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TDE CEO Fires Back At GQ for “Misrepresentation”

Posted on November 16th, 2013
by
Staff Editor


Kendrick Lamar-GQ

Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith founded Top Dawg Entertainment in 2005, the Los Angeles music label that’s brought us all of Black Hippy and, most recently, Isaiah Rashad and SZA. You may have thought things were all good after Kendrick Lamar was named one of GQ’s Men of the Year and covered one of their latest issues, but Tiffith had some major criticism of the magazine and how things were carried out. He explains why he pulled Lamar out of a GQ performance as a result of the article speaking on “what most people would consider whats wrong with Hip Hop music.”

Read the statement after the jump.


In 2004, I founded Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) with the goal of providing a home for west coast artists and a platform for these artists to express themselves freely and to give their music to the world. From our beginning in 2005 with Jay Rock, to developing Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, and Ab-Soul, to most recently signing Isaiah Rashad and SZA. We, as TDE, have always prided ourselves in doing everything with heart, honor, and respect.

This week, Kendrick Lamar was named one of GQ’s 2013 Men Of The Year, an honor that should have been celebrated as a milestone in his career and for the company. Instead, the story, written by Steve Marsh, put myself and my company in a negative light. Marsh’s story was more focused on what most people would see as drama or bs. To say he was “surprised at our discipline” is completely disrespectful. Instead of putting emphasis on the good that TDE has done for west coast music, and for hip hop as a whole, he spoke on what most people would consider whats wrong with Hip Hop music. Furthermore, Kendrick deserved to be accurately documented. The racial overtones, immediately reminded everyone of a time in hip-hop that was destroyed by violence, resulting in the loss of two of our biggest stars. We would expect more from a publication with the stature and reputation that GQ has. As a result of this misrepresentation, I pulled Kendrick from his performance at GQ’s annual Man Of The Year party Tuesday, November 12th.

While we think it’s a tremendous honor to be named as one of the Men Of The Year, these lazy comparisons and offensive suggestions are something we won’t tolerate. Our reputation, work ethic, and product is something that we guard with our lives.

UPDATE: This morning, Jim Nelson, editor-in-chief of GQ released a public statement in response to Tiffith’s, via GQ’s blog.

“Kendrick Lamar is one of the most talented new musicians to arrive on the scene in years. That’s the reason we chose to celebrate him, wrote an incredibly positive article declaring him the next King of Rap, and gave him our highest honor: putting him on the cover of our Men of the Year issue. I’m not sure how you can spin that into a bad thing, and I encourage anyone interested to read the story and see for themselves. We were mystified and sorely disappointed by Top Dawg’s decision to pull him at the last minute from the performance he had promised to give. The real shame is that people were deprived of the joy of seeing Kendrick perform live. I’m still a huge fan.”

Did Top Dawg have legitimate concerns or was GQ genuinely trying to honor Kendrick as the next King of Rap? Pick up your copy of GQ on newsstands now to find out for yourself. –Keith Reid-Cleveland

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