Fieva
facebook.com/fieva
After posting to the thread about Change getting signed, it made me think. I took a look at the deals I passed up back in the day for different reasons. In all honesty I passed up some major deals...I was wondering if anyone else passed up deals and why? Just a conversation piece fellas...
To give you guys more background, I'll tell ya'll what happened...prepare for a long one.
The first time I passed up a deal I was about 18. I was at a club in a freestyle contest. Honestly the only reason I could freestyle was because I was drunk and pissed off at the time. I didn't win but I impressed this guy who had a friend who was an A&R at Sony. So he's telling me about this guy and I'm thinking he's just lying to me to make it sound good. He gives me the guy's business card and I call it about a week later. Apparently the guy called him and told him I might call. He offered me a deal but said I had to come out to New York to sign it. I told him I wasn't interested because I was wanting to finish school and look towards starting my own company independently. I don't have the number anymore but the last time I saw A&R listings his name wasn't on there so I doubt he works there anymore.
The second time (I was about 22), I submitted a 4 track demo with portfolio to Arista because someone told me that they were considering demos. I got a call back but they told me that they were looking to set up a group. I turned that down because I didn't want to be part of a group, I wanted solo.
The third time, about a year later, I was signed with a local label called D-Town Records when I lived in Texas. The owner of D-Town knew a guy who worked with Capitol. The guy was trying to get the whole label signed under Capitol. This is also where I met my mentor (I call him uncle) who helped me get started on making beats and recording my own music. I owe quite a bit of what I learned to him. The problem was at the time, me and my mentor were beefing with the owner and his son because we weren't getting paid what we were supposed to in our contracts so we knew if we signed on to Capitol, we'd get screwed while him and his son (who also rapped on the label) were making all the money. We decided to split away from the label and start our own label. When the guy from Capitol found out that he and I left, he told the owner that he was only interested in signing me but was going to sign the whole label because the owner wasn't trying to let him buy out my contract (yeah I was PISSED when I found out the whole story). I met him but never got any info on him other than that it was a legit dude.
To give you guys more background, I'll tell ya'll what happened...prepare for a long one.
The first time I passed up a deal I was about 18. I was at a club in a freestyle contest. Honestly the only reason I could freestyle was because I was drunk and pissed off at the time. I didn't win but I impressed this guy who had a friend who was an A&R at Sony. So he's telling me about this guy and I'm thinking he's just lying to me to make it sound good. He gives me the guy's business card and I call it about a week later. Apparently the guy called him and told him I might call. He offered me a deal but said I had to come out to New York to sign it. I told him I wasn't interested because I was wanting to finish school and look towards starting my own company independently. I don't have the number anymore but the last time I saw A&R listings his name wasn't on there so I doubt he works there anymore.
The second time (I was about 22), I submitted a 4 track demo with portfolio to Arista because someone told me that they were considering demos. I got a call back but they told me that they were looking to set up a group. I turned that down because I didn't want to be part of a group, I wanted solo.
The third time, about a year later, I was signed with a local label called D-Town Records when I lived in Texas. The owner of D-Town knew a guy who worked with Capitol. The guy was trying to get the whole label signed under Capitol. This is also where I met my mentor (I call him uncle) who helped me get started on making beats and recording my own music. I owe quite a bit of what I learned to him. The problem was at the time, me and my mentor were beefing with the owner and his son because we weren't getting paid what we were supposed to in our contracts so we knew if we signed on to Capitol, we'd get screwed while him and his son (who also rapped on the label) were making all the money. We decided to split away from the label and start our own label. When the guy from Capitol found out that he and I left, he told the owner that he was only interested in signing me but was going to sign the whole label because the owner wasn't trying to let him buy out my contract (yeah I was PISSED when I found out the whole story). I met him but never got any info on him other than that it was a legit dude.