy an important place in the industry.
That’s true….
I need to get to the bottom of that one. One of my regulars posted a link to this Wendy Day interview where she mentions the 8 bucks an album deal, but it seems like she was speaking was in the context of artists owning their masters and running their own labels.
http://www.blackelectorate.com/articles.asp?ID=269
Eskay, I wish you would pursue this. That would be very cool.
My bad, it was TVT that Lil Jon was complaining about not getting paid.
In thinking more about this, those figures may make sense for his company to receive. What threw me off was comparing his figures to what an artist would receive and that’s probably an apples and oranges comparison.
In any case, I’d still like to see a breakdown of how that works from someone who has access to the real figures, whether they’re Cam’s figures or not.
ya niggas real ya heard