Annie Lennox Quotes

If you're part of a record company, you're a manufactured product. It doesn't mean that you're not talented.

I have inherited two of the most important brands in hip-hop, Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella. Reid and Universal Music Group have given me the opportunity to manage the companies I have contributed to my whole career. I feel this is a giant step for me and the entire artist community.

I never, ever had it in my mind that I wanted to be in the record industry, because I still contend that the record industry is an insidious affair. It's this terrible collision between art and commerce, and it will always be that way.

I produce the records. I don't hand over control to some really expensive producer who then talks to the record company and then tries to bend me to their will - for commercial purposes.

I've never worried about how a new release will be received. I simply try to do the best I can and leave the rest to the gods. The music industry in those terms is something I loathe and detest. It conjures up images of a gigantic factory spewing out parts of the machine.

When you're on the pop treadmill, you don't always feel that cool because you have to do things to promote the record that aren't necessarily your environment.

I like Simon Cowell - look at how many great artists have come out of the U.K. because of him.

It's typical of record companies. They sign you because you're unique, and then they want to put you in a mold so they can sell records.

The only biography I read was about Al Bell, of Stax Records. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Al Bell.

Shoot, there's a committee to tell you everything at a record label. You definitely have to know who you are if you want to look like you at the end of the process. We've all seen people get record contracts, and by the time they're spit out by the machine, we don't even recognize them.

Pop managers are fixed in the dramatic stock character repertoire too, ever since the first British pop film musical, Wolf Mankowitz's 'Expresso Bongo' of 1959, with Cliff Richard as Bongo Herbert and Laurence Harvey as his manager. The key components were cast as X parts gay, X parts Jewish and triple X opportunistic.

Def Jam is an iconic label.

I have the weirdest career in hip-hop, and I say that because I started so young. I started So So Def when I was 17 years old.

Johnny Mercer started Capitol Records, and he brought in Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Nat King Cole. He just let them sing whatever they wanted, and it became the best record company in America.

Rick Rubin's amazing, by the way. I just need to say that.

I don't want to be judged next to guys like Suge Knight. I want to be measured next to David Geffen, Irving Azoff, and Clive Davis. Whether I measure up or not, I let my record speak for me. That's how I want to be judged - by what I've done, not by what people like Ice Cube and Dr. Dre have said about me.

There's a fine line between artist and product. I don't think the industry purposely does it, but I think that's just the way they maneuver. You have to be careful that doesn't become your story, where you become a product, and your art is tarnished because you're just seen as a tool to make money.

I always look at Akon as inspiration, and the fact that at one point Lady Gaga was signed to Konvict Muzik.

I've always loved Jay-Z's music and loved what he's done.

When you find fame, or you get signed to a record label, it's not what you imagined - because you imagined they would have 100 percent trust or faith in you as an artist. Unfortunately, that's not really the case - it's what sells.

I don't like to be considered a 'hip-hop mogul.' I don't know what that means.

The Biggest Loser,' 'The Voice,' and 'American Idol'... they're giving people opportunities to do what they've always dreamed of doing... to me, that's great reality television.

You might be like, 'I want really big hits.' But when you get really big hits, and your label is making $150 million, they are people who are now interested in what you do. They are going to begin to tell you what to do, and so you become important. So your creative freedom - you're not going to have that again.

My definition of a producer is 'the man with the dream.'

I met Rick Rubin through Cat Collins, a DJ friend of mine that had worked for Rubin at American Recordings.