[Artwork by Vango GFX]
By now most of you have been watching this huge drama Between Saigon, Atlantic Records, & Just Blaze blow up this past week, but for those who haven't illRoots is here to enlighten...Okay, for exhibit A, we have here the original message sent out on Myspace, that for reason's we will learn later on in this post was taken negatively by Just Blaze...
“Pleassssse don’t believe that the hold up of my album has ANYTHING to do with me or my work ethic or my rate of producing GREAT music. If you go to YouTube and type in JBTV Saigon, you will hear snippets of my album that Atlantic doesn’t seem to have the desire to release. I just think the once great Atlantic Records has been belittled down to a home of ringtone making artists, like they sign the great jingle writers and real artist like myself don’t get a chance to showcase my musical abilities. I feel like Tupac now — it’s me against the world. Thank God artist such as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin (Atlantic artist) weren’t signed in this day in time. They would’ve never seen the light of day. Not to worry though, my fans WILL hear my entire album very soon whether they put it out or not. If they don’t I will and let y’all be the judge of if the music is GREAT or not. I am putting out a brand new song right here, titled “What A Life” featuring Tre Williams from Ill Will Records. You can hear it first, here on MySpace. Look forward to hearing more exclusives from me. I’m beginning to think that being my album is geared toward the betterment and not the destruction of my people, the powers that be don’t wanna release it. ‘Cause I know its not the skills. I am the MOST RELEVANT RAPPER in THE WORLD by far when it comes to my people. Unfortunately, they only care about $$$$. Oh well, welcome to America. Greatest Story Never Told coming this summer…regardless.”Then, once Justin told Sai to take the blog off, Saigon decided to pretty much make it 1000 times worse by Contacting HiphopDX to do these two interviews... (Part 1) (Part 2)
Shortly after HiphopDX posted the second interview, Just Blaze choice to hook us up with his side of the story...
I didn’t really want to do this at first. I’ve seen a lot of what’s been going on the past week online and what’s been said by various folks and media outlets. As I’m sure most of you can see, I’m not really the type to care what people may necessarily think of me, there’s more to me than you’ll ever know.(Click Here for The Rest)
The most recent response is that of Saigon's who decided to give us his side of the story again, This one was removed from his blog aswell, so here is the whole thing...
This is why I guess they say the truth will set you free....A couple of days ago I posted a blog on MySpace to explain to the fans, (I dont even like to call them fans,) But the people who enquire everyday about the hold up of my project..Never was it posted to disrespect Atlantic Records or to seem ungrateful or unapreciative..I dont know HOW it became a media fiasco or all of that but my intentions were to solely let the people now about my frustrations and the hold up of my album....Now, as corny as this internet sh*t is, its also great because now you can get both sides of a story instead of getting caught up in that he say, she say sh*t.....Now I consider Just Blaze a friend and a mentor and respect him as an artist and a man, but I didnt understand why he would post a blog to the world only telling 1/3 of a story before even attempting to contact me at all and I dont know how it went from Saigon Vs. Atlantic to Saigon vs. Just Blaze when Ive never even mentioned him at all...The power of the dollar man...Whether or not this whole thing will have anything to do with the releasing of The Greatest Story Never Told (how ironic) is yet to be seen. All we know right now is that Saigon's career is going to be a very tough one. On a side note, Saigon is supposedly releasing a street album very soon and has been spotted working with DJ Premier.
Look, the songs we have for the album I wrote and recorded realistically speaking, within the first year of the deal..I signed my deal november 24th 2004...Aside from a few word changes here and there or a feature or something, we basically have the same album we have had for almost 2 years. Thats why I have been complaining to EVERYONE for the past Year and a half or so about a release date......I didnt understand why when Just Blaze knows this, he would act as if I was tripping...Then this writer from hiphopdx hits me on MySpace and says he is sorry if he ruffled anyone's feathers because in his interview I stated Just Blaze ate my budget so I couldnt work with anyone else...First of all, everyone in our camp knew Just was getting 85% percent of the recording budget when we signed the deal. We knew Just pretty much got the budget before I stepped foot in the studio. That was part of my deal. I signed that deal KNOWING I wouldnt be able to afford another big name producer. I didnt want one. He got more out of my record deal than me monetary wise but I didnt care because I just wanted to make the best album possible and Just Blaze is the best. I personally know he is the best in the world, He's almost not human when it comes to this music sh*t..I only mentioned other producers because I figured maybe the label felt they needed to put me with the "it" guy to put a song out...This is what happens when you get the run around for so long... I admit Just did do more than what he was contractually bound to do and he knows how greatly I appreciate that, but to make it look like my frustration is not warranted is crazy.. And yes, I had unlimited use of his studio, but he also put in my contract that I couldnt use any other studio.
Understand, Just Blaze and I only recorded about 20 songs in 2 and a half years (which is less than 1 song per month) I assumed we would be doing atleast 5 per month... Now of these 20 songs, 7 of them are slated to be on my album, the other 12 or 13 are also all keepers that if we put out right now would crush the game easily eg. Eyeball, Who Can Get Busy, Tournament of Torment etc. we litarally only probably recorded 2 songs that we couldnt use...My thing was, if we have this chemistry that works so well, why arent we in here just banging out songs all the time..We would have so much more to choose from. It never happened.. It wasnt Premier and Guru, It wasnt Rza and Gza, It wasnt Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth, It became too CORPERATE.. Just a business deal.. It seemed like the value of his beats were worth more than my rhymes so we couldnt just keep working. Which is understandable, he's Just Blaze...Im just Saigon the mixtape rapper (hahaha)...But I love the MUSIC man. I know he loves the MUSIC. I really wish there wasnt any money involved in this paticular album.. It came out great, but it couldve been greeeeat, feel me? This sh*t has gotten so corperate its killing the validity of the MUSIC.. This is how and why New York Hip Hop fell the fu*k off..I dont make a dollar off mixtapes yet Ive spit some of the hottest sh*t I ever wrote on mixtapes....My payment is the reaction of the people...You notice me and Just Blaze have only leaked ONE song in the 2 and a half years, Dont Do That, which I wasnt a big fan of anyway...Letter P was done before I signed with him...None of this was mentioned in his blog...I love Just Blaze but fair is fair, if he's gonna give it to the people, he should give it to them real....SAMPLE CLEARANCE? Thats what theyre telling me NOW, in June 07, but June 06' it was another story...Mind you we have the SAME album with maybe 2 slight changes???? This is new to the world, not us...EVERYONE Ive spoken to on our team agrees that they have NEVER seen anything like this before....Besides, That sample shoulda been submitted when Kingdome Come (the single, not the album) came out.. We wouldve been known there was a problem. We knew we needed that record regardless....
Now that were at the final stretch I hope everything works out...Its in Gods hands now, I dont know if Just Blaze made his blog to make me appear to be ignorant or impulsive but I am neither...Ive worked very hard to get where I am and if asking for a fair chance is wrong than I dont wanna be right..Im aware of the business side of the game but it will never consume me and make me a wack artist trying to come up with a gimmick or an "image" as you guys put it.. My image is who I am mufu*kas, You could write a book on Brian's life. fu*k Saigon .People like me dont need a fu*king image, and by the time some of yall people realize it, it probably will be too late....
Greatest Story Never Told Coming Soon......Oh by the way, If you read this Just, This woulda been much easier over the phone . But if you wanna let the world peak in, what could I do?...Love You Dog...
