RockMeTV recently talked with former Bad Boy producer (among other things) Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie and the five part video interview (all five parts embedded at the bottom of this post) is definitely a must watch for long time Bad Boy fans.
In part 1, he talks about how he developed his production skills and came up in the industry. In part 2, the subject turns to ghost producing and ghostwriting, producing vs. beat making and his relationship with Kanye West. The part about "ghost" work was very interesting to me because Angelettie said something that I've said to people a million times: if you are credited in the album book and, as such, given your publishing and your royalties and all of that - you are not a ghostwriter. If you see something, it's not a ghost. Songwriting is an art and part of the music industry.
When he talked about what it means to be an actual music producer, he had some interesting thoughts, as well. Here's what he said:
"Making the beat does not make you a producer. It makes you a beat maker. A producer is Jermaine Dupri. A producer is P. Diddy. A producer is Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie. A producer is now Kanye West. A producer is now Pharrell. Because I've experienced guys that have, back in the days, that have just given beats and heard their records for the first time when it was on the radio and it became a smash and they run around saying they produced that. No, you did the beat for that one third - or eighth - of the portion that it takes to make a hit record. That's like Ben Roethlisberger for the Steelers, who I love by the way, saying 'I won the Super Bowl.' 'We' won the Super Bowl."
In part 3, he was asked about the current Bad Boy sound with the host Gemini Keez saying he thought something was missing, but Angelettie had a great answer about the need to evolve and that it's a credit to Bad Boy to even still be around. It sounds like he's produced some new music for Cassie and Diddy. "My career started in 1990 and it's 2009 and I'm still here producing for Cassie and Puffy and I did Fat Joe, wrote a song called 'I Won't Tell," he said.
Here are Bad Boy's positions on the most recent Billboard U.S. album and single charts, released today. Though "Echo" falls a bit on the Hot 100, it continues to gain on others and makes a nice debut on the Pop 100. Red Cafe also charts for the first time as a member of the Bad Boy camp, with "Hottest in the Hood" re-entering the "Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs" chart.
Albums
The Billboard 200
82. "Forever in a Day" by Day26 (down from 52).
132. "Don't Feed Da Animals" by Gorilla Zoe (down from 114).
Billboard Comprehensive Albums
84. "Forever in a Day" by Day26 (down from 52).
147. "Don't Feed Da Animals" by Gorilla Zoe (down from 124).
Day26 and Donnie Klang will be performing at the Germain Arena in Estero, Florida on June 26, along with special guests Hurricane Chris, Mike Jones, Webbie and Yung Berg. Tickets are available now.
"Head and Shoulders," the new single from rapper SupaSTAAR features both Gorilla Zoe and Yung Joc. Check it out on his MySpace. For some reason, only the first 2/3 of the song and Gorilla Zoe's verse is playing for me, at this time.
Here are Bad Boy's positions on the most recent Billboard U.S. album and single charts, released today. "Echo" continues to move up and "Ready to Die" hits number 1 again on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Catalog Albums chart.
Albums
The Billboard 200
52. "Forever in a Day" by Day26 (down from 43).
114. "Don't Feed Da Animals" by Gorilla Zoe (up from 126).
Billboard Comprehensive Albums
52. "Forever in a Day" by Day26 (down from 43).
124. "Don't Feed Da Animals" by Gorilla Zoe (up from 139).
Top Soundtracks
18. "Notorious: Music From and Inspired by The Original Motion Picture" by Various Artists (down from 16).
Check out the clip below from Clinton Sparks. He was in the studio with Diddy and the two of them jokingly talked about Ciroc and the art of becoming a Ciroc Star. There is a track playing in the background of Dawn Richard singing an unnamed track, as well.
Here are Bad Boy's positions on the most recent Billboard U.S. album and single charts, released yesterday. Most notably, Gorilla Zoe's "Echo" debuts on the big chart, the Hot 100, at 82 and continues to move upward on other charts. How far will it go? It seems like it has some solid potential.
Biggie maintains strong positioning on catalog based charts, thanks to the DVD release of "Notorious."
Albums
The Billboard 200
22. "Forever in a Day" by Day26 (down from 8).
98. "Don't Feed Da Animals" by Gorilla Zoe (down from 85).
Billboard Comprehensive Albums
22. "Forever in a Day" by Day26 (down from 8).
106. "Don't Feed Da Animals" by Gorilla Zoe (down from 91).
Billboard and paidContent.org report on the release of fiscal second quarter earnings at Warner Music Group.
The company posted a loss of $68 million or 45 cents per share. In the same period last year, they lost $37 million or 25 cents a share. A chunk of this was a $33 million dollar write down on its investments in Lala and Imeem.
The report was below Wall Street's expectations. Revenue dropped 17%, falling to $668 million and Wall Street had been looking for $730.2 million. After the investment charges, the earnings per share came to a loss of 23 cents, whereas Wall Street had been expecting a loss of 25 cents.
One good note, however, is that the company is sitting on a lot of cash. $658 million to be exact. This is around 20% more than what they held in their last quarter.
Music sales still sliding: The company blames “a light release schedule and the turbulent global economy”, saying better releases are coming toward year’s end.
Counted among those releases will no doubt be Diddy's "Last Train to Paris."
Warner Music Group is the parent of Atlantic Records and their family of labels, which includes Bad Boy.
