Larry Jackson Accepts the Executive of The Year Award | R&B Hip-Hop Power Players & Live 2023 - video Dailymotion

Billboard

Larry Jackson accepts the Executive of The Year Award at Billboard's 2023 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players.

Transcript

00:00 50 years of hip-hop.

00:02 50 years of hip-hop.

00:04 50 years of hip-hop.

00:08 [cheers and applause]

00:11 It put all of us in this room.

00:15 It's afforded us all...

00:18 not even having to do a job,

00:22 you know, because it's something that's second nature to us,

00:25 something that we love.

00:27 You know, speaking for myself, that's how I feel.

00:31 But 50 years of hip-hop, you know, I found this letter

00:34 that I wanted to write-- excuse me, that I wanted to read

00:37 that I found a mentor of mine by the name of Mr. Clive Davis.

00:41 He wrote this letter 25 years ago to Billboard

00:45 25 years ago this week,

00:47 and I was trying to figure out what to say tonight,

00:50 and I just thought about reading the letter.

00:52 By the way, I told Gail in advance I was gonna do this.

00:55 She read the letter, so I don't want anybody from Billboard

00:58 to take this the wrong way.

01:01 But the letter was to the late editor-in-chief,

01:05 Timothy White of Billboard, in August of '97.

01:09 And he wrote, "Dear Timothy,

01:12 "I'm writing you not to complain about a particular review,

01:16 "but to strongly protest what is clearly a personal crusade

01:20 "by yourself or Paul Verna against the genre of rap albums.

01:24 "Certainly the most successful of them.

01:27 "Last November, in reviewing Tupac, a.k.a. Machiavelli album,

01:31 "Billboard called the album 'tortured,'

01:34 "a tired exercise in self-justification

01:37 "and simply pathetic.

01:39 "In April, in reviewing the notorious B.I.G. album

01:43 "Life After Death,

01:45 "Billboard called the album 'hypocritical'

01:48 "and a sad waste of time.

01:50 "And once again, Billboard's review of Puffy

01:53 "Combs' album, used the same words

01:56 "'tired,' 'demeaning,' etc."

01:59 He goes on to say that the trend is patently clear,

02:03 and just as an editor who admires self-contained rock artists

02:08 should not be ever allowed to review Streisand,

02:12 the Billboard reviewers, with pre-existing attitude,

02:16 should really disqualify themselves from the rap genre.

02:19 They're doing a tremendous disservice to the industry.

02:24 The expected level of objective criticism

02:27 is just not being met,

02:29 and bias, and the bias, is much too blatant.

02:33 I read that, in particular,

02:36 and it's good I have all your attention now,

02:38 I hope you all heard that, because that was just 25 years ago,

02:41 and I think we take the progress

02:44 that we've had as a genre, that we've had as a people,

02:47 that we've had as a culture, sometimes for granted,

02:51 myself included.

02:54 And it was important for me to read that to this room,

02:57 because that was just in 1997.

02:59 All of us were alive in 1997,

03:02 and all of us were here.

03:05 And what then soon ensued and happened after that letter

03:09 is that they had to hire Gail Mitchell in 1999.

03:14 (cheers and applause)

03:19 And as I was just talking to Gail about backstage,

03:22 she then became the custodian, she then became the shepherd,

03:26 she then became the guardian for us of our genre

03:30 in this publication at that particular time.

03:32 And again, I think Gail deserves a round of applause, please.

03:35 (cheers and applause)

03:41 And then came Mike Vann, and then came Hannah Karp,

03:45 who regretfully can't be here tonight because she has a stomach bug

03:48 in Europe with her family, but these people,

03:51 I believe, firmly believe, all have our best interests at heart

03:56 and all represent our culture and our genre in the right way.

03:59 And for me, this is not my award, this is the award for us.

04:05 Everybody in this room, I'm actually going to leave it here at this podium.

04:08 This award is for the culture that we love, that we represent.

04:14 And I'm going to leave this award here because this award is for us.

04:19 I remember in the summer of 2020, the many awkward conversations

04:24 that we all had at that particular time, the things that we had to have,

04:28 corporate conversations about, the kind of--

04:33 all of it, I think we all certainly don't want to relive the drama

04:38 of 2020 in particular, and the things that we all experienced

04:41 in that particular regard, but I remember at that particular time

04:45 that I felt that the best way that I could serve my community

04:48 and my culture is to do what I'm doing now,

04:53 and really makes me very gratified, makes my heart very full

04:59 to see the success that we're having.

05:01 L.A. Reid, thank you so much for the intro.

05:04 This man right here, a big part of my life.

05:07 I'm so proud of you today. Number one most added.

05:10 L.A. Reid today, he's reunited with Usher, which is amazing,

05:14 and they just had the most added record of the year of any label

05:17 in the business today, 79 ads out of 96.

05:20 So L.A. Reid, congratulations to you as well, sir.

05:24 (applause)

05:27 But I think it's really important for us to really understand

05:30 our responsibility as custodians, as guardians, as shepherds

05:34 of this genre and protect it, because I do believe

05:36 that we're actually under siege.

05:39 I do believe a lot of people are not happy for the success

05:42 of the most successful genre in the world now.

05:45 Lots changed since 1997, and I have to give respect

05:50 and shout out to Miss Sylvia Roan, who's in the house right now.

05:55 Please, everybody give Sylvia Roan a round of applause, please.

05:58 (applause)

06:00 Much like Gail, this woman's been there since the beginning,

06:02 carrying the torch for us.

06:04 I also have to give a shout out to Monty Littman and Avery Littman

06:06 as well, who supported me when I was starting Apple Music.

06:11 Monty and I have had many, many conversations around.

06:14 Monty was there at the front, Avery was there at the front,

06:17 Wendy Goldstein was there at the front of streaming

06:19 when I joined Apple Music, and in terms--

06:21 I'll give you one more example of what it means to be a custodian

06:24 and a guardian for the culture.

06:26 I remember being at Apple in the early days and actually fighting against

06:29 and arguing against and debating for the iTunes and the Apple Music charts

06:32 to be combined, because ultimately it would dilute our perceived impact.

06:37 And these are the things that we have to do, these are the things

06:39 that we have to do to stand up for our culture.

06:41 So this award is for us, and thank you so much,

06:44 and I accept it for all of us. I'll leave it right here.

06:46 Thank you so much. Have a good night.

06:48 (applause)

06:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Larry Jackson Accepts the Executive of The Year Award | R&B Hip-Hop Power Players & Live 2023

Category

Transcript

Recommended