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'm signed to Atlantic through 300 Entertainment [Lyor Cohen's label]. That is my only contractual relationship.
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 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 got really noticed by record labels and that's how I got signed.
I was signed to MGM. I was in Vegas for sixteen weeks at the Sands Hotel.
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.
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.
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.
I signed my first publishing deal when I was 14, and it was from two records I put on MySpace.
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.
It never dawned on me at any particular time of my life that people are paid tremendous money to sing.
I was initially signed to a German label a few years ago.
I think, actually, I was the first person to ever sign a simultaneous video and recording deal with a record company.
David Bendeth was introduced to me by an entertainment lawyer friend.
I was signed at 19 years old to a major label, and dropped by the time I was 22.
Well, I tried to get a record deal in 1966 or '67, and everyone thought I was too eclectic.
When we signed Taylor Swift, people said, 'You're signing a 15-year-old female country artist? Good luck!'
