Late Registration Credit
Congrats to Kanye West for selling over 800,000 copies of Late Registration in the first week alone!!!! Amazing sales numbers.
So, some of you might have been wondering, as I have, why on Earth my name doesnt appear on the new Kanye West "Late Registration" album. Good question, wish i had a good answer. Seems i got left off the credits.
Unfortunately, most of the samples i replayed, which i thought all came out pretty spot on, Kanye decided to clear the samples anyway. No big deal, he's got the budget, and he should make exactly the record he wants to make, so even though he hired me to recreate the samples, I'm not upset by his decisions to then clear the original samples anyway. OK, maybe a little personally upset because i thought i did great work that didnt get used, but not upset at Kanye, he's a brilliant producer, as is Jon Brion. The one sample they did use of mine however, the "Get Down" scratch on "Gold Digger" i got no credit for. Nor did the Get Down voice (Charles Roberson) get any credit either.
I cannot put into words how heartbreaking it is to have your name left off of a #1 single and a #1 album, and almost certainly a future Grammy nominated album. Suffice it to say it really physically hurts. And it really hurts my career immeasurably, and its happened before.
The record company appologized and said they'd correct the credit on the next pressing of the album. I really hope they do.
Originally i recreated all of the Ray Charles sample on Gold Digger, and though i thought the music was a carbon copy, do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a replacement voice for Ray? Damn near impossible. I often work with a great soul singer from the Cayman Islands named Ben Hudson (www.BenJHudson.com) who i thought got VERY close. Then Kanye called in Jamie Foxx to try to recreate the sample voice. Jamie got even closer, damn near perfect. But i guess in the end, Kanye wanted to sing along with Ray Charles himself. Cant say i blame him, I'd wanna sing with Ray if i could too, and its probably the first time a Ray Chalres sample has ever been cleared. So Jamie Foxx did that acapella intro, and Kanye used the Ray sample, but Kanye also used my "Get Down" scratch. Oh well.
I hear that Gold Digger is supposed to be used in a Pepsi commercial and that the music in the Pepsi commercial is in fact the music that i did. They werent given the permission to use Ray Charles for the commercial. I havent heard it yet. Also, I just watched an MTV special on the in studio making of the Late Registration album. there's a part where Jamie Foxx is in the studio doing his vocals. The music for Gold Digger is playing. Thats all me. Thats all my recreation playing, so if you really wanna hear it, there it is for about 5 or 10 seconds. they later went back to the original sample when they cleared it. But on MTV, thats me.
I also recreated the sample used for the Kanye/Brandy song "Bring Me Down", which i was told they ended up clearing, except there's no sample clearance info in the credits, and there's no piano credit, So i dont know if they used my piano or not, or??? Either way, no credit for me.
This is the FOURTH major credit that i have not been credited for THIS YEAR ALONE!!!!! This is just bad for the industry. Imagine if my name is being left off the credits and at least i'm a known entity, imagine how many up and coming cats who work on albums nowadays get left off the credits. Oh, by the way, those four albums are.....
Memphis Bleek "504" album - i did the "Oh Baby" sample. Thats all me, music and guitars and vocals. everything but the basic beat. no credit.
Common - "BE" album. "Chi City". All of the music is 100% me, except the kick, snare, and scratch. No credit
Cassdy - "I'm a Hustla" album. "AM to the PM". That big string orchestra sample that goes thru the whole song. Yet, thats me. No credit.
and of course, Late Registration.
Other noteworthy albums I've worked on as an engineer, mixer, or musician, and either not been credited, or only partially credited (like on the Common album, they credited me on "Faithful" but not "Chi City") include.....
Jay Z "BluePrint II", Mariah Carey "Charmbracelet", Shrek Soundtrack (Baha Men "The Best Years"), Kadakiss "Kiss of Death", Usher "Usher" (his first album. i got my credit on Confessions), Trans Siberian Orchestra "Christmas Eve Sarajevo", man there just have been too many others to count. And I am usually very diligent about asking for and submitting my credits.
So if your out there and your working on a record, any record, dont expect anybody to ever remember you at credits time. Bug them, pester them, submit your credit several times. make sure your submitting it to the right person. And even then, trust me, more times than you can imagine, your credit will still get left off. As for Kanye, its not his fault, I'm sure he's not the one submitting and compiling credits, but whoever left my name off that album, just know, it hurts personally and it hurts my career as well. Credits are everything in this business.
- Ken
So, some of you might have been wondering, as I have, why on Earth my name doesnt appear on the new Kanye West "Late Registration" album. Good question, wish i had a good answer. Seems i got left off the credits.
Unfortunately, most of the samples i replayed, which i thought all came out pretty spot on, Kanye decided to clear the samples anyway. No big deal, he's got the budget, and he should make exactly the record he wants to make, so even though he hired me to recreate the samples, I'm not upset by his decisions to then clear the original samples anyway. OK, maybe a little personally upset because i thought i did great work that didnt get used, but not upset at Kanye, he's a brilliant producer, as is Jon Brion. The one sample they did use of mine however, the "Get Down" scratch on "Gold Digger" i got no credit for. Nor did the Get Down voice (Charles Roberson) get any credit either.
I cannot put into words how heartbreaking it is to have your name left off of a #1 single and a #1 album, and almost certainly a future Grammy nominated album. Suffice it to say it really physically hurts. And it really hurts my career immeasurably, and its happened before.
The record company appologized and said they'd correct the credit on the next pressing of the album. I really hope they do.
Originally i recreated all of the Ray Charles sample on Gold Digger, and though i thought the music was a carbon copy, do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a replacement voice for Ray? Damn near impossible. I often work with a great soul singer from the Cayman Islands named Ben Hudson (www.BenJHudson.com) who i thought got VERY close. Then Kanye called in Jamie Foxx to try to recreate the sample voice. Jamie got even closer, damn near perfect. But i guess in the end, Kanye wanted to sing along with Ray Charles himself. Cant say i blame him, I'd wanna sing with Ray if i could too, and its probably the first time a Ray Chalres sample has ever been cleared. So Jamie Foxx did that acapella intro, and Kanye used the Ray sample, but Kanye also used my "Get Down" scratch. Oh well.
I hear that Gold Digger is supposed to be used in a Pepsi commercial and that the music in the Pepsi commercial is in fact the music that i did. They werent given the permission to use Ray Charles for the commercial. I havent heard it yet. Also, I just watched an MTV special on the in studio making of the Late Registration album. there's a part where Jamie Foxx is in the studio doing his vocals. The music for Gold Digger is playing. Thats all me. Thats all my recreation playing, so if you really wanna hear it, there it is for about 5 or 10 seconds. they later went back to the original sample when they cleared it. But on MTV, thats me.
I also recreated the sample used for the Kanye/Brandy song "Bring Me Down", which i was told they ended up clearing, except there's no sample clearance info in the credits, and there's no piano credit, So i dont know if they used my piano or not, or??? Either way, no credit for me.
This is the FOURTH major credit that i have not been credited for THIS YEAR ALONE!!!!! This is just bad for the industry. Imagine if my name is being left off the credits and at least i'm a known entity, imagine how many up and coming cats who work on albums nowadays get left off the credits. Oh, by the way, those four albums are.....
Memphis Bleek "504" album - i did the "Oh Baby" sample. Thats all me, music and guitars and vocals. everything but the basic beat. no credit.
Common - "BE" album. "Chi City". All of the music is 100% me, except the kick, snare, and scratch. No credit
Cassdy - "I'm a Hustla" album. "AM to the PM". That big string orchestra sample that goes thru the whole song. Yet, thats me. No credit.
and of course, Late Registration.
Other noteworthy albums I've worked on as an engineer, mixer, or musician, and either not been credited, or only partially credited (like on the Common album, they credited me on "Faithful" but not "Chi City") include.....
Jay Z "BluePrint II", Mariah Carey "Charmbracelet", Shrek Soundtrack (Baha Men "The Best Years"), Kadakiss "Kiss of Death", Usher "Usher" (his first album. i got my credit on Confessions), Trans Siberian Orchestra "Christmas Eve Sarajevo", man there just have been too many others to count. And I am usually very diligent about asking for and submitting my credits.
So if your out there and your working on a record, any record, dont expect anybody to ever remember you at credits time. Bug them, pester them, submit your credit several times. make sure your submitting it to the right person. And even then, trust me, more times than you can imagine, your credit will still get left off. As for Kanye, its not his fault, I'm sure he's not the one submitting and compiling credits, but whoever left my name off that album, just know, it hurts personally and it hurts my career as well. Credits are everything in this business.
- Ken
posted by Protools Mixing at 10:34 PM
4 Comments:
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hey Ken,
When you do all that work for Memphis Bleek and recieve no credit, doesnt that piss you off?
I'm not sure I entirely agree with writing half a CD for someone and only getting a few bucks for it.
From what I believe Memphis Bleek is already, "wealthy" to say the least.
Were I you, i'd be a little more than hurt for getting no credit, I'd go postal.
-Tom.
I feel your pain! As one of the mixers (Craig Bauer) on Kanye's album, I am very familiar with the problems with the credits for Late Registration. I mixed several songs on the album including Addiction, Roses, Late and Heard 'Em Say. Heard 'Em Say has just been released as the latest single and I was not given credit on the album for the mix. It was mistakenly given to one of the other mix engineers. I too have been promised countless times that the mistakes will be corrected -- I can only hope! Additionally, I was given credit for a mix that I didn't do, that I could have lived without. Incidently, you probably already know by now, but Heard 'Em Say (with my mix) was the song used in the Pepsi spot.
As great as a producer/artist Kanye is, (and I admit, I have both of his albums) there is this thing called common decency where you pay respect to everyone involved in attributing to the success. I've read in magazines how this man is virtually a crook. For example he got caught trying to steal Eminem's drums and the super producer group Cool & Dre got a hot track literally stolen from them in which Kanye snatched and cleared before hand(I'm pretty sure those were the cats and a lawsuit may have transpired). Anyway, as an aspiring hip-hop producer/artist, I have an idea of how hard this line of work is and I think its distasteful to show such a lack of respect that has been given to you.
J.P.St.Marie
Canada
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