BY KAVELLE ANGLIN-CHRISTIE AND TEINO EVANS, Staff Reporters
( L - R ) Macka Diamond and Predator - FILE
IT SEEMS QUITE a few artistes have a problem with Green-sleeves Records and the late release of their albums. The artistes say they have held up their end of the bargain by recording the songs far in advance, however, when the label releases the albums, they seem more like a compilation of dated singles than a hit album. But those are the lucky few - many continue to wait.
Dancehall artiste, Macka Diamond, finally saw the end of a long wait for the release of her Greensleeves debut album, Money O in April of this year, but was not sure what to expect in terms of its success, owing to the long wait. She stated in an interview at the time with THE STAR, "Bwoy mi wait suh long mi not even know how fi feel."
According to Ray Alexander, Macka's manager, they signed a three-album deal with Green-sleeves in 2004 and the journey for the world to hear Money O has been a long one: "This is the first album so far, so can you imagine the next one? The next one probably ah go tek a lifetime!"
Alexander said the label's reason for not releasing the album sooner was that they did not think it would be successful in the United States.
"They said they didn't see the hype in the U.S. at the time; they saw it in Europe and Japan, but not there. So I said why not use that momentum that she has in those markets to drive the album in the U.S.? But they didn't do that ... To me, the album is six or seven months too late. Some of these companies, instead of making singles and pushing it and doing promotion on it, they wait for the song to 'buss' itself," he said.
PAY FOR SHOOT
Alexander also said Macka, and not the label, had to come up with the money to shoot the video for her popular song, Bun Him. He said they did not plan on working with the label after their contract is up, unless they 'shape up'.
Dancehall group, Ward 21, said after waiting for what seemed like half their careers for the albums from Greensleeves, they have finally moved on. "We did sign wid dem back in 98' but wi did only drop two album wid dem. A did suppose to five, but dem joke out di ting an di time pass, suh wi jus' nuh bodda," Suku of Ward 21 said.
In an interview done with dancehall artiste, Predator in the July 22, 2005 edition of The STAR, he said he was patiently awaiting the release of his debut album: "A dem mi a wait pon right now. I sent the tracks already, nearly 20 a dem, but mi just a wait pon the word bout it." The album is still forthcoming.
Deejay, Kid Kurupt, who also signed a three-album deal with the company in 2004, says he has not spoken to them in more than a year about the release of his album.
"...Wi nuh communicate in a while and prior to the release of the album, there were some issues and after that everybody was wary of the fact that the issues were getting out of hand and time was going, suh right now I'm trying to put out an album independently, no big label just me an' some of my producer friends."
"Up to the time when I was getting ready to sign my deal, we were under the impression that everybody pull together and pool ideas but what Greensleeves is waiting on is for me to have a smash single an' then dem build some singles around that and build an album."Greensleeves' response in an earlier interview with THE STAR, dated, July 22, 2005 spoke of why they had not released Kurupt and Predator's albums. The label said that the deejays needed to turn up the heat before any albums could be released for them.
Press officer for the label, Sharon Scott, speaking on behalf of Christopher Cracknell, the artistic and repertoire director said ; "Based on what Chris and I spoke about, the reason the albums are not out yet is because they do not have any really hot tracks out there right now," she stated.
Decent material
"To make an album, they have to bring decent material, or of a certain standard. They need to have tracks out there hitting the charts and they are not doing it yet," she said.
The label representative said the two deejays (Predator and Kid Kurrupt) need to keep recording until they can find the breakthrough hit to propel them.
"As long as they do that consistently, then we can proceed with releasing the albums. Once that comes through, they are fine," Scott said. Attempts were made earlier this week to contact Mr. Cracknell for a comment but he was reportedly in a meeting and THE STAR was told to call back. When THE STAR called back, he was said to be on another call and would return the call. After waiting more than 10 minutes, THE STAR again called Mr. Cracknell's office several times, but the telephone only rang without an answer. A voice message was however left on his answering machine.
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