The main thing is we never dissolved our Gang Starr contract. We are still signed to each other. We never disbanded the group. If Guru really wanted to super-dead it he would have said, 'Yo, I want out.' And I still would have tried to convince him to stay. We are still Gang Starr.
When I was signed, that was before the punk thing even happened.
One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract. I said, 'Wait - you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it?'
I had to put me foot down with the first record company. It was about 1975, when singers were being given names like Gary Glitter and Alvin Stardust, so they wanted to call me Benny Santini just because me dad's an Irish-Italian with an ice-cream business!
Well, I had a record deal since I was 18, and it got me where I am.
I was never officially signed with Akon, but it was a shopping deal. That was around the time he was going through some problems with his label at Interscope. I waited, but when a deal didn't happen, I just went out on my own.
I had every major label in the world - I mean, any label that dealt with rap music wanted to sign me. I ended up going with Jive Records because I liked everything about 'em.
I haven't really been recording in the last several years. I haven't wanted to. And even though I had to deal with Sony and now I'm on Universal again, I will probably put out a new record soon.
I'm signed to Atlantic through 300 Entertainment [Lyor Cohen's label]. That is my only contractual relationship.
I was signed to MGM. I was in Vegas for sixteen weeks at the Sands Hotel.
I got really noticed by record labels and that's how I got signed.
I had a good record company right from the beginning, and I'm still with them after all these years. I think I may be the only person in the world that's had a tenure this long with any record company.
We'd been out touring for a couple of years before we signed with Sony and everything.
When I was 19 I had a record deal.
Someone had an eye on me as I was leaving high school. I had a chance to record demos, but they were kind of wanting to make a pop singer out of me, of the 'X Factor' variety. I didn't feel comfortable with it. I wanted to be a songwriter.
I was initially signed to a German label a few years ago.
I'm not desperate to sign, like, a record deal. I'm very hungry, but I'm just not desperate for it.
I was signed to RCA to be a country singer.
I signed my first publishing deal when I was 14, and it was from two records I put on MySpace.
It never dawned on me at any particular time of my life that people are paid tremendous money to sing.
David Bendeth was introduced to me by an entertainment lawyer friend.
I think, actually, I was the first person to ever sign a simultaneous video and recording deal with a record company.
I was signed at 19 years old to a major label, and dropped by the time I was 22.
When I was 13, I was saying that I wanted to be signed to a label. I was begging my dad to get me signed with somebody.
I met Ne-Yo in London. I sang for him and he said, 'I want to sign you.' It was amazing - it meant my name was buzzing around the industry and I got to meet lots of different labels.
