[Big Smoke]

Originally posted by Willy.

I want to know this story. How you get shot at?

It's a funny story (in hindsight of course lol)

The street Where I live is kinda in the ghetto, but not the "bad" side of the ghetto (It's pretty dead, actually neighbours go years without talking to each other and ****) but then theres a part of the ghetto that iis just FUUCKED UP. That's where my mother's family live.

Now, me being all about family, I decided to still have a relationship with them, even though they were always up to some sh*t.
So one day we're chilling on the block, about 5 of us (I came home from school, those niglets were right where I left them that morning. Then one of em just pop up and say, "You wanna see something?" I'm like "ok"

So we head down into the bushes behind my aunt's house at the bottom of a small hill and dude dips into his knapsack and takes out something wrapped in a cloth. Turns out its a ****ing pistol.

Now my iggnant ass cousins are there holding it, playing with it, and firing it. My instinct is telling me to leave these dumb n*ggas, but my square ass stays so I dont look like a punk.

Then I hear sirens... I look up and at the top of the hill, the ****ing police is there yelling at us to come out of bushes. Now, These were policemen, fully armed with assault rifles, and we're black. With a single pistol. and I'm scared shitless. Sounds like a good time to give it up right?

Tell that to my dumb ass cousin, who POINTED THE PISTOL AT THE DAMN COPS AND SHOT AT THEM. I ****ing bolted. Were alll running through the bushes and all I'm hearing is "VRRRRRRRRRRRRDTTTTT" from the police rifles and bullets whizz pass my head. Then I'm hearing "POW! POW!" because my dumb ass cousin is SHOOTING BACK AT THE ****ING COPS. WITH SEMI-AUTOMATIC RIFLES. AND WE'RE BLACK, so theyll just call us gang members if they end up killing us.

We ended up in like a whole other town running from the cops, lol (who didnt follow us too far into the bushes, btw)

[Big Smoke]

Originally posted by iHypeMusic

It might be because I'm a teen; but I NEVER remember seeing Physical Singles being sold in stores. Not when I was 5, not when I was 10, not ever

I do. Especially the BIG singles.

Usually it was the regular song, the instrumental, and the a Capella.

[Gangsta4alife]

damn big smoke you have pure luck to not have been killed that day bruh

[Sinister]

dumb ass
I would've left and looked like a punk

Lucky son of a bitch...didn't even get caught

They about that life

[Javan]

I can't @ him firing back tho

[iHype.]

Originally posted by Javan

I can't @ him firing back tho

[BLaCKPoWeR]

Wait Smoke did you grow up IN Trinidad and do you still live there now?

[MCBeth]

Originally posted by Gangsta4alife

mcklemore said that yasss he has seen the light. A lot of white entertainers would deny their racial privilege



But did you read that long ass post, girl clocked the tea with facts and knowledge.

Which paragraph? There were too many to count.

[Taste of Honey]

Originally posted by iHypeMusic

It might be because I'm a teen; but I NEVER remember seeing Physical Singles being sold in stores. Not when I was 5, not when I was 10, not ever

Lol I remember having MJ's "Scream" and the "My All/Breakdown" single when I was 5 or 6. On cassette too.

[Javan]

I don't care if Macklemore acknowledges his WP. The white man is still the enemy.

[iHype.]

I have the messiest crush on this older ghetto kid in school, who's str8.

Me and my friend (the one I told y'all wanted a white man so she could have a mixed baby) were making him and his partner in Gym CACKLE today tho.

And if you see him HE ALWAYS looks depressed for no reason.

[BLaCKPoWeR]

no1curr.

[Gangsta4alife]

Originally posted by MCBeth

Which paragraph? There were too many to count.

This one it's kinda long but she clocks the tea:

Originally posted by missy

Gonna explain why there may be truth to this from a BUSINESS perspective, for those confused as to why on earth this would even be a possible thing (note: not saying that it's true, just explaining general strategy). Just because I have a master degree in this **** and I need to kill an hour. So skip over this if you know the basics of business models. If you suffer from logophobia or smthg, hush and scroll down.

This is a totally normal form of promotion. Do you not remember Apple's aggressive campaign ads against Microsoft back in the day, Mac vs PC? Where they'd say stuff like "I'm a PC, I get viruses" (even though Macs get viruses too, simply the target audience isn't deemed intelligent enough to understand these things, but I digress..). Similar substitute products. They eat away at each other's profits and you must, must, must have a strategy in place to prove that you can diminish this from happening (normally by presenting points of differentiation and comparative advantages). Whoever is loaning you money (even behemoth companies like Apple must borrow money for tax purposes) is an objective source who will evaluate this. So:

It would be absolutely normal for her label, probably without her consent, to attack other acts appearing at the time so they don't distract from her attention. They don't need to do this anymore because she's securely positioned in her market segment, the differentiation is obvious to the GP. Keep in mind that especially with The Fame Monster, she was about to become the Queen of the unusual/club hits/video masterpieces - she just wasn't there yet, and that's why when she originally entered in 2008, she was just a messy blonde drunk party girl who wore slightly weird outfits. Her P.O.D. was "messy blonde w/ weird clothes". She could not enter as something completely unusual or you wouldn't relate, that market was unproven for that time period. But she was interested in "differentiating" herself from the others to secure a better legacy. They tested this with Paparazzi and it worked very well (MORE weird, MORE cinematography, LESS messy). Gaga is NOT a cheap act. She is probably THE most expensive to pop girl to maintain in history, if they'd ever release her budgets. She needs a huge budget to work with. With the outfits/huge videos/requirement for a huge amount of constant promo, she does not come cheap at all.

When they analyzed the "pop girl market", they saw the opportunity to allow her to be positioned in her own empty niche. She required a lot of investment, which they ultimately deemed a worthwhile risk due to the lack of competitors w/ similar traits. But you do not gamble with big investments, you do everything you can to make sure it performs as well as possible. How do you convince old senior financial advisors to give you a big budget like that without extensive proof that some of that money goes to her future value being secured? I'll tell you right now - in business, an overcrowded market is EXTREMELY EXTREMELY undesirable to enter with a gamble like that. It's basically an instant "no" - red market segment: "blood in the water", they need blue. Their business plan would have had to prove that she a) would be in an empty market segment with no/little competitors - the regular pop girl segment is an absolute no, too many people doing the same thing, too easy to slap a weirdish outfit on another girl, b) the promotional plan would have to attract regular pop listeners to give the niche market segment (so let's call it "dance pop w/ vivid visuals") a chance since they were NOT following the trend at the time, c) the product would have to not scare away said regular pop listeners/they need to enjoy the product, [identify it as a substitute] d) the promo plan would have to explain why the product (gaga) does a better job at the niche segment than any other act gunning for that position/any act that may enter in the future (Christina/natalia/porcelainblack would be chucked here). So in that case, anyone who may dare step into her segment has to be overshadowed - and more importantly, you need to find a way to tell people "THIS PRODUCT (Gaga) is similar but differentiated from THIS PRODUCT (established Christina or newcomer Porcelain Black) but achieves a similar purpose in a better way" without making GAGA herself appear like an aggressive bitch - she cannot be the mouthpiece. It's just smart marketing.

What happened between that last The Fame video and The Fame Monster's first single? Bionic was being promoted full force - an abstract album from a major pop girl with rumors of expensive videos (NMT was expensive enough that Christina had to pay a portion from her own pocket). The first of it's kind amongst the pop acts of the time and it had potential to shift into the empty territory that Gaga was positioned to be the leader in. B2B was successful with a similar twist in image (except not weird outfits/dance music - 1920s costumes/soul music) - this was a clear risk for that segment, Bionic was shaping up to be unusual outfits/dance music. Another random example that you may understand - why does Nokia use Windows and not Android? Because Samsung was projected to be the leader in that segment and they'd risk being overshadowed although the system was less of a gamble. Keep in mind that Gaga had an UNDENIABLE boost of fame and attention previously due to the Christina comparisons - Just Dance took a very long time to take off because no one knew who the eff she was - until everyone asked about the same hairstyles. The comparison was proven to be an effective marketing tool for her - thus it could backfire. Christina dressed up for Keeps Getting Better, in such a themed/unusual costume for the GP, people were programmed to say "Gaga?" because they had already been programmed to associate Gaga as the messy blonde hair/bangs & kind of weird outfits (although they had no idea how much weirder Gaga was gonna get).The ads were EVERYWHERE on the Internet comparing the two. I don't know if Perez jumped in for the sake of bandwagonning or if he was paid/asked to do so. Keep in mind, small little reviewer blogs have people constantly trying to chuck stuff at them for a good review. Perez is one of the most popular celebrity blogs on the internet - it's worth $625 million with 3+million visitors a day (he claims almost 9 million but ignore him). It wouldn't be surprising if he was approached and asked to give Gaga a boost - especially since they were friends.

People I knew who had absolutely ZERO interest in Gaga or Christina would randomly tell me that Christina was copying Gaga, even though they couldn't pin point why. It's the same reason why computer idiots will say "Mac is better than PC" and the people who actually understand these things look on incredulously because you're just a sponge who absorbs whatever they hear, not actually someone who knows anything about computers. Mostly regurgitation and a need to fit in/appear informed.

They did market research with Not Myself Tonight (standard practice). Apparently it performed very, very well. Now keep in mind that yes, the video would turn people off. But there was a period of time between the single release and the video release filled with promo. Fans would call in and be flat out told, "no, we're not going to play that". There was a fan told that too many fans are requesting it and abusing the system so they won't play it because of that. This kind of market testing doesn't tend to fail so spectacularly without an external factor dipping it's hand in. If it was that unpredictable, no one would waste money testing songs. We can conclude the song would have performed well on the radio had external factors not been fiddling with it's performance. DJs do not pick the playlists - it is all decided prior to their shifts and they only have a very brief period for requests, and they pick things they want to hear.

tl;dr: business, baby! Gaga is not an act with a low budget, her brand requires a lot of cash. To ensure it's not a waste, the business plan would have to be airtight. It would be normal to use an aggressive promotion strategy such as comparative ads to increase interest in one act and damage the image of the other. Those acts were probably deemed "substitute products". Just because Gaga seems to not be that "terrible of a person" doesn't mean that she designs the promotional strategy. IF "SABOTAGE" OCCURRED, it wasn't her doing. It was really just normal business. The most she might have done is say something like "I saw what you wrote, ha ha, that's kinda true" but she wouldn't have her hand directly in the fiddling. She doesn't run her label. You are delusional if you think "the music speaks for itself". There is a bit of truth to every rumor. You are tricked left and right in this industry, and this has been well known for decades. Evidence suggests something happened with Bionic and Gaga's people may have had a part in it. Bionic was more threatening than other acts at the time because the GP wouldn't have been able to see past "electronic music + non-traditional sexy/normal outfits". After all, there are other acts that are more similar to Gaga and you hear nothing about them, there are other acts similar to Rihanna/etc and you hear nothing about them being compared (Rita Ora and Rihanna are almost the same person yet do you hear about Rita the way you heard about Gaga/Christina? People weren't suddenly Gaga/Xtina experts, nor did they care about how similar their content was. It is very noteworthy that it got so much attention twice within a 2 year span, for radically different reasons. Showbiz has a bad rap for a reason.

[Gangsta4alife]

Originally posted by iHypeMusic

I have the messiest crush on this older ghetto kid in school, who's str8.

Me and my friend (the one I told y'all wanted a white man so she could have a mixed baby) were making him and his partner in Gym CACKLE today tho.

And if you see him HE ALWAYS looks depressed for no reason.

what high school do you go to, to just have so much ratchet as mutha****as

[Javan]

Jett Jackson doesn't get a thread?

[Gangsta4alife]

are you talking about his death, because jett got a thread for that

[Javan]

Originally posted by Gangsta4alife

are you talking about his death, because jett got a thread for that

oh ok.

[iHype.]

Originally posted by Gangsta4alife

what high school do you go to, to just have so much ratchet as mutha****as

nnnn sis you know DAMNWELL with the stalkers on this site and my personal experiences posting my school would NOT be useful.

[Gangsta4alife]

hey your like 12 apparently your turning on the deprived R. Kellz of this site be careful out in these thirsty forum threads

[Igrt]

Since I LOST my charger and cannot find it, After tonight imma have to take a short break from ATRL