Ashanti is continuing to boss up and revealed that she owns her Masters. The first lady of Murder Inc. appeared on the Tamron Hall show and revealed that she controls her work and will also re-record her debut album.
“I have an amazing legal team,” Ashanti said. “The fact that I’ll be able to rerecord my first album and put everything together.”
Earlier this month, Ashanti assisted Moneybagg Yo on the remix of his hit “Wockesha.” The original single features a sample of Wayne talking about his cup on the opener. You can hear that here.
In an exclusive interview on the Where’s Wallo podcast, Cash Money Records CEO Bryan “Baby” Williams discussed many different aspects of his life and career, including the importance of owning your own masters.
Birdman says that many of his musical predecessors “got f***ed” in the music industry for not owning their masters, which he says is the primary reason for continuing his independent grind.
When asked by Wallo how he makes money off the masters, Baby replied, “It’s a gang of ways you can make money with your masters. We generate 20-30 million a year just off our masters.”
NBA YoungBoy is one of the biggest acts in Hip Hop at just 20-years-old and under home confinement. He’s a controversial artist, but it looks like he’s working on taking control of his destiny.
On Wednesday he took to his Instagram story to reveal that his label blocked his attempt to acquire his Masters. “I said they can have the next 4 albums free all I want is my masters in still got told no,” he wrote. “Dirty game.”
It’s unclear who owns the “Bandit” rapper’s Masters but he’s presumably referring to Atlantic Records, where he reportedly inked a 5 album, $2 million deal three years ago.
The deal was controversial because many fans thought he was worth more than what the notorious label was offering. Now it looks like NBA YoungBoy is trying to play chess, not checkers, but it’s not going to be an easy game.
Arguably the greatest rapper to ever live, Nas, probably could have anyone record on one of his songs, if only he asked them.
Probably… Maybe… Perhaps… But not everyone.
While he has joints with everyone from Lauryn Hill to JAY-Z to Mary J. Blige to Dr. Dre, his star status and industry muscle could not secure for him a feature from Prince. After appearing on N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN’s hit show, Drink Champs, Nas shared how Prince while rejecting his offer, actually put him on game.
The two old Queens friends were talking shop on the popular podcast- vibing off the genius of Nas’ new record, The Lost Tapes 2.
Nas mentioned that there were no features on this album because he wanted to later produce another in the TLT series that will have guests artists.
N.O.R.E. said, “So no one ever fronted on you?” This was in regards to hopping on a track.
Nas tells N.O.R.E. “I got it… Prince. Rest in Peace, Prince.”
N.O.R.E. and crew replied with cheers and then a joke, “Soon as you said ‘Prince’ everything got purple in here.”
Nas revealed, “I saw him. He came to my ‘I Am’ album release party and… Prince is Prince.”
The two joked about the Prince and referenced a lady he had with him, and if it was one of his famed love interest from the past (Vanity or Apollonia).
Nas tries to stay focus (N.O.R.E. cracks jokes the entire time) and said, “I pulled a N.O.R.E. move. I said, ‘Yo look man… let’s do this song.’ and he said, ‘Do you own your masters?’”
Prince and his team (lead by his then manager, attorney and current The Source owner and publisher L. Londell McMillan) broke historic boundaries for artists by fighting to own their own masters. Labels have (and continue) to exploit talented artists eager to get on by locking them into deals that deny them the lion share of their artistry.
Nas was one of them. He continued, “But he blew my sh*t because I was ‘I don’t and I am far from it because I owe these labels four or five albums.”
He said, ” I was like ‘DAMN! He dropped a jewel. He kind of helped me see the future. He said to me ‘when you own your masters give me a ring.”
According to Mr. Illmatic, Prince was cool. He even invited him to perform with him during some of his concerts.
