Music

5 artists who got revenge on their record labels

by James Wilt

One hopes that record company execs aren’t nearly as dastardly as the pervasive cigar-puffing stereotype makes them out to be. Unfortunately, the botched releases of two excellent rap albums in the past month suggests that there’s at least a bit of ineptitude going on behind the scenes.

First case in point: the release of Kendrick Lamar’s monumental To Pimp a Butterfly, which was leaked over a week early. If Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Anthony Tiffith’s subsequent (and since-deleted) tweet holds any weight, it was the fault of the distributer, Interscope: “I WOULD LIKE 2 PERSONALLY THANK @Interscope FOR FUCKING UP OUR RELEASE,” he raged.

Soon after, there was the incident of Sony Music Global mishandling the announcement of the track listing, release date and artwork for Earl Sweatshirt’s bleak I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside; instead of just dropping the video for “Grief” as originally planned, the company detailed everything.

Thankfully, there’s been plenty of rappers who’ve come up with fairly innovative ways to get back at their record labels for similar incidents. Above, a list of the most notable, with the hope that Kendrick or Earl can refer to it if they want to take things to the next level.