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Welcome back to the Fast Life! Bragg here…I first wanna take a quick second and thank everyone that read and left comments on last week’s blog “Thank You Mr. West.” I know I took a pretty strong position on something the entire world it seemed had an opinion on, and whether you agreed with me or not, I hope you could at least appreciate the honesty in MY opinion. Just remember one thing…when you feel a certain way, don’t hesitate to speak up! My views on the Fast Life (or any other way of life) aren’t the end all be all…Everyone has a say. And the more people that speak out, the better conversation we can have!

But anyways…On to the topic (well almost, I gotta let y’all know that I’ve got the TV on this new show “Eastwick” on ABC and it is TERRIBLE! Who greenlights these shows??? I’ve seen my share of GREAT pilots that never made it to air and then something like this comes along and steals an hour long primetime spot. Oh well, the good thing is that the people still have a voice when it comes to television. No viewers = canceled show…and I guarantee this show will be off the network and forgotten in a month. However…both Modern Family and Cougar Town were pretty good and should stick around for a while.)….OK, now I’m focused, I promise. So right now as I’m typing, the 2009 Vh1 Hip Hop Honors are probably coming to a close, and this year Vh1 is paying tribute to Def Jam records and the people that laid the foundation for the label including Rick Rubin, Russell Simmons, Kevin Liles, Lyor Cohen, Julie Greenwald, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and Antonio “L.A.” Reid. Now with the exception of Rubin, I’m proud to say that I’ve been in pretty close company with this amazing list of creative minds at some point or another in the past 5 years. And while I have no first hand insight into the past that got Def Jam off the ground and into the history books, I can tell you as a 25 year old guy looking back…it had to be something pretty special! And as I sat today thinking about it, I started wondering…almost worrying…who’s gonna carry the torch? Is there a team of people that can come together and make music magic and literally define a generation of new fans? I believe that we are coming to the end of an era for alot of these execs and artists (and I’m not speaking specifically about the ones named here). Sure, they’re relevant today, but what about in 10 years? So where do we go from here? Problem is, there just aren’t many great TEAMS any more…That’s what Def Jam had 25 years ago; TEAMWORK! Now I know they werent perfect, I know there were power struggles, Rubin left to form his own label, a whole bunch of sex, drugs & rock-n-roll and so on. But music was ALWAYS the foundation…And even today, many of the original Def Jam architects are still working together! I remember last year sitting in meetings at Atlantic Records where Kevin, Lyor, Julie, Kyser, Lighty all worked together. These people came up as a team, they worked as a team and they even switched labels as a team. I mean, its no wonder they saw so much success. Where else does that happen…95% of the time all you ever hear or see is ME ME ME. You got artists moonlighting as execs, taking the big paycheck and then being shown the door all in 12 months. How do you build a team around that? Or artist cliques with one or two talented people…and 20 friends that don’t deserve to be there…that ultimately bring the whole team down.

Can y’all imagine Hip Hop Honors 2020 paying tribute to the “Stacks On Deck Money Gang”??? LOL! I laugh as I say it, but aren’t they just what Def Jam started out to be in a w