DJ Diamond Kuts Narrates How She Discovered Lil Uzi Vert

Lil Uzi Vert might be a superstar rapper now, but Veteran Philadelphia DJ, DJ Diamond Kuts was actually the one that discovered him in their hometown, Philadelphia many years ago.

During her recent interview on New York radio station, Power 105.1 FM, DJ Diamond Kuts spoke about how she and her husband discovered Lil Uzi Vert. Read her narration of the events that led to Uzi signing with Atlantic Records below.

"My husband called me buzz, and he say, yo there is this kid, Symere (Lil Uzi Vert), I really like him, I think we should work with him. And I said, let me check him out. I looked him up. Met him. Loved him. We started creating songs. We created like, umm, What Do You Want, and we created the song, Uzi. You know, all of the earlier hits. Umm. I played it on the radio. Cannon hit me. Cannon was like, yo Diamond, who's that kid you played on your set. I said, his name is Uzi, his an artist that we working with. He was signed to our management at the time. And Cannon said I want to come down and meet him. At the same time Cannon was interested, Kanye was interested. Cannon didn't want to lose him to Ye, you know what I mean, so he said, Uzi, come down to Atlantic, let me show you how we work. If you like how we work, you know what I mean, you can sign with us, and then take it from there. We was all excited...we was all excited. Uzi was excited. We was excited. He went to Atlantic...he started...little by little, he wasn't talking to us anymore...that's pretty much how it happened. We heard on the streets that he signed to Atlantic."

Uzi shouldn't have cut her off like that, but god thing she had paperwork, so she got a settlement from Atlantic Records. You can watch the full video below...she starts talking about Lil Uzi Vert at the one minute mark.

Lil Kim Speaks on Direction She Wanted to Go With Her Notorious Kim Album

In 2000, Lil Kim dropped her second album, Notorious Kim. She was on Atlantic Records at the time, but was managed by Puff Daddy, so she was basically on Bad Boy/Atlantic Records. In a recent interview with Billboard, she spoke on the conflict of ideas she and Puff had with Atlantic Records on what direction the album should go. Nevertheless, the album was still a success. It has sold 1.8 million copies to date in America, and 4.6 million copies worldwide.

"Me and Puffy had our own ideas for the album. At that time, Puff was my manager. He was everything, actually. Bad Boy was my label cause Puffy was my manager, but you can basically say that Bad Boy and Atlantic shared me. Atlantic didn't really want to live up to their part of the deal because they didn't understand the direction that me and Puffy wanted to go,” the rapper continues. "Me and Puffy had to get creative with a lot of the music. We gave them the first three tracks we wanted to be singles and they said, 'We don't want to support our half of it with this.' Puffy was very credible so I said, 'Why don't you think he knows what he's doing?' I totally trusted him. But, they kept saying no. We ended up going with 'No Matter What They Say.' That definitely wasn't me and Puff's choice as the first single. But Puffy is a business man, so we compromised. We knew we had singles but Atlantic didn't see our vision. I think our word should have meant more but we wanted their support.” (Billboard)

Still one of my favorite albums from her. I didn't really get to listen to Hardcore (1996), but La Bella Mafia (2003) and The Naked Truth (2005) and Notorious Kim were super dope albums to me. I find it hard to listen to albums from female rappers, but Lil Kim is just so different. Hardcore (1996) still remains her best selling album, with over 2.4 million copies sold to date.

T.I Says Atlantic Records Wanted the Gangsta T.I

Last year, after T.I dropped his Trouble Man album (his 8th studio album), he parted ways with Atlantic Records. He signed his Grand Hustle Records to Atlantic Records in 2003, and was with them for a full decade before his contract ended last year. T.I was very successful with his gangsta/trap music style throughout the mid and late 2000s. He started going in and out of jail in the late 2000s, and his last two albums, No Mercy and Trouble Man have been reflection albums; more of a T.I trying to be a responsible man than portraying a gangsta self. He didn't go all out with the gangsta persona, and he says Atlantic Records never liked that. In a recent interview with XXL Magazine, T.I said Atlantic Records preferred the hardcore T.I to the "family man" T.I-

"Nah, Atlantic Records hated it. Labels love hardcore T.I. That keeps the cash register ringing. They don’t want me to go to prison and caught though. They want me to be the Teflon Don, and I can’t blame them. That shit’s sexy. But I’m older, man. I’m wiser, I’m calmer… I’m better, stronger. I’m ready for whatever tomorrow got coming."

Lil Kim Talks About Record Label Status

I can remember Lil Kim being on Atlantic records for as long as i have known her, but she recently comfirmed that she has been off the label since she got back from prison in 2005; basically meaning she has been independent all this while. So, the video of Black Friday and the other things she has been doing to promote her brand is all her, no company putting in any form of money. Hmm! I think she is really hustling- i think i respect any female that has that kind of hustling energy.

Anyway, below is what she had to say;
"What people don't even understand is that I've been independent for a long time now. I've been independent for about 5 years now. As soon as I came out of prison the Atlantic situation was basically done. I was on my own for a long time. Atlantic haven't helped me with anything in about 7 or 8 years so they have absolutely nothing to do with my music career at all. Period. Everything you see me do I use my own money to do it; I've been my own boss. The other girll, she may answer to her own boss but 'I am' my own boss. She probably gets checks cut to her but I cut my own checks." (That Grape Juice)

She also talked about whether or not she would opt for joining any Major label-
"I definitely wouldn't go in to the same type of situation I just came out of. No no no! I fought long and hard to just to get out the last situation with my record company so I would never go into the same situation. It would definitely still be independent but I'm defiantly open to doing partnership with other record companies." (That Grape Juice)