There is an interview with Elliott Wilson at ballerstatus.net, he is the Editor-In-Chief at XXL. I know ColdBlooded loves "cut and paste"-jobs, so I will only post a relevant extract this time. You can check out the whole interview here:
http://www.ballerstatus.net/features/read/id/94214592
Ok here it goes:
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BallerStatus.net: I'm asking this as sort of a set-up question about the compilation, but how would you describe your relationship with Interscope?
Elliott Wilson: I would describe it as a better relationship than I have with some labels, but there are times we butt heads like any other situation. They obviously enjoy when we put certain artists on the cover, and they didn't enjoy certain covers, like when we put Suge Knight on the cover. It fluctuates. There's a lot of propaganda about how I do a lot of Interscope covers. Me and Jimmy Iovine met one time, he doesn't own the magazine. The true stats are that the last five out of 11 issues for the past two years have been Interscope. The big artists have been, for the last few years, Eminem and 50 Cent. And then The Game comes along. I'm documenting hip-hop, and if all the biggest artists are on one entity, so what?
I'm not getting the covers through Jimmy Iovine, I'm getting my covers through my relationships with other management or the artists themselves. We did a five-page feature on 50 Cent before he was even signed to Eminem, before he even really got the mixtapes out. That's why I built a good rapport with him and Sha Money XL. That's the relationship that's been the most beneficial, not a relationship with Iovine. 50 Cent is a connection I made way before he signed with Eminem or signed with Chris Lighty as representation for him.
I think that at the end of the day, [the accusations] are just not accurate. I challenge anybody to talk about it, and you can ask me anything you want. The other side of the fence drove a lot of propaganda out here. I put out a good magazine every month. Sometimes I have Interscope on the cover, but the last couple issues haven't had it, and I'm not going to now not put Interscope because some people are going to think we have an inappropriate relationship.
You look at the artists there, and they're interesting people who have stories that people want to read about. Eminem just went to rehab a couple months ago. So now you mean to tell me that if Eminem is ready to talk about his problems with drugs or whatever, I'm not going to give him the forum to talk about that? Any other magazine would kill for it! So I shouldn't do that just because there's haters? C'mon, it's not happening. I'll do it, and I'll do it proudly. And if 50 signs Mase, M.O.P., and Mobb Deep, and signs all these groups and has this movement where it seems like he's snatching up every free agent in rap, I'm going to put all of G-Unit on the cover. That's my next cover. It's 50 Cent, Mobb Deep, Mase and M.O.P. on cover no. 1, and on cover no. 2 is the rest of the crew: Banks, Buck, Yayo, Olivia, Spider Loc. That's the hot story of the year: 50 monopolizing the game, trying to snatch up everybody. I have to document the culture, that's my responsibility.
And when we do ask them questions, we don't kiss their ass. If Eminem has racist tapes in the past, we have the forum to ask him about them instead of just commenting about it and having tabloidy covers. We get to really talk to the individuals about the issues. That's a position I enjoy being in, and I'm going to take advantage of it. But, there's no extra favors or anything that's done with that. It fluctuates to the point where people are with you one minute and not with you the next. These artists and these labels, they don't give a f--- and they don't care; they just want wherever they're going to get the most looks. Another magazine put themselves in an adversarial position with Interscope Records, and obviously, it benefited me. But I earned my position, building a magazine and making it good to the point that there was an alternative to that magazine that people could go to. I earned that position, I wasn't handed anything. I was given certain advantages, and I took advantage of it, but at the end of the day, the quality of my work and my magazine stands out every month. And every month, Interscope isn't on the cover.
BallerStatus.net: Elaborate how important is it to have relationships in the journalism industry?
Elliott Wilson: It's important, but at the end of the day, you have to keep a measure of professional distance. One fact that I always tell people and they bug out is that I've never met Eminem, Dr. Dre or 50 Cent. I've never shook their hand. I've never even spoke to 50 Cent on the phone once, and I've never seen or spoke to Em or Dr. Dre. So, this whole theory of what they think my relationship is with these people...I think that to a certain extent, you have to have a good relationship with certain people, but the quality of the work has to back it up at the end of the day. I think your job is to call what's going to be the hot thing. When I listened to 50's mixtapes back in the day, I thought he was good, and I had the freedom to give him a bigger story than other magazines could at the time. I took advantage of it, and because of that, I'm cool with him and cool with Sha enough through the magazine that he recognizes our relationship and the status that we have in the game, and that's an advantage.
You keep these relationships, but you can't let it sacrifice your own personal integrity. I choose to put 50 on the cover, or Eminem, or Game or whoever, whenever I feel they're the hot thing at the moment. At the end of the day now, since we've been successful and become number one, we're not battling other people: we're the first choice. To me, more artists want to be on our cover more than anything. So now, it's a position of power, where we have to be able to choose now, instead of fighting for what I want out of the storm. I get offered what I want, so now I just have to figure out what's the best thing to do. Now I don't even have to have great relationships, because people are coming to us now, because they recognize our status and how well we're doing out here.
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Funny quote:
"Another magazine put themselves in an adversarial position with Interscope Records, and obviously, it benefited me." That is probably the understatement of the year.
