Saigon Leaves Atlantic

Whew, Sai's at it again, venting further about his troubles with Atlantic Records. In a recent MySpace blog post, he complains about being all but ignored by the label.

Some choice quotes:

"I put out 2 songs on Atlantic Records, the first one was called 'Pain in my Life' feat Trey Songz. This song recieved GREAT reviews, massive press and was to set the tone as to who I am and the type of artist I am.. Atlantic Records felt I needed a party song, or a sexual song or something like the other artist they have up there. On one side of the token they're telling me they need to market me to the youth yet they want me to use adult content... They wanted me to tell 12 and 13 year old kids that its cool to be strippers and gangbangers... I live in these communities so I see the power and the effects this music has on our children.. We disagreed and I guess their way of saying fuck me was, they NEVER worked the record at radio.."

"We give them 'Come on Baby' feat Swizz Beatz... And once again, NO radio staff is working it, NO promo tours, not even a fuckin poster or an online banner.. NOTHING.. When it came time to do the video, they gave me 28K.. LOL... 10K more than the measley 18K they gave me for Pain in my Life.. Thats 2 videos for under 50K and this is supposed to break a new artist???... They gave me less than 50K for 2 videos... If you go up to the Atlantic offices their are pictures on the wall of artist you NEVER, EVER, EVER heard of in ya life.. and probably never will... I like to tell myself that the money they were supposed to spend on my project just went to T.I's legal team and court fees...Then I feel they did something good with the money..Haha"


Sometimes I fear for Young Sai's career, because to a certain extent, one has to play politics when dealing with major labels or "The Powers That Be" in general. Sai seems to be unwilling to play the label games. The comments he makes here about the label directly targeting young, (mostly) black kids is a very explosive comment, when you think about it. I hope he knows that many of these label execs have huge rolodexes and maintain contact with one another. (The old "You'll never work in this town again." saw still applies in many cases.) So I hope none of this affects his relationship with the new label.

Which brings us to the good news: He's no longer with Atlantic Records and says he still plans to release "The Greatest Story Never Told" this year, under a new mystery label that will "surprise" everyone.

If I had to guess-- and don't quote me on this-- say hello to the newest member of Def Jam Records (or maybe Jay-Z's rumored new record label), Saigon. No real evidence to back this up, but just a hunch I have.

Read the full blog post here.