Guest appearance
It's not always a bag of money that gets the ball rollin'. Sometimes artists use the bartering system. Jay-Z agreed to drop a verse on Mariah Carey's "Heartbreaker," and in exchange, she supplied the hook for his "Things that you do."
Yet when it was time to shoot the video, Jigga was missing and Mariah was left holding a sign saying, "Jay-Z coming in two weeks." Which leads to the next level of guest politics: the video appearance. It can mean the difference between a lonely B-side and a hot single. Sure, you got Nas to spit with you on the humble. But if you can't get him to show up for the video, forget about the label releasing it as a commercial single.
At the time of Mariah's video, Jay-Z and Roc-A-Fella records had an exclusive deal with Epic. (According to an inside source, he was paid over a half million dollars for "Girl's Best Friend" from the Epic-produced 'Blue Streak' soundtrack.) In exchange, he couldn't appear in any video's other than his own for a particular time period after recording the song. Mariah's label, Columbia, was eventually able to release a second video with Jay-Z. It may seem strange to those who aren't familiar with the backstage workings of the music industry, but it's actually a typical scenario when trying to get a guest artist to appear in the video or even to perform on stage. (Source magazine)
|
