Why be cotton, when you can be leather?

Its true, but its funny coming from him. Basically, the pot is calling the kettle a dirty motherfucker. I see where he’s coming from. He’s been in the game long enough to notice the trends and changes, but he’s gotta take a bit of responsibility for it.

I haven’t watched TRL since Carson Daly was hosting it, but its still a huge deal that indie artists have a chance to not only premiere their video, but to have it available to vote on the countdown.

Click here to vote for the video
(CTRL+F “Kidz” to find it)

Check out the video:

For all you pirates who are listening to the crappy version of this album. Hear the real story of what happened.

Source

Short Version
One person can F*** up your whole SH*!

Long Version
Finally, to clear up all the stories. The album was completed by Jay Dee in 2006. For readers of Waxpoetics, we had run 2 months of full page spreads of the album.

Everything was set, Dilla was excited, we we’re all excited. Then the unbelievable happened, we all lost a beloved hero. Shortly after, a now ex-employee (which will go unnamed, those who know, know) began exploiting the situation and confusion surrounding his death. We’ll even go as far as saying that this person was anticipating this situation. We’re NOT saying that he wanted it to happen, but he certainly was being an opportunist (like other people surrounding Dilla) planning around the reality of the situation. He had spent much of his time with Dilla toward the end of his life. Those involved could see it coming. It all begin there.

This person has a knack of positioning himself with some of the most talented people in the game, but it always showed to unravel when it counted. This person has put other labels into this same situation (which will also go unnamed). He began spending a lot of time getting close with J’s family, and the rest of the label’s priorities were being ignored. Other artists on our label began seeing an attitude change in this person, and suspected the scheming. He was even confronted and warned before all of this went down. Make no mistake, this person was responsible for most of the initial business with J Dilla. He organized most of the photoshoots which everyone uses for J Dilla’s press today, such as BBE & MTV pictures. Much of the material that exists, including the signing of the album to the Operation Unknown label, was because of this person. Greed is like crack though, and something snapped. This person was obsessed with Dilla, and it all shifted to high gear months after his death.

Shortly after, this person began recruiting unsupsecting upcoming artists and pitching the idea to them that he, and only he, had access to J Dilla beats, and they would be fortunate enough to be featured on the album (which the album was already completed at the time). This person started recording other artists verses over Jay Love Japan beats. Even the track featuring the Jack Davey rap (of J Davey) was done over a beat that was already used for Phat Kat’s 12″, “Nasty Aint It”. There were even demos with the artist “Truth Hurts” singing over the track “In The Streets”.

On top of the Jay Love Japan situation, he was also caught acting fraudulently in regards to other business matters involving Operation Unknown such as skimming advance money from other artists. After all of the allegations were confirmed, he was quickly released from the company. Upon his release, he leaked the unofficial demos he had recorded to spite the label and to garnish reputation from unsuspecting artists and businesses to help him solidify new employment.

After the leak of the project, we were set on releasing the album. We are music lovers first and foremost, and we were caught puttng our label into the hands of a schemer. It’s actually quite poetic, because our newest artists on our label are in the same position Dilla was in 4 years ago, trailblazing without the massive accolades. It’s all so fitting really. For those who don’t know, the only reason J Dilla wanted to work with our label was because he heard the other music we had on our label. Music from the group “POLY“, and solo music from that duo. He worked with our label for very little money this was because J was about the music. An aquarius, a genius, that only wanted to mess with that future sound. Detroit techno, motorcity soul, listen to the samples he worked with, he liked that bugged out sound, no doubt.

In June 2007, we were set on releasing this project, we could no longer take the delay. We hustled to raise enough money to put it out, and moved forward with it through Fat Beats. About 2 weeks later, we get a call from J Dilla’s estate saying we didn’t have rights to this. So now, all of the hardwork, all of the advertising, and most importantly, THE FANS OF DILLA’s MUSIC all had to wait, because we were being accused of doing shady business. It seems that this one person’s shady reputation had reached high places, because we were even asked if “this person” was still working with us.

These negotiations have lasted for the greater part of 2007, and has delayed other groundbreaking releases such as BAATIN’s CLASSIC album “TITUS”, analog electro outfit “POLY” , and the crossover group “The Teeter Totters“. Come to find out, while we’re dealing with this delay, under scrutiny, other people are TRULY bootlegging crappy versions on vinyl, the artwork, and the pictures we paid for and designed!
We’re glad to say that we’ve resolved this situation and Jay Love Japan will be available through J DILLA’s ESTATE worldwide in early 2008 on all formats. The digital release is already available on ITUNES!!