By Sean Flinn | May 26, 2000
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So Keith, burned by labels, has left them behind altogether. He'll release his next album, Matthew, in mid-summer on his own label, Funky Ass Records (which also released Sex Style and the Dr. Dooom album, First Come, First Served).
"Now I'm back doing it myself again," he says proudly. "I'm making my own decisions, calling my own shots, picking out my own pictures, taking my own pictures, paying for my own artwork, picking my own album arrangements -- it's a lot of stuff. And I feel great that I did it all by myself."
Something else he did by himself was to take Sony on in a highly visible gripe campaign. Frustrated by the lack of promotion given Black Elvis, Keith went public with his anger and, in October of 1999, sent an e-mail to his fan club asking members to write to Sony Music with complaints over their inattention to and mismanagement of the project.
"The label fucked up a lot of stuff that you kids want to have access to," the letter reads. "The video should be on TV for you kids to see. The video was done before my tour. You can call and e-mail the following people to ask them what's going on. My project is available, but I know it's hard for you not to get any of the material, and latest updates.
"E-mail these people and tell them why you're angry that you haven't seen my new video. E-mail these people 24 hours a day nonstop; you will get a response. Ask for wigs, product, posters, videos, radio, and etc. And that's it."
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I don't have to go out and buy a bunch of costumes, capes and stuff and wear a bubble on my head. That was just an extra attraction." "
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Keith's fans responded. According to Keith's music publisher, Sony received over 10,000 letters from angry Kool Keith fans. The label has yet to respond to his demands. And Keith has yet to relent. The label still owns the rights to KoolKeith.com, a domain name Keith believes he should have control over, and his publicist has suggested that Keith might want to run another e-mail blitz to persuade Sony to hand it over.
Keith is somewhat mystified at Sony's reluctance to meet any of his demands. After lunch, while sitting on the tailgate of my truck and signing some vinyl copies of Black Elvis, he expresses his frustration with the label: "It's just been a hard thing to get cooperation from the label. I didn't do anything to Sony; I was barely up at the label. And they should respect me for being one of the most independent artists ever to come out on a label. I'm sure they have a lot of other artists begging for money, begging for a place to stay, begging for rent, and I am, fortunately, not one of the persons who harassed the company for anything. But when I do need some type of help, I don't seem to get the response. And record labels force people to go into different exercises to get attention. And then they want to know why you're trippin' out. I see it as unnecessary and very unprofessional."
"It's a haters thing. Record companies have a lot of slick ways of making their artists unhappy, but they try to blame it on you also. And they can't blame it on me because I've done nothing but participate in everything they have offered me to do, from taking pictures to being on time for autograph signings and everything. I think it's just a point of jealousy in general. They hate to see me very successful, and they know my capability to be successful. I look at it this way -- if I went double platinum with the Prodigy thing, they treated me very well. And I just went gold with a various artists thing [a compilation album for the World Wrestling Federation]; I sold a big CD over in Europe -- then how come my label doesn't see a lot of this stuff? Something's wrong."
So Keith continues trying to break away cleanly from Sony and, in the process, has started changing his image entirely. The costumes he used to wear during his stage shows -- the Black Elvis wig, the astronaut bubble helmet, the cape -- have been shelved in favor of street clothes. And despite the fact that his new album, Matthew, presents his rhymes under yet another moniker, he swears that he's done with the personas. He's even planning to hold a funeral for Black Elvis as part of Matthew's record-release party.
"I tried to give people entertainment, and it wasn't appreciated," he says of his decision to consign the costumes to his closet. "I did a 45-minute tour last year, and it wasn't appreciated. Those fans were like, 'Hey, you should've stayed on stage for another two hours.' And I'm being myself this year. Keith. Wearing the clothes I want to wear -- a hat, leather -- not costuming up or nothing. Just being Keith. I watch TV every day, and I see so many other rappers just doing it regular. My image now is just me. Coming up with those ideas took a lot. I put a lot of energy into that stuff. And I look around my perimeters, my competition, you know -- they don't do it. So I might as well give it to 'em raw. It's like, they don't want their steak well done. They want it raw now. Medium rare. So I have to change my game up again, back to who I was back when I first came out. That's the new transition for me now -- giving it to 'em raw.
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Black Elvis / Lost in Space |
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"It's like, they don't want their steak well done. They want it raw now. Medium rare."
"And I feel great now, I feel like, [my fans] may be mad, but they have to absorb it. I'm gonna let them see what they really missed because they didn't notice it when it was there. It's like, 'I gave you the chance to see something different, but now you're not going to see it at all. Now you have to really use your head, mentally.' I'm not going to go out and use a lot of energy that I don't need to use. I don't have to go out and buy a bunch of costumes, capes and stuff and wear a bubble on my head. That was just an extra attraction."
"I think I'm a great MC," Keith says before heading off to the Del Amo Mall with a female friend. "At the end of the day, that's what I am. I don't really need accessories to attach to me to make me good. Like, 'Oh, he's the guy that wears the wig; he's the guy that wears the bubble. He's the guy that wears the galactic shirt."
And that's how our interview ends, as Keith finishes signing the vinyl and prepares to go shopping for clothes -- street clothes -- to wear on his summer tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In the end, hip-hop has nothing to do with what MCs are wearing or what kind of characters they play. It's about inspiring a certain state of mind, and it's the job of the MC to put people in that state. If your clothes have become your message, then it's time to change your wardrobe.
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This article originally appeared on RadioSpy.com
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