On his Rather You Than Me standout "Idols Become Rivals," Rick Ross closed out by saying "last request, can all producers please get paid?" The line seems to be gaining more weight by the day, especially given another bout of controversy surrounding Atlantic Records. In case you missed it, Atlantic Records previously drew the ire of Metro Boomin, who aired out Atlantic's Mike Caren and the APG division over their shady dealings with producers. Ultimately, Mike WiLL Made-It, Earl Sweatshirt and London On Da Track weighed in on the discussion, backing up what Metro had to say. If you're interested in this narrative, be sure to check out the original report on Metro's rant; it may actually prove a valuable companion piece to this one.
Today, Atlantic has once again found themselves under fire. Producer E. Dan, who makes up a third of the production group ID Labs, opened up about Atlantic's tendency to re-title albums, calling them "mixtapes," "street albums" or "compilation albums" in an effort to avoid paying producers their regular rates. E. Dan spoke with Beatstars, where he broke down some of his experiences with Atlantic, which came about when he was working with Wiz Khalifa:
"The Khalifa album, I don't know what they called it, a 'street album'? They came up with some really clever name that essentially meant, 'Everyone involved, you're going to get paid half what you normally do.' I've seen it happen often over the last few years. Anything to save a buck for these labels."
When Khalifa dropped in 2016, Wiz originally called it a "compilation album," claiming it was made up of "non-album material." As a result, E. Dan claimed that he was paid less for his six placements, despite having "Bake Sale" skyrocket to the Hot 100 charts. E. Dan also claimed similar practices occurred with his work on Snow Da Product's albums, claiming Atlantic "called it a mixtape. They didn't treat it like it was an album, which is just their way of not paying me a whole lot."
E. Dan's air-out of Atlantic has led to a wide array of producers echoing his statements, which we've compiled below.
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