Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY

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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 25 July 2019

Meek Mill launches new record label with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation

By MESFIN FEKADU a snowplow for the next
Associated Press generation coming behind
NEW YORK (AP) — Meek me.”
Mill is in a Jay-Z state of For his new label, Mill said he
mind: The Philadelphia rap- hopes to sign hard-working
per-turned-entrepreneur artists looking to move the
is launching a new record needle, “not a social me-
label in a joint venture with dia success for the week-
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. end or for the month.”
The two hip-hop players The rapper will launch his
celebrated the launch of Legendary Nights Tour on
Dream Chasers Records on Aug. 28 with Future and will
Tuesday at the Roc Nation release a five-episode doc-
headquarters in New York umentary series on Aug.
City, signing contracts at a 9 on Amazon Prime Video
small press conference and called “Free Meek,” which
popping champagne to follows his fight for exonera-
celebrate the partnership. tion in his legal case and
“Of course I had offers to his work with the Reform
do a lot of business with Alliance. Mill recently an-
other people, but the re- nounced he’s now a co-
lationship we’ve built from owner of sports-apparel re-
(Roc Nation) believing in Jay-Z, left, and Meek Mill make an announcement of the launch of Dream Chasers record label tailer Lids, and will lead the
me through my whole ca- in joint venture with Roc Nation, at the Roc Nation headquarters on Tuesday, July 23, 2019, in New company’s creative strat-
reer, through my ups and York. egy and release a limited-
downs and the morals Associated Press edition collection of hats.
they showed to me and beat out Drake, Kendrick form a coalition that lob- the Marcy Projects com- Jay-Z said Mill will be a suc-
my team when it wasn’t in Lamar and Dr. Dre to win bies for changes to state plex in Brooklyn. “We’re cess in whatever he tries.
their best interest to have top rap album at the 2016 probation and parole laws, some of the few that made “What we lacked for so
showed it — I feel com- Billboard Music Awards. called the Reform Alliance. it through ... (and) that re- long was opportunity,” Jay-
fortable going through this Jay-Z, hip-hop’s ultimate Mill became a symbol for sponsibility is not lost on us. Z continued. “We’ve never
right here at home,” Mill businessman, said he and criminal justice reform ac- We haven’t made it to this had this sort of power. We
said. “We’re ready to work. Mill not only bonded musi- tivists after a judge in Penn- point just to be like, ‘Let’s never had someone come
We’re just starting the be- cally, but in other areas. sylvania sentenced him to just irresponsibly live our before us and then come
ginning of a new chapter, “His integrity, his honesty, two to four years in prison life.’ We had fun, don’t get back and show us, ‘Yo, this
a new page.” his sense of responsibility,” for minor violations of his me wrong. It’s fun too, but is how it’s done. These are
Mill, 32, will lead Dream Jay-Z rattled on about Mill. probation conditions in a there’s a responsibility that the mistakes that I made.’
Chasers as president, over- “Everything that he’s done decade-old gun and drug we carry for the entire cul- We’ve never had it. It just
seeing the label and its leading up to this point, it possession case. He spent ture.” hadn’t existed. Hip-hop is
staff. Mill built a strong fan showed that he can carry months in prison before Mill added: “Me coming 40 years old (and) we’ve
base and buzz in Phila- that weight for the next a court ordered him re- out of prison this time, I just now gotten to the point
delphia with a string of generation of people. Ev- leased. On Wednesday, a signed up for a bigger re- where we can really affect
mixtapes, and reached erybody can sign some Pennsylvania appeals court sponsibility. I always felt change and the music and
the mainstream when he artists, make some money overturned Mill’s conviction like I had a responsibility to the culture that we cre-
topped the charts with his and brag about how hot and granted the rapper a lead the culture as much ate. We’ve been giving it
major-label debut in 2012. they are for ... (but) for us, new trial because of new as I can. I always say Jay-Z away for so long, which is
He’s released two platinum we look at the big picture. evidence of alleged police and others that came be- understandable, we got
albums and two gold re- For us, it’s way beyond sign- corruption. fore me was like a snow- to start somewhere. Got to
cords and reached the Top ing hot artists and having a “We come from the same plow for people like myself. clean the floors up before
25 of the pop charts with hot record.” neighborhoods, been They made it easier to walk you own the building —
songs like “Going Bad” and Jay-Z, Mill and others joined through the same things,” through the snowstorm. but we don’t shine shoes
“All Eyes on You.” He even forces earlier this year to said Jay-Z, who grew up in I want to continue to be anymore.”q

B.B. King’s ‘Lucille’ guitar going up for auction

Associated Press a crown inlaid with mother- auction house said. When
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Her of-pearl. The guitar is esti- King learned the wom-
name was “Lucille,” and in mated to be worth $80,000 an’s name was Lucille, he
B.B. King’s hands she gave to $100,000. named his guitar after her
voice to the “King of the The guitar was not the first “to remind himself to never
Blues.” to bear the name. The fight over a woman or run
Julien’s Auctions an- story goes that King first into a burning building,”
nounced Tuesday that used that moniker for a the auction house said.
King’s black Gibson ES-345 guitar he rescued from The National Medal of Arts
prototype guitar is among a fire while he was play- that President George H.W.
the items from his estate ing an Arkansas club in Bush presented to King in
that will go up for bid on 1949. The blaze broke out 1990 is also up for auction.
Sept. 21. as two men fought over a So are his touring van, jew-
Julien’s says Gibson gave woman, and the musician elry and clothing.
King the instrument for his narrowly escaped death The 15-time Grammy win- In this June 20, 2008 file photo, musician B.B. King performs at
the opening night of the 87th season of the Hollywood Bowl in
80th birthday. The head- after he went back into the ner was 89 when he died in Los Angeles.
stock has “B.B. King 80” and club to save his guitar, the 2015.q Associated Press