Fresh Loaf

Jay-Z's camp tapped Goose's talents as a producer, but ultimately passed on his tracks.

Welcome to CL’s annual catalog of impotence: the 11 Least Influential. You’ll meet folks who tried to achieve an ambitious goal, but fell short (or, in Goose’s case, more than made up for the difference); people who’ve devoted themselves to a personal mission in near-total obscurity; and ordinary Joes who can’t get anyone to pay attention to them. Every day until the full issue hits the streets on Nov. 11, we’ll bring you a new story of failure — some noble and heroic, others abject and pathetic.

Subject: Alex Goose
Failing: Can’t get any play from Jay-Z

Atlanta-based music producer Alex Goose has big dreams, and bigger gonads.

After being contacted this summer by a New York-based A&R rep working closely with Jay-Z, the burgeoning producer jumped at the chance to submit beats for the legendary MC’s album-in-the-making, The Blueprint 3.

He says the A&R rep was so impressed with his work for such Atlanta-based artists as Brittany Bosco and Danny! that he came to Atlanta to hear what the Goose was cooking. “He was telling me, ‘I’d love to get some of these [beats] to Jay, for sure,’” recalls Goose, who estimates he submitted 20 to 25 tracks for consideration. “A few months later he hit me up and was like, ‘Hey, I got word back from Jay that he didn’t really hear anything that he wanted to use for the album.’”

With such name-brand producers as Kanye West, Timbaland, the Neptunes and No I.D. getting first dibs at the highly-anticipated release, a virtual unknown just didn’t have the pull to earn himself a placement.

“You know it kinda sucks,” he says. “Jay would say, ‘It’s politics as usual.’”
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1. AC Milan v. Club America (Who knows when Atlanta will get to witness such quality soccer — or such HORRIFIC traffic jams — again. Actually, there’s probably a traffic jam planned for about 15 minutes from now.)

2. BMF member arrested, Jay-Z’s ‘Death of Autotune’ gives nod to the crew (Two milestones for the infamous Black Mafia Family.)

3. Fun CL bankruptcy news! (Wednesday will be a pivotal day for the future of Creative Loafing. Stay tuned.)

4. Filthy Rich: Best of Atlanta 2009 ballot (You only have until this Friday to cast your votes for CL’s 2009 Best of Atlanta issue. After that, the opportunity will be lost forever.)

5. Atlanta at $20 per gallon of gas (A vision of armageddon.)

(Photo by Alejandro Leal)

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Is it true? Has every last Black Mafia Family member been arrested? That’s what Fox News and the AJC are reporting, citing officials at the U.S. Marshals Service in Atlanta.

But really, it depends on how you look at it.

Impressively, the Marshals have rounded up pretty much every defendant named in seven federal indictments filed in Atlanta, Orlando, Detroit, St. Louis and L.A. That comes to nearly 150 men and women who played some role in BMF’s sprawling, quarter-of-a-billion-dollar cocaine enterprise, which launched an Atlanta-based record label and was well-connected in the hip-hop world — including a tight relationship with Atlanta rap star Young Jeezy.

Most recently, Vernon “Wu” Coleman, an alleged distributor for the cocaine crew who was named in one of the Atlanta indictments, was arrested July 16. As far as I can tell, there’s only one remaining defendant nationwide who’s still listed as a fugitive: an L.A. drug dealer who allegedly supplied BMF distributors with kilos of coke in the crew’s waning days, after BMF’s founders — the brothers Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory — were jailed for running the criminal enterprise.

However, there are several suspected BMF members who, for one reason or another, were never indicted. So while it’s true that almost every BMF member who was indicted has been arrested, there are still some stragglers.

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Perhaps it was the irony of Jay-Z playing Chastain Park that caused the torrential downpour. Chilling thunder, blinding lightning and endless rain struck Chastain Sunday night, around the time Jay-Z was scheduled to hit the stage for his concert. This line of folks was waiting in the pouring rain to enter the park for the show. I was standing at the ticket window jammed together with many others seeking refuge under a small roof when I took this photograph. The show was canceled about a half hour later and these people who had waited in line in the pouring rain to enter Chastain would soon be exiting.

(Photo and text by Joeff Davis)

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1) Bob Théâtre presents Nosferatu at the Center for Puppetry Arts.

2) Jay-Z and Ciara perform at Chastain Park Amphitheater.

3) Horizon Theatre stages A Cool Drink a Water.

4) DJ Spooky’s ReBirth of a Nation makes its Atlanta premiere at Le Bam Art Space.

5) Eli Keszler performs at Eyedrum.

See more Atlanta events.

(Photo by LL de Mars)

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