Jeremih is the latest R&B male to take aim at his record label this week.
Following in the footsteps of R. Kelly and August Alsina (who both made headlines for slamming their teams), the 28-year-old took to Twitter to vent his frustrations with Def Jam.
His grievance?
The imprint’s alleged lack of support of his new album ‘Late Nights.’
No longer biting his tongue, the singer directly addressed the issue and provided additional context.
His words below…
He then added:
@DeafJamRecords y’all don’t even deserve my voice
— Jeremih (@Jeremih) December 13, 2015
Yikes!
While we don’t endorse passiveness and do understand his emotion (given how much work goes into making music), we are beginning to wonder why so many acts don’t seem to digest that the system is not “fair” and has never been.
It’s about who brings in the most money and how much Return On Investment a label feel they can make on a release.
Will a Jeremih album (not single) ever bring in seismic sales to justify an all-out promo campaign? Will they ever recoup on that?
Again, not saying any of this is “fair,” especially as it’s plausible to argue that we’ll never truly know the answer to those questions because such a push isn’t being afforded to such artists. But it’s a reality.
At this point, it’s becoming increasingly clear that musicians (especially of the Urban persuasion) need to look at their major label deals as a platform more than anything else. All the other leg work they need to do themselves. Or at the very least, cultivate a team of their own to help them do that.
Quoting the famous Papa Pope: sometimes you have to work twice as hard to get half as far. True tea. Sad tea. But real tea, nonetheless.
He’s a singles artist
Girl, come thru with your honesty.
That’s like Jason Derulo complaining why his albums aint stocked.
Errr.. cos the label aint finna waste money to ship your album that no1 will buy.
If you are not Drake, J. Cole, Kendrick, Justin Timberlake and maybe a few others, y’all might as well just release singles.
Unlike a lot of artist today COUGHS August* JERMIAH has something amazingly special! His pen game and his authentic HIPHOP flow as he sings RNB is definitely a breathe of fresh air every time he comes out! He should play the piano more and more in his songs and make music that speaks to the people! Keep putting it the great songs he does but incorporate more songs that speaks to people! He’s a great artist I WISH HIM WELL! LEAVE DEF JAM THO ! Go independent and keep righting those hits! ??
*writing
He should be mad at himself, because none of us “deserve” that lousy and uninspired performance he gave for the Soul Train Awards. He should’ve traded places with Avant who is a dedicated artist.
What voice? This guy is one of the worst male R&B singers ever!!Since when has anyone brought a Jeremiah album over a Jeremiah or Jeremiah assisted single? R.Kelly,Augustina,and Jeremiah need to understand, it’s not wise to bash your label.Best Buy didn’t want overstock sitting in the back for a long time so they only ordered a couple,what’s wrong with that? There simply has never been a demand for a Jeremiah album.
Jeremih I’m spread eagle waiting for you to enter!!!
The way some these Artist missing televised 106 & Park badly.
Dont even recall him doing radio rounds like breakfast club etc…
Def Jam has become a label that only cares about white artists like Iggy and Alessiai Cara.
They don’t care about black artists at that label anymore and don’t promote their black artists.
Why weren’t either one of them booked for Kimmel, Fallon, Conan, etc….
DEF JAM didnt even try …..
now watch the promo campagn for that italian A. Cara chick at Def Jam.
Its a dumb strategy b/c black music sells when t is promoted. Look at UNIVERSAL REPUBLIC killng it wth Drake, The weeknd and Nicki
While you cant compare Drake or the weeknd with jeremih, as they Are not similar to the other 90% black male artists out there – unlike jeremih, who Is nothing special musically at all
I knew how def jam’s been rolling since 2006. Teairra Mari, sterling Simms, shareefa, Razah, Katrina pasian and Megan rochell– she had one of the best r&b albums of this decade, too bad it never came out). Yeah, their careers never took off.
The least he could do is get his twitter fingers on point.
The dumb fk put his @ to deafjam instead of defjam lmao.
Smh I want the real tea on these Def Jam contracts & their A&R team.
One thing I noticed is that Jeremih can’t spell.