Think about it. You know it to be true.
It's no lie that in recent years Def Jam has been heading steadily downhill. First, we had MC's go-to-producer, Jermaine Dupri, quitting his position as Head Of The Urban Division at the record label, saying in essence that he was tired of hanging out with a bunch of old guys with no damn vision - *cough* L.A. Reid *cough*- and was moving on to bigger and better things. Then, we had the label's first ever artist, LL Cool J, rushing his last album (Exit 13) and hitting-the-road-jack faster than you could say 'no chance in Hell of resigning'. And now, you have the biggest selling female artist of all time (and someone we stan HARD for) - the Mariah Carey -flopping harder than week-old salmon on Friday's market.
It's time to call it.
Well, not time of death. We're not quite there yet, but all signs point to us being there very soon.
Def Jam is following the path of former Hip-Hop powerhouse, and now legendary flop-label, Bad Boy. Just consider how big BB were back in the mid-to-late nineties. They had ALL the biggest rappers and hot R&B stars - Mary J Blige (well, Uptown Records, but same thing), Faith Evans, Biggie, Ma$e... you name them, they had them.
Then what happened? Diddy sold it, and that ish went downhill faster than Heidi Montag's looks after a ten hour surgery. These are the stages that it took into the irrelevancy it suffers from today...
1) Being the hottest label in the game - this was true of BB in the nineties, and true of DJ in the noughties.
2) Suffering the loss of several hot artists - BB lost 112, B.I.G (R.I.P), Faith Evans... they all jumped from that ship in DROVES. And the same is happening to DJ. LL Cool J was just the beginning. It's already rumoured that Angel's Advocate may be MC's last album with DJ.
3) Being Sold - Once Diddy sold BB that ish went downhill, quality-wise and otherwise. The same appears to be happening with DJ - how else do you explain Rihanna's signing, and Gaga's dropping? Exactly. On to the next one.
4) A Rapid Release Of Flop After Flop Album, And Pouring Money Into Artists Who Will Never Get Any Of It Back, Never Mind Make A Damn Profit - BB did this with Faith Evans, DJ is doing this with Rihanna.
5) A Slow But Steady Slide Into Obscurity And Irrelevancy - BB started this ish back in 04/05, give DJ another couple of years and you will start to notice the effects of L.A. Reid's continued reign.
Cause we all know that's who's really to blame here. He signs the pretty girl, drops the talented one. Can't pick singles to save his life - see Mariah Carey. You KNOW Migrate (off E=MC2) should have been a single, not I Stay In Love (which we love as an album song, but doesn't have a wide enough appeal to be a strong hit. Let's just say it's no We Belong Together, and leave it at that).
What DJ need to do to have a hope in Hell of not being the next Bad Boy Records, is to fire L.A. Reid ASAP. He is the captain of a sinking vessel, so either change the commander, or jump ship.
You have been warned...
UPDATE: Since we first wrote this on 9th March, Bad Boy has practically folded, so, once again, we've been proved right. And L A Reid is still messing up eras; his most current example being Rihanna's potential summer anthem, Rockstar 101, which, last time we heard, has yet to be released on US tv - despite having debuted on the internet over a month and a half ago. *Kanye shrug*
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