The hip-hop world is still reeling from last December’s news of Jay-Z parting ways with Def Jam, but we’ve seen precious little about the repercussions of the split locally. And there is much to consider: Jay-Z’s label, Rocafella, was the source of much of Hova’s Def Jam activity, and Rocafella housed arguably the two biggest and most promising hip-hop artists out of Philly in the last decade, if not longer. We are speaking, of course, about Beanie Sigel (pictured) and Freeway, to say nothing of the rest of the State Property crew. Since Jay-Z’s departure, rumors have been flying left and right about the entire Rocafella roster being dropped, only part of the roster dropped, and so on. (State Prop member Peedi Crakk aka Peedi Peedi recently told an interviewer that a Def Jam A&R rep told him, “‘There’s no more Rocafella Records and you’re all free to leave.’”) But other folks say different. We asked Aisha Winfield, GM of Rockstar Entertainment, which represents Sigel, what the deal was. Is Rocafella dead? “Not to my knowledge,” says she. “There are a number of reasons The Solution [Sigel's latest album, which has sold about 84,000 copies] is doing what it’s doing,” she went on to say, referring to the shakeups, but emphatically confirmed that Sigel was still attached to the label. Furthermore, she said, “We’re getting ready to relaunch the album very soon, with a new emphasis on the single and video for ‘I’m In.’” As for Freeway and the rest of the gang, we have no idea, but one thing is for sure: People are definitely salty with Jay, and the camel jokes seem to have only begun.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 4:44 pm.