Earlier today, New York MC Tonedeff announced victory in a years-long business dispute with Gibson Guitars that drew considerable interest around the Internet. He’s also set to appear on a new EP, Baby Blue for Pink, that drops February 12 on QN5 Music.
Tonedeff’s problems with Gibson Guitars began when Tonedeff won the “Last Band Standing” competition at the 2006 edition of Lollapalooza. The prize package include $10,000 in band equipment from Gibson Guitars. But what ensued was several months of fruitless emails between Tone Deff and an entertainment liaison for the company. Eventually, the company stopped returning the rapper’s emails altogether.
So on January 22, Tonedeff posted an item called “Gibson Hates Hip Hop” on the site for QN5 Music, the indie rap label label he shares with artists such as Cunninlynguists and PackFM.
I can’t think anymore. As I sit here in my piece of shit “studioâ€, with the dusty mixer that shorts out every other minute, working on this slow ass 1Ghz dell PC that doesn’t read CD-Rs and crashes my recording app every other take, which has a soundcard installed in it that refuses to accept MIDI, seated next to the tired ass prosumer keyboard whose sounds I’ve raped for the past 8 years, turntables I can’t scratch on and this Shure mic that has a dent in it – I think to myself: “GIBSON!!!!â€
Why, you ask? Remember that whole Lollapalooza ‘Last Band Standing’ competition I won back in 2006? Well, Lollapalooza came through 100% on their end of the prize package – but apparently the people over at Gibson don’t feel they need to cater to Hip Hop artists.
In a matter of days, Tonedeff’s item gained traction, and was reported by various blogs and websites. A story about the dispute on Consumerist.com drew thousands of Digg’s on its own, and temporarily became one of the most popular items on Digg.com.
By early this week. Gibson Guitars caved in. In a January 31 post titled “The Power of the Internet,” Tonedeff writes:
For those of you who are just catching on, last Tuesday, after a year and a half of waiting, I decided to go public with the now infamous prize-fulfillment situation with Gibson Guitars and wrote this blog. …
Well, this past Tuesday, I had a one-on-one conversation with Gibson CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz. Now, it’s rare that a CEO of a company that size will sit down on the phone with you and talk man to man, so for that, I was very impressed with the level of commitment and cooperation they showed in order to demonstrate the level of seriousness with which they took this whole situation. Henry assured me that this was something that Gibson was truly apologetic for and made his best effort to make sure that I came away from the entire experience feeling as though I was treated fairly and received what I deserved.
The very next morning there was a FedEx envelope on my desk from Gibson.
In a nutshell, they matched the original prize value and it’s all going to my credit cards as we speak to pay for the gear I couldn’t afford. Granted, it’s all TAXABLE prize income (which is essentially 50% – thanks Uncle Sam!), but it’s definitely more than I would have gotten had I just received their gear from the get-go. I’m all about fairness and I don’t like handouts, so this is definitely the fairest possible outcome I could ask for. And that’s all I wanted to begin with. As of right now, I’m 100% happy with the outcome and I feel like the people at Gibson not only made good on their prize commitment, but went the extra mile to make up for this whole fiasco.
Tonedeff’s plight holds particular resonance in the world of freestyle battles. Far too often, promoters of competitions/talent shows promise fledging MCs big prizes, recording contracts, studio time, and sometimes even thousands of dollars, yet ultimately renege on the agreements. A classic example occured four years ago when Miami battle rapper Wrekonize won MTV’s 2003 MC Battle. The prize was a contract with Roc-A-Fella Records, but the label clearly didn’t plan to give Wrekonize a deal — Dame Dash, one of the judges for the contest, was clowning the MCs during the battle!
As someone who’s been on the battle circuit since the late 90s, and has recorded several mixtapes and albums, Tonedeff has a lot more experience than Wrekonize. But as his conflict with Gibson Guitars illustrates, anyone — no matter how seasoned — can be taken advantage of in the music business.
In related news, Tonedeff is appearing on QN5 Music’s digital-only sampler, Baby Blue for Pink EP. The track listing is below.
- 1. PackFM, “Plucking Daisies”
- 2. Session, “The Letter”
- 3. Cashmere the Pro, “Know I Do” (Kno remix)
- 4. Substantial, “R Love Songs Gay?”
- 5. Mr. SOS, “Digital Video” (feat. CunninLynguists & SunnyStylez)
- 6. Tonedeff, “Close”
