LA Reid memoir, MJ bit

[OnirMJ]

^^It's like CEO of Mercedes say that BMW is his favourite car. I don't care about his personal preferences.

 

[DuranDuran]

^^It's like CEO of Mercedes say that BMW is his favourite car. I don't care about his personal preferences.

So you want people to lie if it's convenient for you or for your purposes. So if people lie about Mike, then you're ok with it. :rofl: Saying Mike is not promoting anything. Some of the audience for The Breakfast Club show is looking for gossip, not advice on what records to buy. Besides if Gene Simmons was the head of Epic, I'm pretty sure he would not say Mike. So why expect someone else to do so?

 

[OnirMJ]

So you want people to lie if it's convenient for you or for your purposes.

My purposes? WTF? His purposes, it's his job.

So if people lie about Mike, then you're ok with it. :rofl: Saying Mike is not promoting anything.

Lie what about Mike? Saying Prince is the greatest of all time instead of Mike when one artist is signed to your label and the other isn't is bad.

Some of the audience for The Breakfast Club show is looking for gossip, not advice on what records to buy.

This part was not about gossips.

Besides if Gene Simmons was the head of Epic, I'm pretty sure he would not say Mike. So why expect someone else to do so?

Well, yeah. Also If Adolf Hitler was, he would not say Mike. But they aren't. LA is.

 

[KOPV]

to me, after learning how LA Reid and babyface ran 'LA Face' and the type of contracts they had artists sign... To me it does not fully matter that it was Arista Records pushing the way things were set up, it was LA Reids and Babyfaces choice to prosue and trick striving artists into signing horrible contracts..

After that, can only appreciate the work they've done... but have "eh" feeling when they come to mind.

 

[DuranDuran]

Lie what about Mike? Saying Prince is the greatest of all time instead of Mike when one artist is signed to your label and the other isn't is bad.

This part was not about gossips

It's bad to you. I don't care, it's not a big deal. If the audience is for gossip, like going on the Wendy Williams show, they don't really care about which act L.A. thinks is better. They'd be more interested in the Mike laughing at Prince story. Wendy likes to put down people and expose celebrities who might be down low or in the closet. This is a video by rapper Method Man about Wendy talking about his wife's medical condition on her show. There's some profanity, so not safe for work.

 

[OnirMJ]

It's bad to you. I don't care, it's not a big deal. If the audience is for gossip, like going on the Wendy Williams show, they don't really care about which act L.A. thinks is better.

It's bad for him. I don't care about him or his opinion. Of course it's not a big deal. I just said that he's stupid for saying that.

 

[DuranDuran]

It's bad for him. I don't care about him or his opinion. Of course it's not a big deal. I just said that he's stupid for saying that.

If you didn't care, you wouldn't have looked at this thread in the first place or said anything about who L.A. liked.

 

[HIStory]

It's a bit childish to demand him to lie just because you don't like his opinion. Let him have his taste. If his favourite is Prince then his favourite is Prince, who cares?

Anyway, here are some other tidbits from his book. I highlight the ones about MJ. This was posted on another forum by someone who read it:

- pebbles could be extremely jealous and suspicious. L.a. Would hang out with certain female artists that he wanted to sign, and pebbles would show up and explode. She did it with paula abdul one night and frightened her, causing him to lose paula as an artist. She tried it with whitney, but whitney gathered her together within 5 minutes...they were the best of friends after that.

-la and babyface wrote "i'm your baby tonight", thinking they wrote the song to be way too hard to sing, so they planned to be recording the song with whitney for several days. The day she came, she wanted to go to the mall before it closed in an hour, and sang each part of that song in one take. She was done with the whole vocal in 20 minutes.

-"end of the road" by boyz 2 men was written for anita baker, but she turned it down twice.

-apparently, anita baker was kinda the vocal bible of that time...many of the artists throughout the book seemed to reference or namedrop her in the studio.

-michael jackson was a huge fan of janet's rhythm nation album. La and babyface first thought mj mistook them for jimmy jam and terry lewis, because he would mention rn when talking about what he wanted from them.

-tlc always had some kind of drama going on backstage. Tupac was on set for the "creep" video the whole time.

-babyface and darryl simmons (the guy who signed bran to atlantic) were not impressed with usher when he auditioned. For a long time, la kept trying to get them into usher, but they never agreed on usher.

-la's favorite album is secrets by toni braxton

-pebbles didn't have tlc's money either, but because she had such a heavy-handed, catfight relationship with them since the beginning...she quickly became the enemy.

-it was pebbles idea that toni's early style should mirror halle berry's style (hair and clothes) from the boomerang movie

-clive davis and the whole arista team did not like "waterfalls". Clive felt that "red light special" was the big hit.

-after lefteye burned down andre rison's house, clive called la suggesting that he start making plans to have chilli become a solo artist. La didn't think chilli had what it took be a solo act.

-la thought very highly of t-boz. He consulted her opinion often, as she always seemed to be ahead of the curve when it came to styles and sounds and what was hot

-outkast was supposed to be signed by pebbles to pebbitone like tlc, but their mediocre first audition stopped that from happening.

-la thinks tevin campbell was a vocal beast, but felt he didn't have any star quality. He called him a "radio voice".

-you were required to sign a confidentiality agreement before you were able to see mj.

-mj played a prank on them when they first met. He sent a helicopter to pick them up to bring them to neverland. He instructed the pilot to cause heavy turbulence and act like the helicopter was malfunctioning. He went into a laughing fit when they arrived looking spooked and disheveled..

-LA at a point found himself having doubts about Usher, after other people had been very 'meh' about him. Diddy was someone who really championed Usher. LA frequently voiced his concern for Usher's vocal shortcomings during the production of the My Way album. The My Way album went through a few drafts, as no one felt Usher's music had any hit potential. My Way was Jermaine Dupri's vision. Usher didn't like "You Make Me Wanna", but LA loved it. He felt it gave the illusion that Usher had more range and soul than he really had at the time.

-LA feels black catalog (music) doesn't sell as well as white catalog because there just aren't as many black people in the country. Black artists would need to appeal to white people in order to sell big numbers, while white artists don't need to appeal to anything. It's just how the nation is made up. With only 13% of the population being black, there's always the chance that only 13% of the population will take notice to you if your black. LA finds it just an inbred hurdle.

-LA didn't understand TONI's first bankruptcy and drama. He had always felt that they had taken care of her and paid her correctly. Toni hated all the ballads and the gowns they were making her wear, as she felt it made her sound boring and look old.

-LeftEye was almost completely absent from the FanMail recordings. When he was played the FanMail album, he said he didn't hear any hits outside of No Scrubs. He asked Missy if she had anything for TLC, and she sent "Where My Girls At?". He loved it, and sent it to them saying it would be the 2nd single after Scrubs. They sent it back, because it wasn't from their Atlanta camp. He called and begged T-Boz to do the song, and agreed to pay her the same amount he was paying Missy for it, and T-Boz called back and told him he was a "dick rider" for trying to hop on the dick of whoever is hot.

 

[OnirMJ]

If you didn't care, you wouldn't have looked at this thread in the first place or said anything about who L.A. liked.

I care about Michael Jackson and I respect what he did for Michael on Xscape. Again, I don't have anything against him. I just said that he's stupid for saying what he said.

 

[OnirMJ]

It's a bit childish to demand him to lie just because you don't like his opinion. Let him have his taste. If his favourite is Prince then his favourite is Prince, who cares?

You either didn't read my post or you misunderstood it. I don't demand anything from him. I don't care who he prefers or what he said. I just said that he's stupid for saying what he said because one artist is signed to his label and the other isn't. Strictly business wise.

 

[HIStory]

I care about Michael Jackson and I respect what he did for Michael on Xscape. Again, I don't have anything against him. I just said that he's stupid for saying what he said.

MJ's legacy will continue to do alright without anyone having to lie about him. LA's personal taste is not going to affect it one bit. No need to be so insecure.

ETA:

You either didn't read my post or you misunderstood it. I don't demand anything from him. I don't care who he prefers or what he said. I just said that he's stupid for saying what he said because one artist is signed to his label and the other isn't. Strictly business wise.

You did say he should have lied. As for business, MJ's career does not depend on LA's personal taste, so there won't be any consequences business wise of him saying his fave artist is Prince.

 

[OnirMJ]

MJ's legacy will continue to do alright without anyone having to lie about him. LA's personal taste is not going to affect it one bit. No need to be so insecure.

You did say he should have lied. As for business, MJ's career does not depend on LA's personal taste, so there won't be any consequences business wise of him saying his fave artist is Prince.

What? You either didn't read my post or you misunderstood it. Again. I said that he could have lied for himself. For his job, his business. Nothing to do with Michael or his legacy and career or LA's personal taste.

I just said that he's stupid for saying what he said. But nevermind.

 

[HIStory]

What? You either didn't read my post or you misunderstood it. Again. I said that he could have lied for himself. For his job, his business. Nothing to do with Michael or his legacy and career or LA's personal taste.

I just said that he's stupid for saying what he said. But nevermind.

If you say he should have lied for his business that does imply you think him saying his favourite artist was Prince would somehow affect his business regarding MJ. It won't. You are making a mountain out of a molehill.

I actually rather hear honest, real answers from people than PR ones.

 

[DuranDuran]

What? You either didn't read my post or you misunderstood it. Again. I said that he could have lied for himself. For his job, his business. Nothing to do with Michael or his legacy and career or LA's personal taste.

I just said that he's stupid for saying what he said. But nevermind.

Berry Gordy Jr. has said his favorite music is jazz. Motown isn't known for jazz music, even though they had a short lived jazz label called Workshop Jazz in the early 1960s. Most of the Funk Brothers were jazz musicians. Berry saying he liked jazz did not hurt Motown business. So that makes no sense to me. In the 1960s Motown had staff listening meetings where they'd vote on singles to be released. They sometimes judged songs on competitor labels at these meetings like Stax or James Brown records. James was never signed to Motown.

 

[OnirMJ]

If you say he should have lied for his business that does imply you think him saying his favourite artist was Prince would somehow affect his business regarding MJ. It won't. You are making a mountain out of a molehill.

I actually rather hear honest, real answers from people than PR ones.

Berry Gordy Jr. has said his favorite music is jazz. Motown isn't known for jazz music, even though they had a short lived jazz label called Workshop Jazz in the early 1960s. Most of the Funk Brothers were jazz musicians. Berry saying he liked jazz did not hurt Motown business. So that makes no sense to me. In the 1960s Motown had staff listening meetings where they'd vote on singles to be released. They sometimes judged songs on competitor labels at these meetings like Stax or James Brown records. James was never signed to Motown.

It's just my opinion. I won't change my mind, Let's move on.

 

[barbee0715]

But he is still the head of the record label. I just said that he is stupid business wise. As CEO of Epic Record he should know better what to say and what not.

Maybe this is just all part of his plan to get Prince to sign to Epic Records.

 

[somewhereinthedark]

Just wanted to comment on Jermaine's "Word To The Badd". According to Jermaine's "wife" at the time, Michael came their home and personally BEGGED Jermaine to NOT release the song. Margaret said that Michael tried to talk to Jermaine and Jermaine was walking around screaming that Michael didn't want him to release the song because he was jealous that he would become bigger than Michael. Margaret said that Michael told him that his (Michael) fans would not turn against him because of that song. She said that Jermaine continued to scream in Michael's face and call him jealous. Margaret said that Jermaine acted like a mad man screaming at Michael and even pushing him. According to Margaret, Jermaine was jealous of Michael and thought that releasing this song would hurt Michael and that he (Jermaine) would become bigger. All of this is in Margaret's book-"Jackson Family Values".

 

[Psychoniff]

^^Yes. No doubt. She's hateful about all Jacksons. She's just a hateful person, period.

What did she say?

 

[michaelsson]

LA REID is a lame. He's been using Beyoncé's name and Michael's to sell his book. How bout you talk about how you were cheating on Pebbles and sleeping with Chilli dispirit

 

[benscarr]

When Michael supposedly laughed at Prince's performance at the James Brown concert in 1983, and Michael use to show Prince's 'Under The Cherry Moon' film (not the greatest of films but I've always liked 'Under The Cherry Moon') to mock. And then Prince did things like supposedly give Michael a 'vodoo box' and challenge him to aggressive game of table tennis. Remember Michael (and also Prince) where in their mid 20's which is a very young age, so I don't see anything childish about what Michael supposedly said and laughed at regards Prince, one because of his (and also Prince's) age, and another maybe at that point in the mid-late 80s Michael and Prince maybe just didn't like each other at the time.

Most people don't really grow up until their mid 30's, and even people age 50+ do and say far more childish things than what L.A. Reid alleges Michael said etc of Prince. Also I think what L.A. Reid says about Michael is very childish, a gossip monger. I find L.A. Reid saying this stuff (though very tame compared to a lot of B.S people have said about Michael over the years) about Michael very unprofessional with him being the CEO of Epic (Michael's label) and him being an top authority on Michael's music etc after the 'The Estate. Like someone else said here L.A. Reid should have waited to leave Sony/Epic before making stupid gossip about Michael.

I actually was annoyed by L.A. Reid's lack of real understanding of Michael's music/artistry on the 'Bad 25' documentary, for he says "Prince impacted musicians, Michael dancers", what's that supposed to mean. To me that undermines Michael was a musician, because he was also a songwriter, composer and arranger and many artists and bands are influenced by music Michael created. L.A. Reid also said regards the song (I think called?) 'Wouldn't U Love 2 Love Me' that presented to Michael after he declined to duet on the song 'Bad', something like "If Michael hadn't wrote Bad, that song (that Prince wrote) would have got recorded", which Spike Lee responded "Yeah, but not by Mike".

And on the DVD documentary that came with the 'Xscape' album, L.A. Reid and Timberland were mocking Michael's original unreleased versions of songs he wrote, which I thought was nasty. I really don't like L.A. Reid and don't think he's fit to have anything to do with Michael's music or be CEO of Epic. Hardly anyone will by his autobiography, and he will only make money from via serialization of it in tabloids by using Michael Jackson's name in a mildly negative way.

 

[TheChosenOne]

I have long considered Reid and Babyface as unscrupulous businessmen. This is from the time when so many of their acts had to file for bankruptcy. Something just seemed off to me.

As for this memoir - people say what they have to say in order to push product. And depending on how he is being interviewed by, Reid will adjust his mouth to suit. It is standard operating procedure, so I don't stress. At least not in this instance.