Hip Hop CEO Attempts To Shut Down About.com Writer
Rizoh doesn't identify the CEO who took issue with an interview he posted at About.com so his post on the incident on his more personal blog offers an interesting combination of using a blog to publicize an issue that probably would not otherwise come to light and yet not identifying the miscreant in question:
About two weeks after I declined the CEO's request for me to script an article counteracting the content of the interview, they're now demanding that I delete the interview entirely from my site. Not happening potna. That was 1 hour 45 minutes worth of conversation, 4 hours worth of typing and transcribing, and an additional 2 hours spent formatting and publishing that sh*t. If you don't like the statements made, why don't you address the interviewee about it. Need I remind you that I'm only a journalist doing my job, and I've got my voice recorder handy to back it up.
Although this issue does relate to freedom of speech, as Rizoh notes, and freedom of the press, I would place it in the category of Hip Hop CEO tries to control public image in a stupid, oppressive way and has his ass [temporarily] saved by a blogger who declines to reveal that CEO's identity. Stupid CEO.
Based on the timeline in the post and a look at the interviews, I'd say it was the Dreddy Kruger interview that's at issue. The interviews aren't dated but Dreddy's was current when I posted about it on May 17th and it's the only one that looks controversial. In fact, it's very controversial. I'm not going to take the time to guess at the CEO but multiple labels are discussed in the interview. If I was to speculate, I would eliminate Def Jam since CEO's operating at that level would just hand it over to underlings and/or lawyers.
I'm curious as to how About.com's legal department would look at this issue, especially given the fact that they're owned by the NY Times and that the NY Times deals with government level legal battles, as opposed to indie record label legal battles.
Official Site: About Rap/Hip-Hop
Go Rizoh! It must feel good to have the power of the NY Times legal dept backing you up.
He also blogs at SOHH Houston, which I think you mentioned before.
Posted by: Hashim | June 13, 2006 at 06:06 PM
That's my assuming they would. Legal departments are weird. They really do think differently!
But it's hard for me to imagine a Times company wanting to set a negative precedent for a documentable interview of this type.
Posted by: Clyde Smith | June 13, 2006 at 06:59 PM
After reading the Dreddy article, I don't see who else could have come at him...Craig Kallman? Muggs? Angeles Records didn't get shit on THAT bad, just cause he called out the GZA project.
I don't know...maybe Jigga just decided to flex on him one day
Posted by: J. Space | June 14, 2006 at 01:15 PM
J. Space, I just reread it after reading your comment and I have to agree. The harshest stuff was on Def Jam. Even the comments about Little Brother were somewhat standard in that all sorts of people regularly state that majors don't know how to handle certain acts.
I guess someone like Jay-Z could hope that star power would be enough to bring Rizoh in line. I know that interview got a lot of response, plus various bloggers linked to it, so maybe it caught their eye.
To some degree I think a lot of people are watching what happens on the Internet now, even if they won't acknowledge it publically.
Given what happened with Kanye West on Jesus Walks, it would make sense for Def Jam to assign somebody to monitor this stuff or to use a service that monitors it for them.
But I guess those who know ain't gonna say.
Posted by: Clyde Smith | June 14, 2006 at 03:07 PM