Pretty Interesting Stuff
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Patti Labelle Locks Horns With L.A. Reid
Monday, October 17, 2005
By Roger Friedman
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PATTI LABELLE DECLARES WAR ON RECORD LABEL

“They must be ‘deaf’ at Def Jam if they can’t hear me!”

Such was the gist of legendary singer and class-act Patti Labelle’s defiant stance against her former record label, Island/DefJam Records, and its president, LA Reid, this weekend.

The occasion, an all-star birthday celebration for Labelle’s 60th, was staged in the main theater at the lavish Atlantis Hotel and Casino in Nassau. UPN taped the show for airing in November. The glorious night of music reunites Labelle with former group-mates Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash for their immortal hit “Lady Marmalade”; it also features rapper Nelly with girlfriend Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child (they do a version of Patti’s hit “Love, Need and Want You”), Ashanti, Gerald Levert, Yolanda Adams, and Michael McDonald.

Don’t miss this show when it airs next month. Besides the great musical numbers, you’ve got to see Jimmy Fallon’s hilarious imitation of McDonald in its entirety. It’s so good that Michael told me after the show, “He does me better than me.” Fallon came to the weekend with his new “good friend” the delightful Nancy Juvonen (producing partner of Drew Barrymore). It’s hard to say which is the better catch.

(Story continues below)

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In the audience: legends like Sam Moore, Billy Preston, Ashford and Simpson, Chaka Khan, Sheila E., Evander Holyfield, Butch Lewis, plus Denise Rich, Bebe Buell, the ubiquitous (and svelte) Star Jones with husband Al Reynolds, and a boogieing Ivana Trump. And not only was it Patti’s birthday, but a joint 70th celebration for Sol Kerzner, who owns Atlantis, and Moore, the great Atlantic Records/Stax Records warbler of Soul Man, Hold On I’m Coming, and I Thank You.

The show was such a hit that Patti, Nona and Sarah have decided to reform Labelle, and have committed to doing a new album and concert tour. I have no inside info, but I would guess that Clive Davis would be all over this idea within seconds. What could be better?

The birthday/TV show, however--which will be featured in all its glory in next week’s People magazine--was almost sunk by the sudden regrets sent by Usher, Beyonce, and Outkast. All of them had committed to the project eons ago but backed out at the last minute.

Was it a coincidence that all of them are closely connected to L.A. Reid, the record executive who unceremoniously dumped Labelle from the DefJam side of the company two months ago? Probably not.

Reid earned the ire of many recording artists during his short stint at Arista Records. In fact, he was partially to blame for Arista being folded into the RCA Music Group when he led that label to its worst standings in a quarter century. RCA is still reeling from the $100 million deal he gave to Whitney Houston and her subsequent dud of an album. Still not seen on the scene are artists who Reid was then touting: Adema, Lennon, Dream, Toya and Koffee Brown.

Note: DefJam is currently represented on the Billboard Top 50 Album chart by only one CD: Kanye West’s Late Registration. The Island Records side, however, (run by Steve Bartels) has had several hits, including The Killers, Mariah Carey, Bon Jovi, Melissa Etheridge and newcomer Marc Broussard.)

But Reid’s successes were notably with artists he’d cultivated pre-Arista, with his own LaFace Records. Those were Usher and Outkast. At DefJam, Reid is also working closely with rapper Jay Z, now the unlikely president of said label. Jay Z is engaged to, or “associated” with Beyonce. The absence of all these people--as well as Island/DefJam’s Mariah Carey and former Reid associate Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds -- raised a lot of suspicion that arms had been twisted or not so subtle suggestions had been delivered.

It sure didn’t take long for the show organizers, planners, producers, and musical team to figure out what happened. “We have signed letters from [the missing artists],” said a member of the production team. “Usher even went over his songs with musical director Greg Phillinganes.”

(To be fair, Ashanti and Nelly are still signed to Universal Music Group, DefJam’s parent, although they are not under Reid’s purview.)

The roots of the Labelle/Reid feud are easy to identify. Labelle was signed to DefJam before Reid arrived as part of what was supposed to be Def Soul Classics. But Reid apparently wasn’t interested in artists who could actually sing or compose music. Hence no albums from James Brown or Earth, Wing & Fire, two of the other acts that were supposedly signed to DefSoul Classics.

Labelle released two albums on the label. The first one, Timeless Journey, was released in May 2004 to rave reviews. But DefSoul Classics was caught in the changeover from Lyor Cohen to Reid, and the album disappeared.

A year later, in June 2005, Labelle delivered “Classic Moments,” an eclectic collection of cover songs written by people like Elton John, Michael Jackson, Bonnie Raitt and the Pretenders. From the latter came “I’ll Stand By You,” which Labelle saw as a new anthem and signature song. The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde--who wrote the song--was thrilled. And Labelle was right about the anthem: “I’ll Stand by You” should have returned her to the contemporary hits charts and to radio.

But Reid, Labelle’s friends say, could have cared less. “He did nothing to promote the album,” several of them told me over the weekend. Labelle booked herself onto Good Morning America’s outdoor concert series for the morning of July 1st, two weeks after “Classic Moments” was shipped. That kind of national exposure was a surefire way to sell albums. According to friends, no one from DefJam showed up before the show began.

“We had them open the Bryant Park Grill so we could take Patti inside and calm her down,” says someone who was there. “When L.A. Reid showed up, he promised her there would be more promotion for the album and more attention. But nothing happened.”

All summer, Labelle did her own publicity and promotion, waiting for the various DefJam departments to kick in. Meanwhile, planning had begun for the 60th birthday extravaganza in the Bahamas. The company was asked by the producers to put some money in, or provide some kind of involvement. The producers were met with stone silence.

On August 31st, Labelle performed at the World Music Awards in California. She sang “I’ll Stand By You” and got a huge standing ovation. “People were going crazy,” says a source. “LA Reid came backstage and said to Patti, ‘What a great song! Why haven’t you recorded it?’”

Labelle apparently told him, “It’s on the album you’ve refused to do anything for.”

At that point, the dye was cast. Rumors began circulating that DefJam would

drop Labelle, one of the half-dozen or so reigning divas of soul including

Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick, Natalie Cole and Tina

Turner. This column called DefJam in mid September to ask if the company

was doing anything special for the 60th birthday, like recording it for DVD or CD release, or sponsoring it financially.


“It’s Patti’s project,” said a spokesperson. “We have

nothing to do with it. I think we were asked to

underwrite a casino night, but that’s not for us.”


By the beginning of October, it was unclear whether some artists could make

the TV taping. But Usher and Outkast were confirmed, and plans went ahead for their participation. Usher was even offered a midnight birthday party of his own, all expenses paid. He’d gladly accepted. But by mid week he and his manager/mother weren’t returning phone calls. Neither was Outkast. Beyonce suddenly begged off as well, although she sent flowers.


Labelle took the stage Friday night at the magnificent Atlantis full of fury and fire. “I’ve been in this business for 45 years,” she told the assembled crowd after a series of terrific performances by her guest stars including Nelly, who doesn’t sing but sweetly appeared on stage with a towel to pat Patti off and brought her water when she needed it. “I’ve done everything myself. The record labels don’t care about you. I’m not here because of them. I don’t care who knows it,” she said, referring to the DefJam calamity. She used some four-letter words she said later she hoped her two elderly aunts in the audience would permit. “I told Ivana Trump what happened, and she said ‘F- em if they don’t appreciate you.’”


Her comments were met with an explosion of thunderous applause.


It was a bravura moment, full of real emotion. It showed just how awful the record business had become. You may recall that I wrote in this column four years ago that when Reid took over at Arista, he was seen not auditioning acts but shopping in Gucci. Now here was a respected, talented veteran of the business explaining what the rewards were for hard work (although I have no doubt Labelle has done her fair share of shopping—her wardrobe and accessories are stellar).


Performing over this spectacular music weekend--which I will tell you more about tomorrow--were many talented acts who are not signed to record labels or who’ve been abandoned by their labels in favor of younger, cheaper performers who can’t sing, can’t write and don’t care.


In the meantime, Labelle’s terrific special is scheduled for airing on UPN between November 14 and 18 (check local listings). My guess is the audio portion—a collection of classic performances, including Labelle and McDonald doing “On My Own”—will be made available for downloading on something like iTunes. The other option would be a CD for sale in places like Starbucks. Their label is called Hear Music, which would seem to be the opposite of DefJam.

Patti is The Shit.

And I hope her aunts don't mind me calling her that.

BIG UP MS LABELLE!!!!!


Fuck'em girl, fuck'em....

Miss LaBelle.....

no other like her.

Reid was ALWAYS a suspect businessman. He fucked over TLC and then he fucked over Pebbles, he then fucked over Jon B. and made it look like it was face that did it. He fucked over Tony Rich...the list is probably longer than that.

Patti ROCKS! End of story. I hope Prince was there so he could witness this go down.

TheCrucialExperience said:

I hope L.A. Reid loses his job real soon. I've heard nothing but bad things about him ever since he ran Arista. Pathetic.

TheCrucialExperience said:

I heard he did Face super dirty.

Rhondab said:

I wouldn't be surprised. He seems shady like that.

daaaaamn


Uh-oh MIKE, on second thought.....maybe you should not sign with reid.....

TheCrucialExperience said:

Toni Braxton too...

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[Edited 7/21/18 16:45pm]

soulsike said:

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Please feel free to get off of L.A. Reid Jock at anytime. Because of his incompetence Arista records was folded. He only had "Outkast" on the label at the end. Whoever gave this fool a job deserves whatever disaster he is going to bring to the picture.

I not going to go into how many careers this guy has ruined. The artist have already gone on record about this joker. The guy's track record speaks for itself and you can only be some underling that is probably going to get a fat golden parachute when you both get canned.

No one should be surprised that the industry is in the shape it is with an uneducated clown like this running a record label.

We can all thank L.A. Reid for the following great groups.

Bonecrasher.
Blu Cantrell
Koffee Brown.

If Patti can't sell records to anyone on the Earth than she should not have been brought on board at all. We all know that Prince got up and walked out a meeting with this idiot and that was one of the smartest moves he has ever made.

We love you, Ms Patti!!!!

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[Edited 7/21/18 16:45pm]

he didnt screw over Pepples financially or artistically..he screwed over her integrity by putting the blame on her for the TLC fiasco when she did nothing wrong...


why is it someone like maurice starr can go on and create new acts..or the guy that created nsync and bareback boys? yet a women? and former flame pebs gets disse and her career ruined?

sexism maybe?

sosgemini said:

hmm, i think you've got a point...

boriquateddy said:

Damn! How could I forget about HER! Good one.

There are always two sides to every story. Nobody here was in the boardroom when Reid brokered any deal regarding LaBelle's record contract.

And the posters here who are claiming that they know Reid is shady and what not are merely speculating.

Let's hear what Reid has to say, if anything, before y'all go to praising Patti to the high heavens.

soulsike said:

Reid fucked over Pebbs and then he fucked over Jon B. AND Tony Rich. Also, TLC WAS SIGNED TO LAFACE not Pebbles. Face handled the music side and Reid raped the business side. Case closed. Why this cat think YabYum is NOT A PART OF THE LAFACE FAMILY is hilarious.

chuckaducci said:

LOL! Like Reid is gonna ADMIT to fucking people over! Good luck waiting for THAT press conference!

It really did seem like Patti was really pushing "I'll Stand By You". That comment is all kinds of bad and speaks volumes about the industry. Ried should be kicked sqauw in the nuts!

soulsike said:

I'm sorry but both Toni and TLC went broke and where on LAFace....seems to be too much of a coincidence. I was also very surprised that Patti came back on a major label when she could have thrived on a small label. That being said, he didn't know she recorded that song and that it was on her recent album. The album got no love and her last one was treated somewhat kindly (although I never understood releasing the Ron Isley single but not putting it on the album as promised...).

What about Whitney? What about the fact that Mariah's frist album tanked? Don't treat Ried as if he is some sort of genuis who does no wrong. He's fucked up a lot more careers than he helped!

soulsike said:

sorry ma, no underling here... Def Soul Classics was a boutique, a label set up for prestige, not dollars. Much like how Neil Young and Patti Smith still have major deals, but can't sell records... Once DefSoulClassics went away, they still had a finished record or two, so toss em out and let them do what they're gonna do... It is industry standard that when a new exec comes in to a label, most artists that have been sitting on a shelf get neglected...

Arista was not folded due to his "incompetence" but as a cost-saving issue because Sony and BMG were merging. To have so much redundancy in terms of A&R and promotion departments was ignorant. Yes, LA is free with a checkbook, no arguments there, and I am by no means a huge LA fan. he's like every other major label exec: lots of wins, and lots of failures... The music industry is like baseball: a player with a .300 average is a superstar, while those of us with regular jobs, if we had a 30% average, would be fired quickfast...

I'm not going to get into a pissing match on the internet over some guy nobody on this thread knows. i never post here, I just thought it was funny how so many people "knew" so much...

TTFN[/quote]


So is the only defense for Reid the fact that Mariah's second album did well? Fasinating becuase the case against him sounds much better....

chuckaducci said:

If Ried said "You should record that song" after she performed her single, case closed!

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[Edited 7/21/18 16:48pm]

soulsike said:

so maybe his ass needs to stay in the studio and out of the executive office....when you have a high profile artist like patti you dont ignore the album....period!! clive would never have done that..he kept with santana and allowed him to grow knowing that all fads come and go and one day someones talent will come back in flavor...

thats just business 101...you treat your employees like they are the best employee you have and coach them to be the best they can.

he failed...and thats why the industry support for him has sunk..the man needs to apologize to babyface and stick to what he knows..creating music.

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[Edited 7/21/18 16:49pm]

VinnyM27 said:

Um, Lyor Cohen was in charge of IDJ during Mariah's Charmbracelet era. And, what about Whitney. L.A. Reid isn't the one who wanted Bobby Brown to produce tracks on the album. He's not the one who was shouting "crack is wack" to Diane Sawyer. Or, the one who cussed Wendy Williams out during an interview. Patti complained about being done wrong when she was at MCA. And, now she's complaining about being done wrong at Def Jam. Def Soul artists aren't going to get the priority that a younger act is going to receive. Realistically, w/ promo how much do you think Patti would sell. Most artists have to do three million just to break even. I don't see Patti selling that. It's crazy for any artist to bank on selling cds. WE all know that's not where you make you're money. I hope it's not a pride thing for her because she was never a consistent seller. When you're Patti's age your mind needs to switch to touring. What happened w/ Cher, Santana, and Rod Stewart can't happen for everybody.

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[Edited 7/21/18 16:50pm]