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JMTHIPHOP.COM caught up with JMT’s frontman, Vinnie Paz, to get his responses to a recent interview posted by the CEO of JMT’s former label, Chuck Wilson.

Q:  How are things?

Vinnie: Good man, real good.  I feel re-invigorated.  Just back in the studio making music for ourselves again feels good.  I’m actually kinda glad that Chuck decided to start putting our business in the street.  For the first time, I have a chance to speak honestly about that relationship.  We’ve spent most of the last four years playing the good solider and keeping our mouths shut in interviews and whatnot, so it definitely feels good to talk directly to our fans about the situation.

Q: Where do you want to start?

Vinnie:  To be honest, man, this whole thing could be over with if he stuck by his word.  I’m confused because he ducks our calls and e-mail for two months and then publishes an interview saying our relationship has run its course and that its time for both parties to move on.  All we’ve been trying to do since January was hand in this last Army of the Pharaohs record that we owed him to finish out our contract with him and move on.  He didn’t want to respond to us or pay us, so we made the decision for him and moved on by ending our deal with him last month. 

Q: How do you respond to Chuck’s statement that “...the relationship [with Jedi Mind Tricks] has run its course on all levels. [It] [s]erved its purpose for both of us and its time for them to do their own thing and its time for Babygrande to start a new chapter in our legacy.”

Vinnie: That’s funny, actually, because we couldn’t agree more with that statement, which is why we ended our deal with him.  It actually feels good to hear him say that.  I’m just confused as to why he doesn’t stick by his word and move on too.  All we have asked him to do for the past four years is either pay us on time or drop us from the label and let us do our thing somewhere else.  He was constantly complaining about how the music business in general is crumbling and how he couldn’t pay us on time and each time we responded by saying, “Cool, if we’re not profitable anymore, then drop us from the label and let us do our own thing.”  But he always wanted it both ways, he never wanted to pay us, or account to us on time but he never wanted to let us walk from the contract either.  

We finally made that decision for him and moved on by ending our contract with him, but he’s still sending our attorney letters saying that he rejects our termination, that we’re still his exclusive property, and that basically he’s going to sue anybody who tries to do business with us.  So, he’s saying one thing on his website and then doing the opposite behind the scenes.

Q:  Why have you been quiet about all of this up until this point?

Vinnie:  Look, man, as an artist, it’s tough to talk about a situation regarding your record label and not sound like you’re whining.  Our fans don’t want to hear about all of this business shit, they want to hear great music.  I don’t even want to hear myself talk about it; I’d rather be in the studio right now trying to make great music. 

We recognize that we’re extremely fortunate to enjoy the career that we have, and we would never make a blanket statement that Chuck hadn’t helped our career in the past.  But the last four years have been a nightmare with this dude.  This is a dude who was telling us we were his flagship artist and the reason he started his label, and then turning around and stringing us along when it came time to pay us.  He became the master of excuses, so, of course he lost our respect through the years. 

We’re not the headache-type artist who just blames their label for everything that goes wrong.  And we don’t take sole credit for all the success we had.  It does take a team of people to be successful in this business and at one point in our career he was a part of that team until he started hitting us with the excuses.  For him to come out now in an interview and try to paint us as some type of typical crybaby artist is just fake. 

Q:  Chuck said that he won’t make a profit from A History of Violence or Decalogue, how do you respond?

Vinnie: That’s real simple, let’s do some basic math together, because I want our fans to know this.  Jedi Mind Tricks as an entity has sold over 400,000 albums for Chuck since we signed to his label in 2002.  That number includes our records, AOTP, the records we’ve done under the JMT Presents banner, and Stoupe’s role as producer on Rip The Jacker.   You take that 400,000 and multiply that by a wholesale price of say 11/unit.  You subtract $3/unit for distribution fees, and you get a gross of about 3.2 million dollars.  Subtract some marketing money and you’re still talking millions of dollars in profit that Chuck has made from our music.  

If Chuck wants to break down the profitability of each individual record that’s fine, but if you look at the big picture of this seven-year relationship, we’re the most profitable business investment he’s made since he started his label.  That’s unquestionable, no matter how he decides to do his math.

Q: What do you have to say in response to Chuck’s statements about A History Of Violence?  Chuck said, “The record had no clever or notable features and they had their largest budget ever to work with in making the record—and I mean LARGE.”

Vinnie:  Chuck needs to refresh his memory. Truth is, I financed the production of that record out of my own pocket in order to deliver it on time, like I have the last three Army of The Pharaohs records.  Chuck can talk about how large our advances are all he wants, but you have to actually pay the advance to the artist so they have enough time to use it to make a record and secure the big-name guests he’s talking about. 

Last August, we were still fighting with him to pay us our advance for AHOV which he wanted to release October 1.  How many great records are made in a month?  Our only regret now is going along with that bullshit.  Most artists wouldn’t have even started the record until the advance was in their bank account, but we’ve always come out of pocket for this dude to keep things moving forward.  If we waited for Chuck to pay us our advance to start AHOV, we would still be in the lab working on that record.  In retrospect, that’s what we should’ve done, it would’ve been less rushed.

Q: How do you respond to Chuck’s statement that A History Of Violence’s underperformance is analogous to Iron Mike getting knocked out by Buster ..Douglas..?

Vinnie: Chuck’s definitely a comedy writer.  I find it hard to believe that we’re washed up-- which I guess is what he’s getting at with that analogy?--when I go on tour in Europe back in February and play in front of 1,000 crazy fans at Elysse Montmarte in Paris, or play to a packed house at the Henry Fonda Theatre in L.A, or to 2,000 kids in Bogota, Colombia.  Everyone in the music business, Chuck included, knows that you can’t quantify an artist’s success by album sales these days. 

I can go on tour and do a show with a thousand kids and half of them are coming up to me saying, “I love your music; I downloaded all of your shit.”  Those fans don’t show up on Soundscan numbers, but they’re out there, I’ve seen them everywhere I go on tour.  You have the biggest artists selling 60,000 units their first week when 10 years ago they would’ve been selling a million units their first week.

So to address his comment about “underperformance?”  Maybe his business is underperforming right now, but demand for our music around the world has never been stronger.  If he hasn’t been able to turn that into album sales, is that our fault as the artist or his fault as the CEO of the record label? 

We just got invited to play the Montreux Jazz Festival in ....Switzerland.... this summer--one of the most prolific music festivals in the world.  One of my idols, Miles Davis, played that stage.  It’s a massive honor and feels like a new pinnacle of our career, yet I’m supposed to believe that we’re “underperforming.”  I think Chuck’s definition is skewed.  It’s a tough time to own a record label right now, so I understand he’s probably saying that stuff out of his own frustration with his business.

Q: What do you think about Chuck’s quote that “...the way that Jus Allah was woven back into the group was sloppy?”

Vinnie: Again, I have to take that with a grain of salt.  This is coming from Chuck who basically created a Jus “solo album” behind Jus’ back, and without Jus’ approval, by doing backroom deals to purchase scraps from previous studio sessions and assembling them into a record and then pawning it off on Jus and JMT fans as an actual album created by Jus.  I have a hard time taking criticism from a dude who pulls moves like that.

Look, we’ve received a lot of feedback from our fans about AHOV, good and bad.  We always listen to our fans, because our fans drive our music.  We’re going to incorporate some of the feedback and keep trying to evolve from record to record.  All I can say is that AHOV was a difficult record to make with all the drama going on behind the scenes trying to get Chuck to pay us and that’s reflected in the record.  

Q: Anything else for now?

Vinnie: Nah, man, it’s been good to finally speak truthfully about all of this behind-the-scenes stuff that we’ve been dealing with for the past four years.  It’s been a giant headache that had definitely started to affect our music negatively.  I think the fans heard it.  We heard it.  We’ve spent so much time fighting Chuck to get paid that we haven’t been able to really focus on making music. 

Since we ended our deal last month, I’ve never felt better.  I’m in the lab working hard.  You know what’s funny, man?  All this boils down to something real simple for us.  Chuck said it himself, “The relationship [with Jedi Mind Tricks] has run its course on all levels. [It] served its purpose for both of us and its time for them to do their own thing and its time for Babygrande to start a new chapter in our legacy.” 

We already moved on.  And he seems more than ready to do the same.  So I don't get why he sent our attorney a letter this week telling him that we’re still under contract and that he’s basically going to sue anyone who does business with us?  We actually agree on the only thing that matters right now, which is that it’s time for both parties to move on, yet this dude’s publishing interviews on his website confirming that he feels the same way and then running around behind the scenes threatening to sue us for ending our contract.

It’s all good.  If he wants to keep making statements, we’ll keep defending ourselves, and let our fans sort out the truth for themselves.  But in terms of our contract with Chuck, we’ve already moved on… he should just give it up and do the same.