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Saigon is pissed! 10 days ago The Yardfather used the power of his myspace blog to let the world know just how disgusted he is with his recording home, Atlantic Records, due to the label’s seeming disinterest in releasing his major-label debut. Having just returned from touring overseas – a trip Saigon notes was coordinated without the assistance of Atlantic Records – one of the most provocative MC’s of our generation vented to HHDX regarding the delay of his self-proclaimed classic hip-hop album, Greatest Story Never Told, and for the first time publicly reveals whether or not he plans to continue working for Atlantic Records and with his musical guide, Just Blaze.

HHDX: Why did you take the June 1st blog post down [off of your myspace]?

Saigon: I took it down because I guess it offended Just Blaze for some reason. I don’t understand why it would offend him, but he hit me on myspace like it bothered him for some reason. So instead of me just adding fuel to the fire, I took it down and was like we’ll deal with it on a personal level.

HHDX: Was there a particular event, a straw that broke the camels back moment that motivated you to write what you did?

Saigon: It’s been going on. A lot of times I find myself, not lying to the press but sometimes trying to pull the wool over ya guys eyes about what’s really going on over there. I been sitting on that label almost 3 years. And the album that they eventually approved [to release] was the same album that I had [done] 6 months into the deal. So it’s pretty much I been sitting over there for 2 years doing nothing.

HHDX: So was it your intention to get Atlantic’s attention with the blog post?

Saigon: Not really, because I been bitchin’. I been told ‘em, “Look, y’all can drop me.” Most artists, they try to run from that. I’m like, “Let me go. Let me out the contract.” I don’t wanna sit around on your shelf and become irrelevant to the world, and that’s what I see happening.

I’m like, Okay, if you guys don’t wanna push me and give me the proper attention that I feel my project not only needs but deserves, then let me try my hand somewhere else. That’s only fair.

HHDX: So as of today, do you want off the label or do you wanna still try to make this project work?

Saigon: If it’s gonna continue to be how they working, of course I want out. Yeah, I want out. For me to even have a career, it’s either I stay over there and do nothing or I go somewhere else and try to put out music.

I put out one song since I been over there. And that was a song that I pretty much put out myself. They didn’t even wanna put out “Pain In My Life.” They were against it. They were like, “No, no, what are you doing?”

HHDX: Now your album is largely produced by one of the most successful hip-hop producers of this decade, Just Blaze, your A&R is a young hip-hop DJ, Sickamore, and you’re not signed directly to Atlantic, but through Hip-Hop Since 1978 – the same label that put Kanye West on. You got all the pieces in place, so why hasn’t that arrangement produced a product?

Saigon: The product has been there, but it’s all about distributing it and getting the product out there. That’s why on the blog I said if they don’t put it out, I’ll put it out. If you guys are creating the perception that with all those pieces in place - like you said, with Just Blaze, with [Hip-Hop Since 1978 co-owners and Atlantic VP’s of A&R] Hip-Hop and G [Roberson] - that I can’t produce then that looks like it’s me. People is like, It must be Saigon who can’t come correct, who can’t make a single, who can’t make songs, when I have over a 100 great songs.

HHDX: So who is that barrier then? If it’s not Just Blaze, if it’s not Sickamore, if it’s not Hip-Hop Since 1978, who’s the barrier to putting this album out?

Saigon: It’s the powers that be [at Atlantic]. If they were turning down the music, if we were submitting music and they were saying it’s not good enough that’d be one thing. But they hear the music and they go, “Oh it’s great. We love it!” And then nothing happens.

My album is geared toward the upliftment of black people. I don’t know if they’re scared of that. I don’t know if they don’t think it’s gonna sell. But there has to be balance in music. And I guess they want the detriment rap. That’s not me. At the end of the day I gotta look in the mirror. I can’t do that.

HHDX: So what are they telling you then?

Saigon: They’re not telling me nothing. I’ve never seen somebody wait and sit around for three, four months for a sample to clear. And the sample still hasn’t been cleared.

HHDX: What’s the sample clearance issue?

Saigon: Supposedly my single called “Don’t Cha Baby,” which was recorded by me over two years ago, they’re realizing right now that they can’t clear the sample, two years later. That’s the reason why I don’t have a song out right now, or I don’t have a single out, because they can’t clear [a sample].

I don’t have a budget. Just Blaze ate up my budget. So I can’t really go and work with other producers like Pharrell, Timbaland, and Kanye, ‘cause it’s not in my budget anymore. So all I’m doing is sitting around, just waiting for something to fall out the sky. We can’t clear the sample, fuck it, let’s move on. I’m a artist, Just [Blaze] is a producer, let’s go in the studio and make a new record. We could do that in one day. But it never gets done.

Just Blaze is still very active. He’s still working. He’s still doing beats for other artists. These dudes are still working with other artists, but when it comes to Saigon it’s like, “Uh…” People get choked up.

HHDX: So who is the boogeyman in this situation?

Saigon: I don’t know, man. It’s like everybody is playing hide the stone. The only person I really communicate with is G. Roberson. He tells me the most, but I still never get to the bottom line.

HHDX: When I called G. Roberson – I called around to different people to try to get comments earlier in the week – I was told he wasn’t in, and I was told that Hip-Hop doesn’t work there anymore, can you clarify the situation?

Saigon: Hop doesn’t like the way Atlantic is structured. He feels like they don’t let artists be artists. They want cookie cutter shit. So he left. He left as an A&R. He left his position. He had a high-level position. And he’s the one who signed me. So this really makes it even harder for me, when the person who signed you [leaves].

HHDX: Have you talked to anybody else within the A&R department, or anyone else within the label recently?

Saigon: Nah, man. A&R’s don’t listen. A&R’s are not A&R’s anymore. They’re pretty much just getting checks. They just get a check. They find something that’s getting a certain amount of spins, that’s a regional record that’s hot, and they say, “Hey, these guys are getting 500 spins over here, we should sign ‘em.” That’s all A&R’s do.

There’s no artist and repertoire. There’s no artist development. Not that I even need that. They just want that one catch phrase to run with. “We want jingles,” that’s what they’re pretty much telling me. They’re sitting around waiting for something that they’re never gonna get from me.

So either put my album out, which everybody on my team is happy with, or let me go. I know I can get another situation. I’m not worried about that. I’ll go to Koch. I’ll go to Babygrande. I don’t care. I’m not in this game to try to be a billionaire and have a twenty-car garage. That’s not why I rap. A lot of niggas rap for that, but that’s not why I rap. Money is not my motivation.

Check out part two where Saigon addresses “the powers that be” by name and if possibly leaving Atlantic Records means never working with Just Blaze again

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By now, you know the problems between Atlantic Records & Saigon. In part two of this DX exclusive, Saigon discusses what is really going on and who he's looking to for beats if Just Blaze doesn't come thru. Did he really offend Just Blaze with his blog? Will he and Just continue to work together? Will this situation turn into Ras Kass Vs Capitol all over again? Will The Greatest Story Never Told become literal? Check it out here...

HHDX: Do you think putting “Pain In My Life” out as a street single was a mistake in a sense, just…?

Saigon: [Interrupts] Hell no! That was the best thing I ever coulda did.

HHDX: But it didn’t get picked up by radio.

Saigon: So what? It don’t matter. Radio doesn’t matter. Radio is so overrated right now when it comes to hip-hop. I know artists who are getting thousands of spins and can’t sell a record, and nobody comes to their shows. And I make just as much money off shows as they do.

I’m touring the world right now. I just came from London. They treat me like Michael Jackson [overseas]. A girl fainted [at one of my shows] in Norway. I don’t need radio.

HHDX: But my question was just do you think it was a mistake in the sense that it sounds like it ruffled some feathers at Atlantic?

Saigon: No, ‘cause Atlantic didn’t spend no money on the record. They know you gotta spend money on a record for a record to go, unless it’s a novelty record. There’s what you got called novelty records, the 1-and-done artist, where he follows the formula of what’s going on with a catchy phrase. Those are radio records. They’re made for radio. “Pain In My Life” was not made for radio. It’s about a little kid who gets molested in church. I knew this wasn’t gonna be a Top 40 record. I knew that shit. But that was never my objective.

HHDX: You suggested in your blog post that they want you to make a ringtone record, but you [just] said [to me] that that’s not really the reason the album’s being held up?

Saigon: I’m saying I don’t know why the album’s being held up. I don’t know why, that’s what I’m assuming. That’s what I’m assuming, because if I went in there and created a song… It’s funny, ‘cause I was just joking with my man, and I was like, “Watch, I’ma make some bullshit like [starts chanting] she got that donkey that donkey, she got the donkey kong jr.” If I was to record that for real and get it up to 300, 400 spins Atlantic would put the whole team behind it, and then they would be trying to push my album out. That’s all they see is radio [spins].

HHDX: But just playing devil’s advocate, you’re just speculating that this is the reason for the holdup. You don’t know that it’s because they want a jingle.

Saigon: What other reason could there be though? If we come to an agreement where we both agree to do something, and you’re not holding up your end of the bargain you leave me to make assumptions. Whether I’m right or wrong, I have to assume something.

HHDX: I would march into Atlantic Records and plant myself there until I talked to the right people and found out what the hell was going on.

Saigon: I talked to the president of the company, Craig Kallman. Who else can I talk to?

HHDX: What did Kallman say to you?

Saigon: Craig Kallman’s not telling me nothing. He just keeps saying, “Hey, I had a great conversation with Just Blaze. I don’t understand what the problem is.”

The problem is… We had Entourage. We had so many things going on with the same album that we have right now that we coulda capitalized off of. I’m like, You don’t see these windows of opportunity closing? You gotta strike while the iron is hot, and they didn’t do that.

And now at this point, it’s June! They gave me a release date at the beginning of the year. They said we gonna give you July 31st, put you on the calendar. It’s June and I don’t even have a single out. So that July 31st shit was hogwash.

I’m gonna tell you what’s gonna go on [from this point]. It’s June. It takes 3 months to at least prepare to put an album out, so that takes us to September. And then they’re gonna tell me, We don’t put out a new artist in the fourth quarter. Next thing you know, Saigon is most anticipated of ’08. C’mon man, I can’t let that happen. I can’t keep letting this happen.

HHDX: So what’s your plan from this point, just realistically?

Saigon: My plan realistically is just go with the flow. Like I said, if they don’t put my album out they can drop me. I’m not scared to get dropped. I don’t give a fuck. I’m not motivated by money. I love money, and money is fun, it’s great to have and to have nice things, but I stand for more than that as a man.

HHDX: But what if they don’t drop you? They can imprison you in the contract like Capitol did Ras Kass. You could be stuck there forever.

Saigon: Well, the difference between me and Ras Kass is I make great music. One thing you can’t stop is the music. And there’s a beautiful thing now called the Internet. You can’t stop the Internet. You can’t stop email blasts with a new Saigon record. That’s the thing that they don’t understand, you can’t really stop a true talent. And I consider myself, and everybody around me knows that I’m a true talent. I’m not a fuckin’ gimmick. I’m not a nigga who got a lucky hook off or a jingle. This is genuine shit.

HHDX: Do you have any plans, any like mixtapes on the horizon, any other stuff [coming out]?

Saigon: Yeah man. If they keep pulling my leg about this single and saying, We can’t clear this single and nobody wants to go back in the studio and make new songs, then hey, I got many songs that I recorded without Just Blaze [that I can put out], with other producers, with Scram Jones, with Alchemist, with Buckwild. Me and Preemo just started working together. We already coming up with crazy records. They’re not gonna be able to stop me.

HHDX: Why would you have to put out your music sans Just Blaze? Is he somehow connected to Atlantic in a way that if you break off from them you’re gonna have to break away from him too?

Saigon: No, it seems like… Like I said, the reason I took the blog down is because it seemed like it offended him. I’m like, How is this offending you? I didn’t say nothing [in the blog post] about Just Blaze. I said Atlantic did this.

At this point I don’t understand why me and Just Blaze haven’t just put out records on our own. He makes fantastic beats. We coulda put out a record on our own and shot a video for it out of our own pockets and went ahead and got the ball moving. You’re Just Blaze. Like, what are we doing?

Me and Just Blaze is good money. The only problem is that Atlantic can potentially play divide and conquer between me and him. ‘Cause for him to get offended by that blog kinda threw me off.

HHDX: That’s just gonna I think hit your fans hard if they know if you walk away from Atlantic that you’re gonna be walking away from Just Blaze too.

Saigon: But what has Just Blaze done up until this point that the world is familiar with me and him for? Nothing. Me and him coulda never made one song, or we could have the best thing in the world, and nobody would ever know because we’re not putting out no music.

HHDX: Well people are still checking for you. The Clinton Sparks mixtape, that got a whole lot of love.

Saigon: That’s all me. Atlantic didn’t have nothing to do with that. A lot of people coulda felt disrespected by me putting out that music, because I didn’t pay nobody for those beats. Those [producers] were just like, "Fuck it, man, get the music out there." Just [Blaze] is the only one who don’t wanna leak records. Like dog, we got all these records, a lot of ‘em we not using, let’s leak these records. Let’s keep the people hungry, ‘cause they will forget about you.

HHDX: So contractually can you go back to the Warning Shots situation? Like, go back to Sure Shot and put out a side project?

Saigon: No. I been trying to do that too. I’m like, let me put out another album to hold me over, ‘cause y’all waiting years, it ain’t like y’all waiting months. I been waiting years over here. I been sitting over here for years. And the perception to the people is it must be Saigon [causing this delay], ‘cause Just Blaze got a new song with this one, he got a new song with that one. So when he’s still actively working and keeping himself on the market it don’t seem like we’re just busy in the studio.

HHDX: So there was a “Saigon vs. Atlantic Records Round 1,” will there be a Round 2 post, you gonna keep us updated?

Saigon: Who knows what the future holds. I don’t even know what they got going on. Right now Atlantic is upset with me. Like, how does that make my situation any worse? You wasn’t doing shit for me anyway! So what, it’s gonna be, “Now we’re not gonna put it out.” You wasn’t gonna put it out anyway!

HHDX: But is that gonna leverage them into cutting you loose either?

Saigon: Whether they cut me loose or not I’m still gonna get my money. I’m still gonna do shows. That’s where you make money at anyway. You don’t recoup fucking with these record companies.

HHDX: And the people are still gonna get music?

Saigon: People are still gonna get music, even if I gotta put it out myself. My album that I made, I didn’t look at it like an investment. I made that album from my heart. A lot of those rhymes, I wrote those rhymes when I was in the penitentiary sitting in a box. So this was something that I always wanted to express. I’m not gonna let them put tape over my mouth because they don’t think it’s gonna get radio spins. These are my expressions. I own those words regardless of what they say. They might could take Just Blaze beats, but I’ll just go and put them same rhymes to another beat and put it out myself.

HHDX: It’s still kinda fucked up though that Greatest Story Never Told is about to become a literal statement.

Saigon: Nah, never that. It might not be told through Atlantic Records, but it will be told.

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at song will never be released because of some sample clearance issues then I will go fuckin insane! I NEED to hear that record.