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Jive blocks Big Boi album tracks

By | Published on Thursday 10 June 2010

Sony division Jive Records is blocking Universal’s Def Jam from releasing three tracks on the new solo album from Big Boi because they feature guest vocals from his Outkast partner Andre 3000. Although Def Jam are handling the release of ‘Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty’, Outkast remain under contract to Jive, who claim that the three tracks in question – because they feature both halves of the Outkast enterprise – fall under their deal.

It’s extra frustrating for Big Boi because Jive were given first refusal on the whole album (they have first dibs on any solo work by the Outkast boys under their contract with the duo) but knocked the project back. Big Boi explained to GQ: “It’s plain stupidity. It’s stupid business and it’s stupid politics. Jive Records told me my album [was] a piece of art, and they didn’t know what to do with it. So, I moved it over to Def Jam. And now Jive is trying to block Dre from being on my record. We can’t be on songs together now”.

The three tracks featuring Andre 3000’s vocals have now been removed from the final version of the album, due for release next month, though a track produced by him, ‘You Ain’t No DJ’, does remain. Explained Big Boi: “We tried to get everything solidified but Jive said, ‘Naw’. Then I was going to take Dre off and make my own version, but then I thought, ‘No. Fuck that. If he can’t be on it, then I’m not using it'”.

Of course, none of this means the world at large will miss out on the new Big Boi/Andre 3000 collaborations, it just means Outkast fans will justifiably access the new tracks via illegal routes, meaning Jive won’t have stopped the new songs from going public, they just won’t earn any money from them (presumably there could have been some sort of licensing deal between the Sony and Universal divisions had the will been there). 

One of the collaborations, ‘Royal Flush’, actually leaked back in 2008, while another, ‘Looking For Ya’, found its way online this week. Big Boi certainly won’t be keeping the missing tracks from his solo album locked up in a vault. He added in his interview with GQ: “They can’t stop us, man. For these people that we don’t even know [to block these songs – people] that haven’t even had a hand in our career at all – that’s fucking blasphemy. Either they’re going to do it the right way, or they’re going to do it my way. I’m no stranger to that internet, baby”.



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