MassMedia Swag: Jay-Z Runs This City

I know my updates have been really slow, I am in the middle of writing my third novel and it’s hard to write and update.  Please forgive me and bare with me as I get through this, however Jigga Man is in full effect. He hit up Letterman and spoke with XXL about people not respecting his gangster, read below.

Let’s first clear this thing about Dame and Kanye and all of us. We all had a conversation about Kanye and whether to sign him. No one knew what would come of him. Not Dame, Not me not Biggs. So we all sat down and said “Let’s at least sign him so we can keep the tracks in house. It’s only good business.” Dame said “We can put Beans and Cam, surround him and make this type of album.” I wasn’t saying, don’t sign Kanye. I was saying, at least lets keep the beats in-house if anything. I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not Let’s keep him here. Dame came up with the idea of surrounding him with Rocafella artists on his album which never came out, cause when the album came in everyone was like, “Oh this is good.” He stood on his own. If anything , I should be credited for wanting to sign him for his tracks. So even if Dame did sign him, he was gone at that time. I engineered those albums. In my years there, even if Tina Davis signed NeYo, she was gone. They were gonna drop Neyo until Ty Ty put his hand up and said, “I’ll do the project” SO there’s no Ne-Yo if I’m not there. I scrapped one of his videos that no one knows about. Pulled Hype Williams, pulled June Ambrose, my stylist, made the “So Sick” video, and he’s outta here. Rihanna, theres just no getting around that. So in three years, I’ve worked on Kanye, Ne-Yo, and Rihanna. I don’t even wanna talk about the Fab record that was mine. [Money Goes, Honey Stays] off Fab’s latest LP Loso’s Way. Jeezy doing “Go Crazy” Remix. Jeezy was in my office. It doesn’t even make sense to list like that, cause its childish.

You don’t think they would be under intense scrutiny?
If any other president was sitting at the thing… No one says Irv Gotti brought Jay in so Lyor didn’t really do it. No one picks at anyone else’s resume. Whoever was working Usher, no one says LA Reid signed that, though. You’re still working. So whether I signed Kanye or not doesn’t make a difference. I executive produced every one of those albums. Every single one. Even as far as taking Slow Jamz and giving it to Twista so Kanye could have two looks at the same time – that was my idea. Or telling him to hold Jesus Walks or Hey Mama cause they were too big. Or putting T-Pain on Good Life.

Rihanna, from inception – releasing three albums in a row because I didn’t want her to become the “Pon The Replay” girl. How do you get out from under a big record? Keep giving them big records. SO now she’s the Pon The Replay girl and the SOS girl and The Unfaithful girl. Now she’s just an artist. Ne-Yo’s albums, we made those albums. Not Tina Davis. You put those three artist on any other record exec’s resume in the history of music, and they’re a genius. But because I’m an artist as well, no one gives me that type of credit. But that’s cool cause I don’t do it for that.

So if you ask me to grade my performance as the president, I’d say A-Plus. No one can bat 100. It’s impossible. I mean, everyone is looking at my shit. But if we really looked under the hood of every single record exec and the acts they put out in that time, I’d be
comparable to anyone.

Source: XXL October 2009 Issue