Bad Boy Records’ A&R “Senator Skid” Talks About Cassie’s Second Album
Bad Boy Records’ A&R co-ordinator, Daniel ‘Senator Skid‘ Mitchell, was interviewed in October for the international music industry publication and contact database HitQuarters, and gave an update on Cassie’s long awaited second album! You can read the info below:
Quote:
Diddy’s Bad Boy Records showed its talent spotting skills are as sharp as ever when it snapped up arguably 2010’s most exciting new star, the hair-raising phenomenon that is Janelle Monáe. A&R co-ordinator, Daniel Mitchell – aka Senator Skid – talks about discovering and marketing the soul-infused “sci-fi robo chick”, as well as his own rise from DJ to A&R, manager and all round man of many hats.
As Bad Boy gatekeeper and Diddy right-hand man, Skid also reveals how to get signed to the label and offers updates on Cassie’s long awaited second album and Diddy’s upcoming Dirty Money project.
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Cassie’s upcoming second album for Bad Boy looks like it’ll be moving beyond the confines of a particular genre. Can you reveal what the current status is with it?
She’s working on it. It’s in progress. She did about 50 records – she has a lot of songs – and she’s just still working on it, taking her time. She wants it to be something that people are going to respect, and she’s just really trying to have fun with her next album.
She has improved a lot vocally, and her sound is more of a custom sound for her. Her first album ( ‘Cassie’) was mostly Ryan Leslie produced and written, and with this next album she has different producers, different writers, some stuff she’s been co-writing, and so it’s more personal for her.
Why has it taken so long to come to light?
I don’t know if you’re familiar but Bad Boy used to be on Atlantic and we made a transition to Interscope Records, and so through that time there’s a lot of things you have to fine tune.
We’re happy to get this Dirty Money record (‘Last Train to Paris’) off the ground. It’s a timing process – you don’t want to just put something out and it’s not ready and the timing isn’t right, otherwise it hurts the artist’s career.
Definetley. She's a perfect example of a one-hit wonder. She'll never be able to top Me & U. And even if she does, she still won't because she isn't a star. She just happened to play her cards right at the right time.
The interview? It's one month old, I doubt during this time they decided to stop everything, without her even saying anything specially since after that time in November she has already tweeted about being in the studio recording with Corte Ellis and stuff.
That website belongs to Ryan Leslie and NextSelection, which she is no longer a part of, and since Bad Boy never set her a proper official website she'll probably only have one when she releases something with Interscope. Hopefully after "Last Train to Paris" early next year there'll be a proper announcement or something.
She's been saying a new single is coming out for a while now and I'm sure it still hasn't been released because that Diddy-Dirty Money album kept being pushed back and since that's coming next week....
How isn't she "a star"?
And the "play her cards right at the right time" is what happens most of the time in pop music and I don't mean in the "pop genre" specifically. Besides some exceptions, most artists get their breaks because of having the right song at the right time and while some of them are able to launch a career out of that, people like Cassie aren't for some reason but that doesn't mean they'll never get that opportunity again... she had everything to become an "established" artist but she couldn't take the critics in the beginning of not being able to sing and all the other stuff people still bash about her mostly because they're jealous of her looks, and she even went home for a while after her first album came out because she couldn't take it. That little time right there with her not fighting it was crutial and so was the fact that her label wasn't exactly the best either (wasn't because I don't know how Interscope will handle her now) as we all know from how they worked with their past acts.
If she has the right song and promotion she can get another hit and if they do things right this time her name can get bigger. Oh and if she had been signed to Jay-Z instead of Diddy things probably wouldn't have been like this, per example, but I'm not even going there and discuss "if's". She's just been very unlucky in terms of her career, timing and so, there's always something on the way for her but hopefully with this long break she's been having from the public as a solo artist they'll be able to work with her and know how to do things right this time around.
If she puts the song "Stamina" in her new album im dead X.X
I agree, "Stamina" is amazing! I'd also love to see "Turn The Lights Off" and "Skydiver" on the album. "Thirsty", "Activate", "Can You Feel Me", "I Never Knew", and "Summer Charm" are all amazing IMO too! "I'm A Lover" is great too, but it sounds so Ciara-like!
But seriously, I can't wait for this album to drop cuz I know it's gonna be hot!
