CMC/Soul Relation
stops with HipHop?!
The album cover of their first compilation.
No more
In the landscape of the Dutch record labels CMC/Soul Relation
stands out as one of the three pillars of HipHop. You have
DJAX, as the original rebel base bringing out mostly Dutch
language HipHop and experimental stuff. Top Notch pumping HipHop
hits for the main stream in the native Dutch languages and Postmen
in English. CMC/Soul Relation released that straight up massive
(in the English languages) HipHop material with a quality that makes
almost every release a classic.
René
CMC Philips: "Till the financial picture catch up".
These three are the Dutch
labels. There is the brand new label from the Osdorp Posse:
Ramp Records. And many very small independent labels like Lyric
Records, Z Enterpriz and Aftershokz. But we have
some bad news, sadly CMC/Soul Relations stops doing HipHop. What the
fuck, stopping? Well, HipHop will no more be their main focus.
Once more its time to jump in the ART12-Off-The-Road-Wagon
with a baseball bat, a truck full of thousands of customers and a
lot of questions to hit the road. To stump into their office, pull
Brian and René out of the jacuzzi, say high to
all the girlies and to hit them up to get some answers.
Well sort of. Skip the car, a year ago one of the back wheels broke
off from the car. I thought it would be wise to bring the car to the
junkyard. Cant find no thousands of customers either and worst
of all, they dont have a jacuzzi. So I just phoned him with
my pen as baseball bat.
Not Out of focus
To relax you, HipHop will not be out of focus. "But its
time to make some money." For five years René and
Brian invested all their money and time in their record label. René
who makes his money as rapper of Two Brothers On The 4th Floor,
gives the answers to my questions. To give a run down on what for
kind of figures you are talking about in the Dutch industry: E-Life
sold ±11.000 copies of his debut album Eleven. Kinda
ironic though, Eleven and 11.000. "Thats not enough
to cover the costs of making the album."
E-Life's 'Eleven' did ± 11.000
Just love HipHop
"With a lot of products we went shopping by major companies.
But they dont believe in it, they say that HipHop is never going
to be bigger in The Netherlands." You can call it Flatlands,
not only because of the landscape but also for the HipHop sales figures.
"But we are hard headed and just kept on doing our thing.
And when I look back Im very proud on what we released. We did
it all ourselves, paid for it out of our own pockets." As
CMC describes his company himself as having guts and hard headed but
he has to admit that the financial picture always catch up. "Often
there were people that I know from the commercial/mainstream scene
that ask me why I was putting money into HipHop. Well I just love
HipHop and I believe it can go somewhere"
All in the game
To get back on E-Life, his first three singles where hits and the
track on his album The Game has every ingredient
and intention to blow up big time. Making E and the label a lot bigger.
But instead When In Doubt, a straight up hardcore
track and about kicking in the doors of Babylon, was released.
Was that not the wrong track on the wrong time? "You could
say that. But the decision was made by Zomba, the major company that
hired the licenses. They wanted to get back to the basis of E. We
thought it was a good decision."
Why do you do you sell the license of an artist to a major company?
"To push down the costs. It does not always mean that you
sell a lot more but you have less weight to carry. They take care
of the marketing and the video etc. And of course to learn how others
do it and how the bizz works."
What do you think about Postmen?
Their first release was Doc Documents on CMC/Soul
Relation. Their second release became a Top 40 hit, but no longer
on his label but on Top Notch/V2. Postmen could have given
you a big push. "Im not disappointed that Miss left.
He could go to a better label with more money and more opportunities.
If you can do that as an artist you must do that." The anonymous
Miss is famous for his big plans and nice words, but he does not only
talk the talk. He does walk the walk. Have to recognise that hes
being master. "Im only happy, he proves that it can
happen."
Sex sells
The album cover of their second compilation.
At the moment This
Is What You Want pt. 2 hit the shops and the streets. The
first one was slamming. With an own identity in the lay out, the new
album cover did experience a radical change over. With a naked girlie
on the cover. I saw it, checked her ass, checked her face to see if
I did know her and started to checking all the records in the background.
You can have the naked girl, for nice pictures go to www.hardcorejunky.net
the links section. All for free. Why did you changed the script? "To
sell more. We used a cover that jumps out to get people who go with
that to buy the CD." Sadly its the music bizz, its
not about the music itself but the image of the music. If only music
could sell by it self for being good music, that would be great. "Selling
CDs is a lot and a lot of marketing. Brian really wanted to
keep on using the old design style, so to make a tradition. But we
did a research and it came out a girl on the cover sells a lot more.
And we need to sell the CD. Thats why."
Only can handle one
At the moment they are finishing the album Traditions
of The Proov. And they are busy to focus on main
stream products. Whats in the pipeline at the moment? "We
are busy with Michel, a R&B singer former member of Arnhems Gewijs.
Just when it was time to record the second album they split up. So
now hes solo". After The Proov is done in the studio
they will start recording with Mitchell. "We are a small label.
We only have one studio, we can handle one artist at a time in the
studio."
What it ain't
For
all those youngsters that want to make a living out of HipHop music
in The Netherlands, do you have any advise? "Well,
I have to disappoint them. Its not going to be easy. You are
going to sweat. There is no easy way." Pointing out that
this is not America where people do get a million dollars publishing
deals like Shine, Jay Z or Mase.
"There is no one who already made it in the Dutch scene. Be
wise and keep your job or finish school to start a career in a normal
job. There is nothing for sure in music. There is no book that says
it all. But do your thing and go for it 100% but keep having a day-time
job. Surround yourself with creative people and get what you can get
out of it. There is nothing more you can do." There is enough
talent and enough good products that can be very successful abroad.
But the tricky thing is that foreign companies do like the music but
are looking what an artist does in sales in his home country. Selling
11.000 copies is not enough to get any meaningful attention from abroad.
Hopefully their new projects, that they are focussing on, will be
Top 10 hits, which you hate to hear and keep on wondering why that
junk sells so good. If the money is coming in, they have more time
and money to invest in some new good old HipHop music. And they can
get ready for This Is What You Want pt. 3
Photo and text by AQ
©
2000 ART12/VanderHoek Publishing. All rights reserved.
|