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Why Does Def Jam Hate the West Coast?

Written on March 26, 2008 Wood Audio, Dro, Politics

So what’s up with Def Jam? It seems like after Warren G, they haven’t shown the West any love. Yes I give them props for putting out WC’s Ghetto Heisman, but the whole “Track nine skips and is unlistenable” feature just didn’t sell me on that CD. It’s not the West Coast’s fault that CD didn’t sell like it should have; the blame lays squarely on Def Jam. WC has no responsibility for the mistake Def Jam made pressing the CD.
Strike One

Doing some research on this post, I found a tape with an Julio G show from August 2006. Julio had Russell Simmons on, and was talking about a new Def Jam artist named Dro (No ,not Young Dro). Russell premiered a Dro track called Ghetto Prayer and it was one of the tightest songs I’ve heard in a long time. No joke, this was quality. Ghetto prayer was introspective, lyrical, and all over an extremely expressive beat. I’ve included the audio below.

I was extremely excited that Def Jam had decided to start supporting West Coast artists again, but aside from a feature on a movie soundtrack and a few MySpace videos, it seems like Def Jam didn’t help dude at all. I don’t know whose decision it was to throw Dro over a hyphy ass Rick Rock beat, and make a medium budget video to the song, but I wasn’t feeling it. Still, Dro had HUGE potential as you can tell from the track I posted.
Strike Two

So time goes on and Jay-Z takes over. Rumors go around that Glasses Malone was offered a deal, but didn’t take it. OK. Now what does Def Jam do? Be the bigger party and find another talented artist from the West to support? No, they take the scorned female route and now they want the West Coast to buy Rick Sauuuuce the bossssss’ new CD.

Just to prove my point, I did a cursory search to see how many West Coast artists were signed to Def Jam as of right now. The only thing west related I found was Kanye West. If that isn’t a blackball against a whole coast, I don’t know what is. It’s not like we don’t have the talent or the potential. Check our archive.
Strike Three

So what is Def Jam to do? Continue down this path and miss out on a potentially huge market? Check back next week for the answer.

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3 Responses to “Why Does Def Jam Hate the West Coast?”

  1. Wood Says: March 27th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    I may have done it a bit too much with that Photo! HAHHAHA

  2. West Coast artists need to embrace Digital Distribution | Lyay.net Says: March 31st, 2008 at 10:08 am

    [...] before. West Coast artists no longer need to adjust their goals according to this new market.  Major labels haven’t show the west coast any love lately, but at the same time, are they really needed? All artists need to focus on is recording, [...]

  3. DJ Shanx Says: April 13th, 2008 at 12:43 am

    I agree totally and it personally pisses me off that they won’t sign anybody from the west. I did hear that Hot Dollar was signed to Def Jam but I’m not sure if that is still pending are not.I totally feel we are dropping the best heat and they are sleeping. Between L.A. and the Bay theres a market in itself full of talent along with Diego,Oregon Vegas, Seattle ,etc.

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