Van Hunt loses Popular
January 15th, 2008 by Mosi Reeves in Music news
If Van Hunt’s e-mail interview with Rodney Carmichael last year was any indication, it seems like there’s no love lost when Van Hunt moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles a few years ago. But many of his fans in the city still have love for him. We were eagerly anticipating the release of his third album, Popular, on Blue Note/EMI today.
It looks like we might have to wait indefinitely. According to a post on Van Hunt’s MySpace page, the album has been shelved. Since he doesn’t currently have rights to the masters, it could potentially never see a legitimate release. It looks like Van Hunt might have to pull a Killer Mike and offer it as a free download — which is a shame, since his work deserves more consideration and respect than an Internet free-for-all bootleg.
Unfortunately, it’s not hard to see why Popular isn’t coming out. EMI just got bought by a private equity firm and is about to lay off 2,000 employees, and it’s suffering defections from its biggest stars. The company increasingly looks like a liquidation/bankruptcy candidate, and isn’t going to waste money on a guy who has never had a hit record. But if anyone deserves Meshell Ndegeocello “favored nation” status — i.e., someone who gets to drop albums despite never going gold or platinum — it’s Van Hunt.
Below is an excerpt from Van Hunt’s MySpace post.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Popular(ity) Contest
today was to be a day of celebration. it still can be; but, not for the same reason. i would once turn red from such an electrical surge as having a record on the way to the stores, $3,000,000 behind me in marketing and tour support and the president of the record label, and the manager of my career, making frantic phone calls on my behalf-trying to get me on the letterman show. “what will people think about the record?” talking to myself became casual parlance on the eve of record releases. not to mention preparing a new band for the album release party. an event where the “stars” of hollywood would line up against the south wall of the Roxy on sunset to get in and watch me sweat while they attempted to talk louder than our amplifiers could turn up.
but, not this time.
‘Popular’ is not on its way to the store. it is sitting in a box in my flat in LA, on 1/2 inch reels down in the blue note basement in new york and on about 30 laptops across this country and england – fans who spent anywhere from $30 to $70 to hear what i was thinking 15 months ago.
you never know how much you mean to somebody until they break up with you. blue note and i are not seeing each other anymore. i am planning. i won’t go into more than these details until after we work out the business of our parting. but, this year you will see, at least, one album and a book of short stories from me. i can not promise you that you will ever see the official release of ‘Popular.’ at this point i’m just hoping for MY release :)
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