TheSource.com had an opportunity to speak to Peeda Pan Idris, Head A&R at Glory Boyz Entertainment/Interscope Records and does management for Chief Keef x Fredo Santana, and SD. Peeda Pan took the opportunity to reach out us to discuss
Finally Rich first week sales, Lil JoJo, Chief Keef’s no show for “Hate being sober” video shoot, Chief Keef new documentary, as well as the future of Glory Boyz Entertainment/ Interscope records.
The Source: Tell our readers a little bit about yourself, how’d you link up with Chief Keef?
Peeda Pan: I first got brought into the situation by one of the co-owners of Glory Boyz Entertainment [Dro] they actually brought me back out here into Chicago from Miami. Dro brought me out here to partner up with him to manage the whole GBE operation about a year and half ago. You know me and him [sic] go back maybe like 12 years and he knew and respected how well I handle a few other enterprises outside of music. I’ve just been rocking it real tough with these guys ever since.
What inspired you to pursue a career in music industry?
I use to be in rap group called White Chalk in Chicago a long time ago. From there I started doing night life scene when I moved to Miami. It took a lot to pull me from that situation in Miami, because I was basically living it up out there. But music has always been my thing a very big passion of mine and to have the opportunity to leave that and work with this [GBE] it was something I knew I could give my all to.
Does it help you as a manager to have that recording artist experience in your portfolio?
Yes, that’s one advantage that I have is the facts that not only have I’ve been an artist but I come from a similar upbringing from Keef and the guys. I dropped out of High School my sophomore year, I grew up in West Philly not in Chicago but my father always lived here in Chicago. I grew up with a rough upbringing however I was able to work and do business with a diverse group of people.
And I saying all that to say when dealing with these guys…when they first [GBE] started to hit the radar everybody in Chicago wanted to manage these guys. I think Dro and I were successful because we can identify with them the best as far as being able to handle and facilitate their needs. A lot of that had to do coming from being an artist because I already know the types of things I use to ask out of my management.
So I had a start to know what was expected you know also I think it’s a lot because I’ve given people an opportunity to help me manage these guys and a lot of those people couldn’t handle these guys for 48 hours (laughing) it’s a handful.
Tell us about Glory Boyz Entertainment, who’s on the roster?
We have obviously Keef, Fredo Santana (co-owner of GBE x Keef older cousin) he actually came up with the name Glory Boyz a couple years ago. We have SD, Tadoe, BallOut, Gino Marley, Dro and I have split ownership of the label. Reese is still with us, but on paper he has his situation with Def Jam.
I know a lot of people may be wondering what’s up with us not rocking with Reese as much, but it’s not like that he’s just has another situation. We do a lot of shows together, we were just out in Los Angeles together not too long ago, and we did a grand opening to Pink + Dolphin.
In your opinion, what is it that attracts people to Chief Keef?
Keef is a prime example of an artist who people know doesn’t have any media training, he doesn’t come from this controlled environment, he went straight fr
om internet sensation from the f***ing hood, getting millions of views on YouTube with his music videos.
Keef is a much needed artist in the hip hop world and his age is what further validated you know what I’m saying. When people first started seeing him everybody was really on that hipster rap s*** or the backpack s*** you know, the culture [hip-hop] was more into conscious rap mix with fashion and swag. In fact a lot of people were saying that “street s*** is dead” or that “trap s***” is dead, and like he just came and resurrected that movement.
I think if it came from a rapper that was may be like 25 years old, it wouldn’t have had as much as an impact. It needed to come from someone who was very young, it’s like Keef was only 15 years old when he did “bang”. For people to witness that s*** to see a young kid with guns with weed smoke it’s like “Where the f*** are these kids parents at (Laughing)?
The first week sales to Finally Rich came out to 50K copies sold what are your thoughts?
Well I’ll put it to you like this Finally Rich was initially supposed to be a mix tape. It was Interscope’s decision in September to say “Hey you know what we need to put out an album for Keef for a 4th quarter release”. But as you know there’s been a lot of mayhem with Keef in September. We were dealing with the loss of Lil JoJo and other things. Keef missed a lot of shows, especially an appearance on 106 & Park.
The media portrayed Chief Keef as this bad ass, who doesn’t give a f*** and it’s not like that at all. A lot of these situations were recommended to us to not go and do things by our criminal defense attorney. People have to keep in mind he has a lot of legal issues being a minor, being on probation, and dealing with these gun charges. We can’t just go anywhere nor do anything because any little mishap can land him in jail.
Do you feel that because of these restrictions this ultimately had an effect on his first week sales?
Of course, we expect it to affect his first week sales. We had a show with Funk Flex (Hot 97) which we were unable to attend. We really wanted to be there and we have a lot of respect for Funk Flex and we acknowledge his stamp and just being able to do something with him is a big honor for us.
We had to cancel an album release party in New York City, Philly, Atlanta; we pretty much had to cancel all of our album release parties because he had to be in court. There’s a lot of thing that we wanted to pursue but we couldn’t because of these restrictions. It’s hard to sell records when you can’t attend different venues to promote your album.
What happen with the “hate being sober” video shoot, why was he a no-show?
He didn’t go to [Las] Vegas because he wanted to be this hard ass or nothing like that. Us as in GBE x interscope records there was some business that we were supposed to finish or finalize prior to going out there to Vegas to do this video shoot. The deal wasn’t finalized and we basically told them look we are not going to move forward with this video until that business is handled. For the record Chief Keef was not high or he did not over sleep, what the f*** is going on with him, none of that! He’s a hard worker, he has done a lot to get this operation to where it is and that is that.
Are you satisfied with the overall package of the album?
Interscope kind of put the fire under us to say look we want you guys to put an album out. Is the album in my opinion I hot album? Hell yeah! I think any artist that hears this album acknowledges like damn [Keef] this maf***a has a body of work, he’s got about 15 songs each of them’ is a f***ing banger.
Each of them can be a hit single on the radio and easily can be a certified street banger, and it’s hard for a lot of artist to come up with one of those. Every one of his songs, if you really listen to it has it! You can literally sit there and zone out and realize that this s*** sounds like it needs to be on radio, needs a video, or can be on TV.
Again the sales of the album may not reflect what was expected of him nonetheless he’s already 5 songs into his sophomore release you know what I’m saying. To be honest with you Walford, Finally Rich is more of an example of something that was quickly put together; compared to something that was created from start to finish. So his next album will actually sound like a true first album.
Do you have an ideal time frame to when we can expect to hear his second album?
We can expect a second quarter release date. It will be out very soon. DJ Ken who produced “Bang” is working with Chief Keef; they’ve worked on 3 joints already. DJ Ken plays a big part he started all of these guys on music from Fredo to Chief Keef. So he’s back working with the crew and we look forward to that.
So we are not worried so much Walford with these first week sales, I think we f***ing made history already in 2012 man just with the amount of attention and buzz we’ve generated via online is uncanny. A teenage rapper from 63rd & Michigan coming from one of the roughest neighborhoods in Chicago inking a major record deal; it’s never been done before.
Is it true that Chief Keef is releasing a documentary?
Yea I believe we’re releasing it in January or February and it basically covers the whole story behind Keef movement so be in the lookout for that. They’re thinking of a couple of titles one of them being “On the road to glory” or possibly “300 the movie”, but I think we can come with something better than that so we’ll see.
–Walford Guillaume (wallywall$treet)
