ThePrivateCookie
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Interesting that the whole reason Steve Jobs, Dr Dre, & Jimmy Iovine had a great relationship is because of 50's PIMP video with Snoop.
Beats By Dre was also started because Dr Dre & Jimmy saw how much 50 Cent was Making off Sneakers ($80 Million)
Is it hard to be the boss?
I have a lot of people that I’ve worked with on things that even if I was their employer at that point, I was personally brought to the point where I started to feel like there was a friendship in connection to the work taking place. That’ll make a person feel like the moment that you have to make business decisions or you have to make cuts, that’s the wrong discomfort for you to feel after with the person, because you have to fire them, there’s zero communication. That means you was paying that person and they developed a presentation for you as if you were friends. But in all actuality, they were just doing their job and they felt like they had to do that to keep themselves employed at that period. You can’t look at it like it was an actual relationship if it stops easy after your check stops.
When I get mad, I don’t give a fuck about none of that shit. Especially when you go back to what got you here to begin with. What would give me the responsibility to hold a group together, being the head of it? It’s the crew’s responsibility to hold themselves in place so I could do what I have to do, comfortably. They’re supposed to aid me in continuing success, not me stopping what I’m doing to make sure everybody else is functioning. That ain’t the crew to have if that’s where you’re at. I know for a fact now that they’re in the mental space for them to be successful. You have to think the right way before you can actually make anything happen that you need to happen.
If you watch the guys that at some point want their independence, I don’t have a problem with that. I want it to be so big that when it grows out of this, it commands a lot of respect. Not only for you, for me too.
Eminem gave me the shot that I needed at a point where he was so influential that there was nobody more influential than him. I don’t have value for a lot of the relationships that I developed coming up on this journey, but Eminem is the guy. He’s the one. He’s been consistent with me the entire time and I love him to death. Id fuck all the way up for him. I’d do some shit that just wouldn’t allow me to come back into a comfortable space because somebody was doing something to [Eminem] that was inappropriate, to this day.
With Eminem, what’s the flip side?
I got a phone call not too long ago because they were asking to use Eminem’s music in All Access. He was calling to make sure that I was okay with him approving his music because it was going to be under the bed with something with Floyd in it. I go, “It’s cool, Em, tell them to put it.”
For him to reach out and find out if it was okay—that’s a business transaction. You don’t have to figure out what that man’s got to do with what you’re doing, that’s your business. Just one of those things that happens when someone is conscious of it. He’s not even going to point out that I’m not on the label anymore. He’s saying it doesn’t matter that I’m on the label for our relationship to be exactly the same. Anything that he asks me for, I’m going to look out for him. There’s not a lot of real relationships. The fact that he didn’t have to ask, the fact that he just thought to—how he felt about it, that lets me know the relationship is still intact. There’s no disconnect between us and our friendship. That’s a clear indication that it’s still the same.
You’re going to him. He’s in a shelter, a bubble.
That’s the bubble that keeps him hot though. He’s been the number one rap artist for eight years.
Since 2001 or something like that. And he’s consistent; every album has been tremendously large.
The only thing strong enough to make an Eminem record not work is the possibility of it hurting Beats [By Dre] and helping SMS Audio. It’s the record with me, Eminem and Adam Levine. That one is the only one that Eminem has that you could technically look at and say it didn’t work, because it was confusion for the Beats brand. It makes sense now that it’s a billion-dollar move and it was important to the point that it couldn’t work.
Like, look at Russell Simmons. He feels like he created the category with that Phat Farm Clothing. Then Roc-A-Wear, Sean John, G-Unit, Apple Bottom—like the Beats thing, you can understand where my passion for the music would be. It would be organic to want to be associated [with] high audio product. Also as far as being a marketer like that—[Dr.] Dre’s in the studio, he’s not gonna go out and market it and be vocal to the public. The reason why we worked together on projects is because I can actually go door-to-door and make people like it, which we did at the studio. That’s why it was G-Unit/Aftermath and the last successful project from him was the Game record. Then Kendrick comes, but the footwork that they did at TDE was responsible for Kendrick’s sales, not what they did for him at Interscope. Because they didn’t catch up to the record ’til after the sales surpassed the radio picture. He got all the fans doing the footwork, running around doing shows, and it actually paid off.
What are you thoughts on the whole Apple merger?
It’s phenomenal. I don’t understand why there was so much motive to attack it. The only thing that could cause things to be the way they are now, is if I have someone around me that buys a company or creates a business opportunity for themselves that—it happens in corporate America all the time. They acquire a company, they buy it so that they don’t have to fear that person will become a competitor. The problem with the concept of buying an actual company is you would be feeling like you’re actually buying a nigga that you actually own. If he feels like he actually owns you because you’re an artist on his label—I’m the cause of the 360 Deal. Vitamin Water selling it and he doesn’t get a piece.
Why didn’t you get on the Beats board?
We were selling sneakers and the idea was to sell speakers. Dre was going to follow and sell sneakers. G-Unit shoes made $80 million in that timeframe. After he seen it, he was like, “You doing what selling sneakers?” I sat in a meeting with Jimmy [Iovine] and Steve Jobs. Was there for about 10 minutes and we were talking. I told them, “You think you could sell like that—an iPod, I can sell an iPod, are you kidding me?” [Jobs] looked at Jimmy, and Jimmy was like, “Strangely enough, the kid is telling the truth.” At the time, I’m the first person to do Apple product placement with the iPod inside a music video or anything that they spent money on at that point. That dude gave me $175,000 that went against recouping the budget for “P.I.M.P.” The remix, me and Snoop, you see me get up with the girls with the white hats, the iPod is there. That’s the first time they ever did that and they did it because I convinced them that I could sell an iPod. From there, Jimmy and Steven built a good relationship.
Full Interview