In this week's edition of The Hollywood Reporter, there is a great cover story entitled" The Business of Justin Bieber".
The article isn't your usual puff piece about "The Biebs", (did I just lose my man card for saying that?).
It sheds a great on how how he got discovered,(including how his now manager stalked Bieber's mom down in Canada after seeing him on YouTube) as well as showcase the men who is shaping his career: Usher and Island Def Jam's L.A. Reid
The L.A. Reid piece is especially intriguing, because Reid also delves into loss of friendship with Janet Jackson the success and the mistakes he made with then teen R&;B singer Usher, when his voice changed while signed to Reid's label with Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, La'Face Records in the 90's.
Reid: “I wasn’t there for Usher. I heard him at a showcase, and he couldn’t sing. I was embarrassed. It was like: ‘Damn, where’s the voice...I wanted to drop him. I wanted to be out of business with him. I broke his heart
...Then someone said to me: ‘Don’t be a fool. Don’t sell your stock in Usher. He’s still going to be a star.....that person was Puffy.”
Says Usher: “No man is perfect and no executive knows how to make all the right decisions. I was shielded from a lot of it. My mother felt it more than anything. But losing my voice f---ed me up. I had to figure it out.”
...“I know how to be encouraging now,” Reid says. “I wasn’t that way to Usher. I didn’t give him the same kind of love and support at the time. But Puffy was right.”
(I had an "Oh crap" moment when I read this section, because I always wondered why Usher ended up spending time with Puffy in New York during the mid 90's, now I know why).
For anybody who want an in-depth look at not just the success of Justin Bieber, but inner workings of the music industry (like did they really negotiate with Justin Timberlake to sign Bieber or not), this a great read!
1 comment:
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