How does Swizzy have the time for this? In addition to being CEO of Megaupload, he's making tracks for other artists, making tracks for himself, attending media and event appearances, touring, and maintaining a marriage and social life. It makes me feel rather lazy.
Most of his stuff these days is probably ghost produced. Also, it seems like his tracks are extremely simple (though, they still somehow are fairly good). He had a beat on a Lil Wayne album a couple years ago that sounded like nothing was done other than sampling 2 or 3 loops from an old song and repeating them.
If you're talking about "Dr. Carter," that's probably my favorite hip-hop beat in modern history, but I've listened to the song it samples and you're right, he did almost nothing to it. It's still awesome though. Sometimes what you don't do to a song is just as important as what you do to it. ;-)
> He had a beat on a Lil Wayne album a couple years ago that sounded like nothing was done other than sampling 2 or 3 loops from an old song and repeating them.
That same sentiment describes tons of great hip hop beats. The tricky part is picking the correct samples. Here's an example of a simple sample of one song being used to create a classic beat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY8EIoMelFc
For reference, I was talking about the Dr. Carter song as some people below mentioned.
I get sampling, and there is no doubt that Swizz (or the people he works with) has a great ear for samples. I still think there is a big difference between the effort put in the Dr. Carter beat and the Dead Presidents beat--he didn't even layer drums on top, just chopped the original song. The Dr. Carter beat works perfectly, so I'm not hating!
The New York Post article has it just as a sidenote and I can't find any other source of this (all other sources point back to NY Post article). On the other hand, I have found sources citing Kim Dotcom as a CEO.
Lists Swizz beats as the CEO. While to some it may seem a sound business decision, I would be hesitant to be the CEO (fall guy) for notorious criminal Kim Dotcom.
Be careful about judging people. You probably have several notorious criminals, as you describe them, surrounding you right now.. you just don't know about their misdeeds. I would wager that Kasseem Dean doesn't have a pristine criminal record either.
When you adjust to the assumption that you're dealing with dishonest people in business, you learn to contractually protect yourself, and scale your salary demands accordingly. I am sure that Kasseem Dean has done just that.
Very good point. All that I have ever heard of him was regarding his crimes, but I may well be prejudging. The "Mega" suite of websites is a great feat, as is their market size. You have to be pretty savvy to accomplish that, at least.
does it matter who is CEO? it's clear that Kimble runs it all; it's even got his "mega" brand.
I'm personally a bit sad that kim keeps a low profile these days; it was fun reading his blog/website back in the day, mostly pics of high-life yachts and models and shit like that, master flamebaiter IMO :)
Wikipedia states: "The site was shut down by the FBI on January 19, 2012, during an investigation into alleged copyright infringement." [1] Anyone knows any specific details?
Sites like Megaupload are another step along the way to changing the music business. To break a new act, it's all about mindshare, branding, building up a name. The labels (used to) control that entirely.
With an alternate channel, the hegemony of the handful of major labels is threatened. Once someone has the mindshare, you can monetize by touring, merchandise, and numerous other ways. (The label response to this trend is "360 deals" but that's another topic.)
Ever checked the math on a major label contract? Check Albini's "problem with music" for a quick refresher. It makes the most predatory VCs look like choir boys.
