hiphopmusic.com got a post Talib Kweli vs. ImRickJamesBitch
Recently someone who goes by the name of “ImRickJamesBitch” posted links to a demo version of Talib Kweli’s unfinished album. After a warning from ?uestlove that Kweli had heard about this and was fuming, Kweli himself appeared with a message for all those he immortalized on Kanye’s album as “Okayplayer Haters”:
You know what, I’m a fan of hip-hop too. If I had a chance to get a hold of one of my favorite artists CD’s early, I would jump at it. So if some asshole from a recording studio leaks my unfinished, unmixed and uneven album, consider it a personal triumph. Play it for your friends, and if you like it, buy the version I want you to have. If you are a fan of my music, allow me to live off it so I can continue to bring it to you. But once you put it on a website and encourage people to download it, you become the bigger asshole. You are not respecting my artistic process and worse, you are taking food out of my children’s mouth. The shit is depressing really because I work so hard and I deserve the right to determine how I want my music presented. If you are truly a fan of my music, please do not support people who do this, no matter what the temptation might be. This music is what I have to live on. You also disrespect the other artists by spreading rough vocals and rough mixes. You really don’t give a f**k about nobody but yourself. It’s sad.
ImRickJamesBitch, are you that much of a loser that you gotta live off another man’s work? Put your own f**kin’ album on your website. Get you some pro tools, pay producers and studio time, get guest artists to come be on your shit. Then maybe you won’t be tempted to just disrespect somebody’s craft. Kanye shipped 800,000 records. How many records do you think I will ship? But yet you couldn’t resist to expose MY album? That shit is not fly. I will find out who you are and you will be dealt with accordingly. This is no threat. To everyone else, I am blessed that there is so much anticipation for what I hope will be a great album. I have never gone gold or platinum. If you think I should be by now please don’t support or do shit like ImRickJamesBitch; that shit does not help. I have a mixtape coming next week. Download that. Please help my cause, don’t hurt it, and I will always be the best artist I can be.
Talib Kweli
ImRickJamesBitch quickly reappeared with this reply:
I appreciate your announcement and definitely see some of your points. But I think your anger should be directed toward the nigga who stole your shit out the studio.
And everything was cool up until the “I will find out who you are and you will be dealt with accordingly” shit. Be a man about yours and don’t speak in ambiguous phrases. Will YOU deal with me accordingly? If that is the case, you don’t have to find out who I am. I can send you my info and you can come see me “accordingly”. I’m not trying to be a tough guy, but you don’t really pose a physical threat to me. So you might just want to abandon that option.
I’ll be staying tuned to okayplayer to catch the next chapter of this drama… Hopefully Charlie Murphy will be involved somehow. Kweli got into something similar a couple of years ago on the site, going ballistic on a kid named DJ 3rd Rail, for reasons that escape me now.