Transcription
Since its formation in 2008, Rock Nation has been a cornerstone of the modern music industry. These days, the label, which was launched with J.Cole as its inaugural sneige, has gone on to become so much more than just another company. A sprawling empire with over 20 different divisions. The conglomerate, which plays host to or manages artists such as Rihanna, Megan the Stallion, Push A, and many more are a true force in modern entertainment. But throughout that rise, they've been stalked by accusations of some pretty shady business tactics. In some cases, even by the very people that they helped propel to stardom.
"So, tell me about your audition with Jay-Z. Tell me what he said to you."
"A really good audition."
"Yes. But before I met him, I was so nervous. I was so I was shaking literally."
"So, then what did he say to you? He said something to you."
"Oh, yes. He said, 'We don't sign songs here. We sign artist.' And there was this little pause and I was nervous. But then he said, 'There are two ways to leave here. Either through the door with the deal sign or through this window and we're on the 29th floor.'"
"So you was like, 'Where's the pen? Paper. I'm signing.'"
But where comments like this were brushed aside, recent weeks and months have seen an influx of new evidence that behind the corporate facade, they are moving in a way that's pretty devious. Just ask some of the people who have dared to get in their way.
"I'mma tell you about Jay-Z. I'mma tell you about Jay-Z. He's the most sensitive [ __ ] on the planet and he can't take [ __ ] in his comments telling him the truth."
"Okay, it's your boy Louisa and this is why Rock Nation is bullying the industry. First, let's set the scene. Since his days as an MC, Jay-Z has always been hard-headed in a way that accumulated many enemies. Famously declaring that he can't leave rap alone. The game needs me. Haters want to be clapped in Chrome. It ain't easy. Jay has weathered beefs with rappers like Nas and Mob Deep. While also enduring business dealings going sour with people like his former Rockefeller partner Dame Dash. Among all these different scenarios he's found himself engaged in. One thing has become very very clear. Shawn is not a man to be trifled with particularly when it comes to his cash flow."
"I mean everybody knows Jane [ __ ] like that. Everyone knows that. You know what I'm saying? Like"
"Does that surprise you at all? Cuz that seems particularly shady."
"Listen, if you ask anyone in the industry, it's a common knowledge that Jay ain't [ __ ]. You know what I'm saying?"
"Divine ain't [ __ ] for our audience."
"He's about the bag. You know, we all know that it's about he's self-preserving period. Like, you know, it's just that the people he does it to don't have like Beyonce next to him. They don't have that kind of a power. But, you know, this dude here, everyone's looking."
"You know, he do that [ __ ] to me with girls. Like, you know, he'll be like, you know, I'll be talking to a chick and I'll be like, 'Yo, you should ask me to do this, that, and the third.' And he'd be like, 'I wouldn't do it.' And then [laughter] the next day he's wifeed her and I'd be like, 'Oh, that's some funny shit.'"
"Right?"
By all accounts, the man who once stabbed Juan Univera for reportedly bootlegging his album retains this ruthlessness in the business world. However, he couldn't do it all single-handedly. And among his most trusted lieutenants is Rock Nation's CEO, Desiree Perez. And these days, she's getting implicated in just as many of these industry beefs as he is. A former club promoter who booked Jay-Z back in the day. Desiree has a little of a checkered past and allegedly churned federal informant in 1994 when Perez was arrested and faced drug firearm and grand lararseny charges. Years later, Desiree, who is married to Rock Nation sports CEO Juan Perez, was pardoned by Trump's White House with the government agency claiming that since her conviction, Miss Perez has taken full accountability for her actions and has turned her life around. She has been gainfully employed and has been an advocate for criminal justice reform in her community. But if you ask one of these major critics of Rock Nation, she is every bit as conniving as she was back in the day.
Out of all the people who've been intent on revealing the true nature of Rock Nation, few of them have taken on the task with passion and perseverance as Nicki Minaj. Although they were once occasional collaborators, Jay-Z and Nicki had been at odds for a while. Recently, she disputed his treatment of Lil Wayne in the midst of him being denied the Super Bowl halftime show, taking up for her mentor and claiming that he had been snubbed, then went on to claim via her often chaotic station head account that he has been limiting her from reaching her full financial potential.
"Jay-Z has exhibited signs of envy, jealousy, hate, and stopping bags behind the scenes allegedly. Why is it always the same story? So that means Nas made that all of that stuff up. DMX made all of that stuff up. Um he was beefing for a minute with well 50 um [clears throat] with Dame and Dip Damon Dipset for a while. And isn't it interesting how many views even with females that he's allegedly been behind as well?"
Among her claims is that due to her early involvement in title, due to being one of the 15 artists gifted a 3% stake in the streaming service at its 2015 launch, and others, Jay-Z owes her a whole boatload of cash. According to her, she was offered a million for her share after the company was sold to Jack Dorsey Square for $32 million in 2021. For that reason, Nikki has asked him to provide the money she feels he's unfairly withholding.
"We've calculated about 100 to 2 million so far. Jay-Z, call me to settle this karmic debt. It's only collecting more interest. You still in my top five though."
But when it comes to the heat between them, this is merely a fraction of a larger problem. Because whenever she gets a chance, she'll go off on Jay and the CEO, Desiree, maintaining that they're actively trying to sabotage her career and the online presence of her audience.
"They came begging the queen for a tour and album and I said, 'Nope, LMFAO. I wanted to patch it up. They needed help from the queen in the barbs. I called the barbs on the secret barb phone and it was recording. No, just like the casino. Jay-Z, let me find out. You going to let Desiree take the fall alone?' Minaj continued. 'I don't blame you. That ugly ass hoe. [ __ ] going to snitch anyway. You might as well beat her to it. Conspiracy, false imprisonment, civil rights violations. Run from there.' She concluded, 'Okay, I'm not going to put out the album anymore. No more music. Hope you're happy now, Jay-Z. Bye, Barbs. Love you for life.'"
And whenever there's scrutiny on them in recent months, Nikki has been on hand to engage in it. Recently celebrating their inability to get a casino license. Hearing Desiree Perez talk about how she was begging for 40 million and was told no.
"Oh, broke nation. How'd you go so [ __ ] broke?"
And she's not content to stop there, even leveling big accusations at them that they basically destroyed both entertainment and sports in one fell swoop.
"Dear Jay-Z and Desireette, you ruined hip hop, ruined football, ruined basketball, and ruined touring. The jig is up."
According to her, the entire company is nefariously pulling strings, and doing everything they can to detract from the controversies that continue to surround them.
"Anytime Cook Nation's in the news for something they don't want you to know, a few things will happen. Will Smith will appear, a famous person is announced dead, and their allies will begin to post slash say nasty things about the queen."
Naturally, everything Nikki says as of late has been taken with a real pinch of salt. As to put it mildly, though, she's been crashing out for a while now. However, the notion of the upper management mistreating people whose usefulness has elapsed or dared to question them is nothing new. And these days, the case studies are beginning to stack up.
When it comes to Rock Nation kicking people to the curb once their cultural currency has expired or getting in their way, one man who certainly springs to mind is Colin Kaepernick. Perhaps best known at this point for his famous decision to kneel during the national anthem that got him expelled from the NFL. Colin Kaepernick basically became a civil rights figure. And to begin with, Jay seemed to be firmly on his side of his principled stance to protest against police brutality.
"Would you have said do it, don't do it? What would you have counseled the brother?"
"Oh, 100% do it. I mean, there's Look how many people play football. They're not all going to be him. Like, you just put his name next to Muhammad Ali. Would you rather be playing football getting your head dinged in or would you [laughter] or would you rather be an iconic figure for the rest of your life, a job that I think people again, we we confuse the idea of having a job with fulfilling your purpose."
Or at least he did until a bag was at stake. Just two years on from making those comments in favor of Cap, Jay-Z decided to cross the cultural picket line and sign a multi-year deal to produce the Super Bowl halftime via Rock Nation as their entertainment strategist.
"Cuz there's two parts of protesting. You go outside and you protest and then the company or the individual say, 'I hear you. What do we do next?'"
"We have cops that are murdering people. We have cops in the SFPD that are blatantly racist. And those issues need to be addressed. For me there was for me this is for me it was like action actionable item. What are we going to do with it? You know what I'm saying? So reaching millions and millions of people and or we get stuck on Colin not having a job."
Jay-Z partnered with the National Football League, the same mega corporation that employs those involved in murder, domestic violence, and countless other offenses, but sees a disproportionate issue at hand with silently taking a knee on the sidelines. What struck me was this.
"You kneel with your head"
"Here."
"What?"
"I What?"
"Did you kneel with your dad?"
"Um, okay. I think we've passed kneeling"
And immediately this went down like a ton of bricks with both Cap and his supporters. Years on, Jay has retained this position and many people have essentially forgotten about the entire controversy. However, Colin's wife, Nessa Diab, is not one of them. And in her opinion, the situation unveiled Jay's true nature.
"Yes, I might not like what Jay-Z did, but guess what I don't do? Go out of my way to not play his songs on my show. No, I'm not spiteful. I don't try to harm people. I don't do smear campaigns behind the scenes."
"And don't take away from his artistry."
"I don't ever do that. We're clear. Jay's one of the best to do what he does. Also, what he did to Colin was absolutely wrong. And once hip hop's queen began taking shots at Jay and co, Nessa launched another assault and got into the sorted details about how they suppressed Kaepernick in his message at the request of the NFL at Nicki Minaj exposing the smear campaign tactics that Jay-Z Rock Nation Desiree Perez did to her behind the scenes is very similar to what I was told they did to AT Kaepernick when Jay purposely co-opted Colin's protest by siding with the NFL to help their image after they blackled Colin for his protest."
"Rock Nation apparently took $5 million a year over 5 years to bury the growing protest and specifically helped them move beyond the controversy around teams's unwillingness to sign Kaepernick."
"She continued, 'Desiree even said, 'We love that everybody wants to be on stage. That we've completely changed the conversation to fighting for it versus boycotting. We've come a long way.' She got her pardoned by Trump. No coincidence the NFL owners are his [music] buddies and also donated millions to his campaign.'"
These allegations won't sit well with the higherups at Rock Nation, particularly because they try their best to maintain an image as a socially conscious company, but it's by no means the first time that they adopted a man associated with a cause before disposing of them over time.
During the drama surrounding Meek Mill's prison sentence for a probation violation, Jay-Z and Rock Nation were very active in the attempts to free him.
"How did you get into his life? How do you know about this? And what are you doing for for people who may fall prey to this?"
"We manage him currently like right now. You know, this this judge felt the need to violate him for two two to four years for two things. One, he was shooting a video and he was riding a motorcycle and doing wheelies. And two, there was a a guy who asked him for autograph. And he was like, 'Man, I'm leaving. I got a flight. I'm leaving.' And the guy got mad and start hitting his friend. So, he pulled the guy off his friend."
"Mhm."
"And case got dismissed and that cuz they had the camera and they saw that, oh, he didn't start any trouble. He was actually trying to leave. The guy hitting his friend's friend was is a little guy who who actually had a head injury. So guys,"
As a snee of Rock Nation management, it benefited everyone for Meek to be back out. And by the time he reemerged, the Philly rapper was repositioned from street MC to a campaigner for the penal system to be overhauled. Once he was released, Jay and Meek originally seemed inseparable as they strived ahead to not only kickstart the rapper's career once more, but also gave birth to the Reform Alliance, an organization which campaigns for fair prison sentences, but where they were once seen together on a regular basis. This has majorly decreased. Coincidentally, it seemed like the distance was formed after public perception of Meek seriously faltered following a series of L's.
"Meek rapping about Amir's Amiris and 80 bands. He's playing tennis with some white guy and all of a sudden I see this doing buddy hops Meek cuz you got your ass beaten tennis."
"Look, look how they talking to him."
"You got your ass beat. Keep going. Count out loud."
"DAMN. COUNT OUT LOUD, [ __ ]"
"COUNT OUT LOUD."
"By the way, I don't think I don't even think any black rapper could talk to me like this."
By 2022, Meek left the Rock Nation management umbrella, but insisted it wasn't due to any bad blood and that they were consulted on the best path for all parties to take.
"All I seen today was Meek and Rock part ways. I'm personally handling my own business so I can take a risk and grow. We came to that agreement together. I have a label deal with Rock for my artist and many other investments with [ __ ] and Rock Nation is my family. Don't mix my post aimed at Atlantic mixed up with Rock or MMG. They ain't stopped nothing I'm doing. We made about 100 million together. Dez, Mike, and Hoveve saved my life before and put a lot of energy into it. I'm not behind on my favors in life with my people. I'm good."
But while both parties insist that there's no bad blood, the fact remains that they are now seldom seen together. And at this point, it feels like Meek is cast to the side with every further indignity.
"It it sound like, hey, we have grand plans to build this whole thing behind Meek Mill. And our first start is prison reform. And after that, we going to push you. we going to do all this other [ __ ] and they never really had no intent in doing that. They just got what they needed out of the moment and they moved on."
"I'm with you."
"See, I would agree. Like I said, if he didn't get something out of that and ain't going to lie,"
"That's another one where I want to know the Meek Hov story."
"Yeah, there's something there, bro. For Hoveve to say I could never beef with him, I freed him from a whole bit. For him to even feel he needed to address it and say it in that manner, it's something, dog. He's just saying, 'Yo, I'm not I can't beef with he can't beef with me.'"
Considering their focus on money over morality, it really shouldn't be particularly shocking that they chose to favor their brand over the potential ill effects of being caught up in a scandal. So, when one of their clients was in some legal trouble, they promptly wanted to get out of the line of fire without actively defending their roster member. The man in question is Fat Joe. With the legendary Terror Squad artist being sued for some very unsavory things by his former hype man, Terrence TA Dixon. Amid a laundry list of charges, Joe is accused of coercive labor exploitation, financial fraud, sexual manipulation, violent intimidation, and psychological coercion, not to mention a situation with an underageed individual.
"Defendant was in love with minor do3. He even contemplated leaving his wife. The defendant paid all minor do3's bills and even took her overseas to his tour stops. He brought her to Florida and would put her up in a condo he rented a few blocks from his house with his wife. The lawsuit states in a recorded conversation, minor do3 and her 15-year-old cousin describe in detail to plaintiff how inappropriate it was."
But alongside Fat Joe, another defendant that was listed was none other than Rock Nation. And without hesitation, they sought to untangle themselves no matter how much it might harm their client's defense.
"Rock Nation's alleged role in this case, according to the plaintiff himself is that it became Mr. Cardagena's artist management company in 2017 and in that capacity earned a commission on revenue Mr. Cardagina generated, writes Rock Nation's lawyer, Alex Biro. Yet, according to the plaintiff, the fact that Rock Nation had a business relationship with Mr. Cardagina somehow makes Rock Nation a part of a RICO enterprise as well as a participant in sex trafficking and an ader and a better of Mr. Cardagena's alleged conduct. That is nonsensical."
Here we see the lengths that Rock Nation will go to to preserve the company's well-being, even if it's at the expense of one of the people they're supposed to represent. But according to the organization's critics, the problem isn't simply that they'll throw their allies over to the side when it's tactically wise to do, but that they will hold serious grudges when they believe they've been wronged. Even though Nicki Minaj has been the most outspoken Young Money label alumni to come after Jay, Desiree, and Rock Nation, there is another one of Lil Wayne's protege who have reason to take issue with how they move. Because if speculation is to be believed, they've been spending time trying to take Drake out.
Over the course of Drake's time in the spotlight, Jay has occasionally had bars for him over the years, spitting things like this in his direction.
"I know you ain't out here talking numbers, right? I know you ain't out here talking summers, right? I know you ain't walking around talking down saying boss [ __ ] when you a runner, right?"
But for the most part, they've ultimately seemed cordial collaborating on tracks ranging from the blueprint 3's off that through to talk up on Scorpion. However, the belief is that there's some grievances that have yet to be resolved on Jay's part. And these issues stem back to the formation of title. When Jay-Z first began to unveil the Rock Nation affiliated streaming service known as Tidal, Drake was intended to be one of the original 16 artist partners who appeared alongside him. But things didn't go to plan and he stayed away only for it to later be revealed that Apple Music paid Drake $19 million for an exclusive contract. From there, things got a little nasty, like claiming that Drake had been prohibited from appearing on the live stream during Liliana Fest under a threat of a $20 million lawsuit. However, Drizzy's team combed this, claiming that nothing of that sort happened.
"The decision to not have Drake participate in the title stream has nothing to do with Apple or Drake's deal. Point blank, 100%. I made a business decision, Drake's manager, Future the Prince, told Buzzfeed News. Apple doesn't have the power to stop us from being part of a live stream. The only people that have that power to do so are Cash Money and Universal, and they're our partners."
Unable to control Drake in the way that he wished to. There are some who feel that Jay and Rock Nation have held a grudge over the whole thing. As little as three years ago, the normally cautious Jay was caught lurking on Twitter, liking a tweet from Mark Lamont Hill on the subject of his word play about Megan the Stallion on Circle Loco, which read, "If Drake released a song with clever word play that mocked the shooting of a male rapper or any man of that matter, the same people defending him would be outraged. But of course, he would never do that."
Although this was likely a shock, Funklex believes that he is more active online than you realize.
"I'MMA TELL YOU ABOUT JAY-Z. I'MMA TELL YOU ABOUT JAY-Z. YOU KNOW, HE WANTED ME TO TELL YOU WHY HE CAN'T BE ON social media."
"Why?"
"CUZ HE'S THE MOST SENSITIVE [ __ ] on the planet. And he can't take [ __ ] in his comments telling him the truth."
"Oh, what?"
"Okay. He can't take it. He can't open up social media. He You know what? YOU KNOW WHAT JAY DOES? HE WATCHES SOCIAL MEDIA FROM A FAKE PAGE."
When it comes to Rock's issues with Drake, there are some who believe it goes a whole lot deeper because apparently it didn't simply harbor secret disdain, but actively tried to undermine him. Instead, there are some who believe that Rock Nation has actually waged a long-standing campaign with various pawns. For one thing, there are theories that Meek was one of those soldiers sent out to bring him down. Considering that Meek leaked Drake's ghostwriting reference tracks just one month after the whole title scandal, there has been a suggestion that this was an orchestrated move made to try and kill Drizzy dead in his tracks. And apparently Drake worked this out.
"Okay, since y'all are playing double Dutch 30 for30 freestyle."
"Yeah, when everyone thought he was talking about Meek, he was clearly talking about Hoveve. So stop double Hoveve. He's talking about Jay-Z on that. I think the powers that be that were not added into this go as high as Hoveve and what the strategy was with this entity that Drake was that took over the music industry and I think they saw this as an opportunity to try to lower the light of somebody that had completely taken over."
"Drake is another student of the game."
"He knows and sees and watches everything. So when Meek first tweeted it before he name dropped. Meek tweeted a month or six weeks earlier than that. These [ __ ] don't write they raps. Something something something."
Push had made note. Kendrick had made note. It was there was rumblings. But when that didn't work, there was a belief that the latest attempt came through none other than Kendrick Lamar in his war on Drizzy that led to one of the most legendary beefs in the genre's history. Whether or not he was involved at the outset, it seems obvious that Jay was happy about the result, enlisting him to perform at the Super Bowl and singing his praises along the way.
"Kendrick Lamar is a truly once in a generation artist performer," Jay-Z said of the 17 Grammy Award winner. "His deep love for hip hop and culture informs his artistic vision. He has an unparalleled ability to define and influence culture globally. Kendrick's work transcends music, and his impact will be felt for years to come."
And sure enough, Kendrick then used the halftime show to defame Drizzy on the biggest rap stage possible. Beyond that now legendary performance, there is a sense that Jay did whatever he could to defend Kendrick's decision to basically just suggest that Drake isn't of hip-hop culture. This led to Michael Eric Dyson's showdown with his very good friend Jay-Z after the famed went off on Dot over his attempts to shift the narrative around Drizzy.
"Drake is being indicted by Kendrick Lamar implicitly and explicitly. Not like us. The song is the song. whatever you think about it. But the notion itself, big distinction, us versus them. And they're trying to deb black Drake, right? Oh, he's not really black cuz he grew up in Canada. I grew up in Compton. Bro, you're reducing blackness to Compton. When did you not know that black people fled America going to Canada to escape the iron tyranny of enslavement? And he ain't black. His daddy is black. He went to Memphis every summer. The Memphis horns fill his music. the first albums Drake made. His grandmama baby sat Artha Franklin and his uncle is Larry Graham from Slying the Family Stone. How much what what what black card he got to show. And on his album Damn, they won the pull a surprise. I like to remind the acolytes of Mr. Lamar that uh he says, 'I ain't black. Don't call me black no more.' Cuz he was in the black Hebrew stuff. And K and and Drake said light-skinned but still a dark nword. So, I'm saying that's your god."
In the aftermath of him making these comments, Jay apparently got on the phone and had a frank, thorough discussion with Dyson.
"Some people think, well, it ain't that serious and that's not what's going on. My job as a scholar is to show you that stuff you didn't think was that serious might be a bit more serious than you think. I could be wrong just to be sure. So, I don't say it with the kind of arrogant that some of my interlocutors on the internet have suggested. And let me tell you something. A very dear and good friend of mine disagrees with me bitterly. Well, I won't say bitterly, just aggressively and vigorously. His name is Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z. Now, I don't usually talk about the conversations that Jay-Z and I have because that's between us. That's why we remain friends cuz I ain't out here blabbing about what we talk about, but he hit me up and he vigorously disagreed with my particular position. He said it with dignity. He said it with respect. He articulated his ideal intelligently. I responded to him. We went back and forth for a minute and I shared with him my essay, the 30,000 someword essay I wrote in the Philadelphia uh uh paper where I break down what's going on between Kendrick and Drake. And he was respectful. What I love about Jay is that he's not arrogant and he's got more reason to be arrogant than anybody we talking to, including myself on this darn internet."
And in a testament to the power Sean Carter and Rock Nation has, it was just days before he backpedalled and apologized for even sharing that private discourse.
"Why would he know that? Because he conducted one of the most famous rap battles in the history of the art form. And so I mischaracterized him. He said, 'It ain't that serious.' He wasn't vigorously disagreeing with me. It's not like he called me and said that. And even on the text, he literally said, 'It's not that serious.' So I want to apologize to him. And the reason I clarified my position in the first place is because he made that distinction between Trump and Kendrick that I wanted to make clear that I completely understood and did not intend. So, God bless you all on this morning. Rest in peace, Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jay-Z, my sincerest apologies. Much love to you."
And because of how we know how Jay moves, people predicted exactly what was going to go down after the initial post. Apparently, Eric's going to be making another apology video to Jay-Z soon and a video of how a true fan he is. In every instance, it seems like Rock Nation wants everyone to fall in line. And one man who learned this is none other than independent rap mainstay Russ.
Over the past while, Jay's company unveiled what was known as the Rock Nation distribution dashboard. Designed to get their music out to 200 plus streaming services while also managing their royalties. All artists currently signed to Rock Nation were faulted into this system, complete with big promises to revolutionize the game as we know it. However, not everybody was sold on the concept, and it was promptly criticized by Russ for being nowhere near as revolutionary or artist friendly as they'd like to pretend.
"An 8515 split to press upload is madness. Major labels take 15% DRO off the top, too. So, it seems like they just modeled the business off of that. If you're an artist, this makes no sense to sign up for in my opinion."
From there, he continued to break down exactly why the whole thing wasn't the answer that it was proposed as.
"Major label distribution comes bundled with major label services, a team, radio, marketing, global offices, sales teams, editorial leverage, etc. Rock Nation Dro platform is a self-s serve uploader with none of those services. And yet charging the same 15 major labels to do the economics doesn't make sense when the entire market norm is 0 to 10% and only charging percentage when they add services."
Straight off the bat, not everyone agreed with him with Simba suggesting it functioned as a scouting program more than your average distribution platform. But he broke down everything for me and what he told me is this is not just a distribution service. It's a pull to find superstar. Right? So what they're looking for is B they hired a team. They have teams of people that's sitting there looking for whatever's gaining traction, right? They have a whole staff of people that they hired that's sitting there watching this is getting views, this is getting views, this is increasing, this is increasing. Who's this artist? We should contact them. This is a 247 thing that they're doing.
"Russ is saying, 'I don't believe in that.' Right? In the same way Russ will say that's kind of like upselling people, someone like Rock Nation could say, 'Well, Toonounc is kind of doing a similar thing because you can upload music to Touncor for like $20 or whatever it may be, but then they might tell you got to spend an extra $100 to get this campaign.'"
Later, Russ essentially tried to downplay the issues, claiming that the reservations he had weren't as serious as they made it out to be.
"With Rock Nation, it wasn't a knock at Rock Nation or Jay-Z. It was just look, this is a selfuploading dro service. That's it. And there's a million of these and it's all the same [ __ ]."
"You know what I mean? And there's places where you can do it and keep 100%. So why would you give 15?"
"Yeah, but it's rock. It's like, what do you think? You're going to get a Jay-Z feature tomorrow. Like, are you [ __ ] slow? What are you talking about?"
"Half the time the people that own the label don't even see that. They have a whole team that runs the Dro."
"It's a It's not even What's crazy, it's not even like a Empire distribution or something like that. It's literally ToonCore and Dro kid. Yeah,"
"But just under the umbrella of Rock Nation, so it's sexier. You think that, well, [ __ ] though, like I bet you go to the brunch, though."
But it's clear that he had his wings clipped a little with Russ revealing that he had been reached out to by journalist and Rock Nation mouthpiece Brian B. Miller to walk back his comments.
"Did they respond to you saying anything?"
"Not directly."
"Oh, [laughter] okay."
"I didn't get invited to the Rock Nation."
"Not directly."
"No, but it's it's um [music] it's cool, man. There's a, you know, I I'm cool with B dot, you know. Yeah."
"And sometimes, uh,"
"Jay-Z will like send him messages to tell me. That's happened like four or five times."
"I'll be all right. Well, just tell him that. [laughter]"
"Can you give him my number? I'm happy to talk."
"We can clear this up, right?"
"It's always like it's a it's it's always been super respectful like mutually, you know what I mean?"
"So, he knows like he knows after I told B do like it wasn't some knock on you. It was like"
"Talking about the economics of the deal,"
"Of the whole thing. Yeah,"
Although it can be a bitter pill to swallow, there are clear reasons why most people will ease up when it comes to dealing with The Rock. Because when all else fails, they will hit the critics where it hurts, their pockets. Recently, Rock Nation affiliated lawyer Marcy Croft is suing Tony Busby of defamation for $25 million. Yet, while this could easily be a squabble between two legal minds, it seems to be no coincidence the man spearheading lawsuits against Jay-Z following Diddy's downfall is now looking at a major settlement.
Then there is Desiree Perez's daughter, Demorier Hadley, amid a major issue between the two. Demorier claims her mom used unlawful means to have her falsely detained under Florida's Baker Act and Marchman Act. She claimed that the CEO employed her money, power, and influence to tear apart Hadley and her husband Javon, creating an enterprise of individuals to effectuate her plot, to essentially try to separate me from my husband and to falsely accuse him of domestic violence. But as expected, Rock Nation had a plan to combat it. And following Demorier taking part in an interview with Tasha Kay, they claimed that the daughter affirmatively violated the court's special order and publicized an interview she gave out about this case to further influence public perception. Basically, it appears that they will do anything to get their intended outcome.
And in the eyes of the recently deposed Aiden Ross, they're getting paid handsomely to do so.
"Let's talk about my deposition today. Okay, I had a deposition. Um, I do want to make it very clear to you guys. I stood my ground a little bit. I did get bitched as well. very scared of these little Rock Nation guys, right? But um dude, these guys are making a bag, bro. Yo yo yo yo, listen guys. Bro, these Rock Nation lawyers, bro, they're getting paid a bag. A very big bag. Very big bag. Like bro, like in my in my in my in my opinion, like in my opinion, I feel like they're getting like at least 20k an hour."
"Oh no."
Aiden's runin with the lawyers was in relation to Megan the Stallion and similarly to the streamer academics also feels they're playing dirty. In both occasions, these depositions were supposed to be centered on the case of Magro Grahams, a gossip blogger who was being sued by Megan the Stallion's team for defamation. But in Axe Mind, it actually was enlisted to target a whole bunch of other enemies.
"Just did my second Rock Nation Megan the Stallion deposition. He tweeted today, 'That law firm was wasting Jay-Z money. This time they tried to act right. No more Nikki and Drake questions. Shout out to the Jersey federal judge keeping Rock Nation in line. They're harassing real dudes. I believe Nikki. There is no way that they think they're getting millions from Alagro,' he continued. So why spend hundreds of thousands to ask stupid questions about other people. My thought they got a multi-million budget for attorneys to bully anybody who speaks against them to try to silence them. Rock Nation and Meg had to spend over $150,000 on all the deposition [ __ ] with me. They got 10 lawyers on their watching taking notes the first time and don't want to talk about Magro or Meg, lol. They want Drake and Nikki, lol. Who funding this? Math ain't making sense."
Try as they might, the negative publicity and controversy swirling around The Rock just keeps coming as they're even fighting in their sports endeavors, too. Recently, they announced that they'd signed RB Lipick's new soccer prospect, Yan Jamande, only for another company to claim that they renewed their contract with the player on January 1st and later released a statement insisting that he remains contractually bound to them.
At the moment, people are also digging deep into their connections to Live Nation, a company which is coming under heavy fire at the moment from the DOJ. It's long been suspected that they are essentially rinsing fans, and recent documents unsealed in the lawsuit, has revealed the extent of the grief, with executives laughing about $50 charges for parking in the grass and $60 for Closer Grass. Alongside claiming that concert goers are stupid. Despite Jay-Z's $200 million ties to the company, Rock Nation is unlikely to condemn this and will instead just try and put up as much distance between them and the scandal as possible.
With so much controversy surrounding the label, talk has turned to what they'll do about it from here on out. And at the moment, people like academics think that the impending new album is a smokeokc screen with other gestures likely to be thrown in to aid in pushing all the controversy aside.
"I'm going to watch a cycle because this is going to be the cycle that shows how quickly they could get you to move on if they just throw some music in your face and throw like a big presentation. Man, [ __ ] all them [ __ ] them questions you asking. Let me perform Dead Presidents. I want to see if it happens again. This will be an amazing spectacle and I want to see how So, you know, already it's happening. I I'll let you know it's happening. You're going to hear some big announcements soon, y'all. Oh, hey, we're donating this and there's going to be a donation, too. I'm tell you this. We're we're we're donating this. We're doing this for charity. You got to make it the Trojan horse thing. You can't look a gift horse in his mouth. They're going to be enamored with, 'Oh my god, look at this guy. He's so powerful. Look, he used AI to recreate reasonable doubt. Look, there's a movie. There's this. Watch.'"
However they choose to move from here, it's obvious that Rock Nation has a reputational issue that makes people willing to assume the worst about how they move. And if they're not careful, that can be good for their future prospects in entertainment, business, or anywhere in between. It's your boy Louisa and I'll see you on the next one. Peace.