learn more at myspace.com/deuxprocess
To Larry Robinson, Owner of Avatar Records,The only expectations one can have in the music business is to expect the unexpected. To what level and degree this statement becomes valid is assuredly dictated by the specific circumstances surrounding those expectations, as well as the situations and individuals involved in them. For instance, I’m sure you did not “expect” to see an email from me in your mailbox this morning, much in the same sense that I did not “expect” to have to one day write this letter so I suppose you can file this one under “unexpected” for the both of us. There! See how it works? They are inexplicably tied together in a sort of cause-and-effect scenario, you either “expect” something or it becomes “unexpected”. I have many examples, so please bear with me, I’m sure this will be the “unexpected” highlight of your business day! For instance, upon signing with your independent label, Avatar Records, I did not “expect” to become a star overnight, I did not “expect” to receive a massive promotions budget, I did not “expect” to receive radio or video spins, nor did I “expect” to have the clout of a major label machine behind us….I did however “expect” to have the written contract between us honored to the letter, and upon signing and executing it we lived up to every commitment required and “expected” of us. Unfortunately, you, Larry Robinson, and your label, Avatar Records did not live up to ANY of the written obligations “expected” of your company in a contract YOU WROTE, and that was, unfortunately, very “unexpected.” There are countless tales of artists being taken advantage of by the music industry, our story is no different from the many other talented individuals who have suffered similar injustices,……. or is it? You see, unlike the many naive, wide eyed, unfocused, “green” individuals who come to Los Angeles with stars in their eyes and holes in their pockets, we knew very well what we could “expect” from this industry and to counteract that we were well prepared, complete with a finished album, marketing plan, fanbase, image and even in-house art direction and computer design as well as insight and a clear understanding of music contracts and standard industry practices. We knew exactly what we could “expect” as we carefully read the contract offered to us by Avatar Records, made a couple of changes to it, and signed for all intensive purposes what should have been a very fair agreement, especially for a first-time artist, which we were. We knew that we could “expect” to receive an album advance sum that was written in this contract and would be best served not to have to use those monies to record music, but instead use them to hire an outside marketing firm to compensate for the “expected” lack of marketing resources that independent labels like yours are able to provide. Therefore it would have been beneficial to your label as well as to us to receive this advance money, after all the label makes its money off an artists’ sales and exposure much more than the artist does and marketing plays the biggest factor in the success of each. Unfortunately you and your label never “expected” to actually PAY us that advance did you? Even though our contract contained explicit dates and installments to which these monies would be owed to us and we could “expect” to receive this compensation on these dates in exchange for the rights to our music, you never “expected” to honor them in the first place, did you? Much in the same manner that I did not “expect” to have the greatest and most symbolic accomplishment of my young life in effect “stolen” from from me even though I held in my own hands a WRITTEN agreement that assured me that this would not and legally COULD NOT happen.
At the request of your label, we added two songs to this masterpiece and agreed to take production fees and studio costs out of the first portion of this scheduled advance, which was to be $5000. Upon completing these demands by your label, we were given receipts depicted the costs incurred and told that they equaled a total of $4750 out of the first $5000 owed to us…..I’m sure you did not “expect” us to develop respectful relationships with the individuals we agreed to work with, both Angelfire Studios and producer Thayod Ausar and that they would “unexpectedly” reveal to us the ACTUAL monetary amounts you paid on our behalf, and that these amounts were SIGNIFICANTLY LESS than amounts disclosed to us by your label when we approached you regarding the lack of payment for our first installment. We then certainly didn’t “expect” to have to sit in your label’s offices and demand our check for the supposed remaining 250$, only to receive this check 2 days later thus resulting in a very “unexpected” phone call from our bank, Wells Fargo telling us that this 250$ check had indeed, BOUNCED.
I didn’t “expect” to be handling my own sample clearances and to “unexpectedly” discover one of the artists I sampled lived in Los Angeles and after tracking them down personally and having a passionate face to face meeting with said artist, they were willing to let me license usage to their music for a measly $3000, cheap by today’s standards, yet as I should have “expected” Avatar records turned this offer down even though they still owed us around $11,000 and thus removed the song from the album. I didn’t “expect” that the two other producers on our album Mr. J and Stro the 89th key of Rawkus Records group The Procussions, who happen to be personal friends of mine would be denied the $500 per track fee that they were also entitled to for the songs they produced on the album out of this remaining advance of $11,000 especially considering that two of the songs Stro produced were chosen BY THE LABEL to be SINGLES and that The Procussions management submitted the necessary invoices demanded by AVATAR for payment. This leaves AT LEAST $10,000 still owed to us by Avatar Records.
I also never “expected” to have a better working relationship with our distributor Fontana/Universal than your Avatar Records company did to the degree that it would be them personally delivering the “unxpected” news to us that they had dropped Avatar as an account due to bad business practices and that our album, “In Deux Time” would no longer be distributed by them, or anyone else, in effect killing it about 7 months into its release, and rendering it unavailable to the public, a development that to this day noone on your Avatar Records staff including yourself has ever even disclosed to us.
Our contract also included $5000 in tour support money promised to us in $200-per-show increments to be used to help us with travel expenses as we attempted to book our own shows and tours in support of the album. Apparently even the 3 sold out dates we performed with DJ Quik at the House Of Blues in San Diego and Los Angeles weren’t good enough to warrant our 200$ per show support fee, and sadly at that point in time we actually “expected” not to receive it, and still to this day we have never received a single penny out of that $5000 tour support promised to us in our contract.
While working our retail jobs, we were “unexpectedly” contacted by the music placement services department of HBO regarding the use of one of our songs on their popular series “Entourage” for which they were going to pay us a fee of $4000. The song they were interested in using was a song entitled “Move” that appeared on our self-funded promotional mixtape only because your label Avatar Records, TURNED DOWN this song when it was submitted in the original masters for album consideration. As we tried to obtain our $4000 fee your label “expectedly” intervened claiming that the money belonged to Avatar and that the song was your property as per a technicality in the contract regarding “subsequent recordings”. Fair enough, although through the first pleasantly “unexpected” occurance throughout our working “relationship”, due to this confusion, the song used in “Entourage” was not “Move” as was depicted by the placement service but was actually “Thoroughly Respected” off of our promotional mixtape “Banger Management” “Thoroughly Respected” actually contained the Kanye West-produced instrumental from Cam’ron’s single “Down and Out” which is intellectual property of Roc-A-Fella Records a subsidiery of Def Jam Music Group. That’s “unexpected” news isn’t it, Larry? I wouldn’t worry about that if I was you, I’m sure you don’t “expect” them to find out that Avatar Records profited $4000 off of property that belongs to them. I mean hopefully they wouldn’t receive any “unexpected” phone calls notifying them of this fact either, I mean its not like you can “expect” anyone you’ve worked with to know Clark Kent personally or be intertwined intricately with staff at Universal, Def Jam’s parent company. Besides, its not like the RIAA is cracking down on the misuse of unlicensed intellectual property these days anyway, I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.
I “expected” to receive reports detailing the album’s sales, as well as royalty money owed to us from those sales, of which I have received NEITHER. I “expected” to receive our ITUNES sales reports as well as our royalties from those sales, of which I have received NEITHER.
Another “unexpected” occurrance was our accidental discovery of mooseshirts.com. Do you remember that company, Larry? “Unexpectedly” they carried Deux Process TShirts on their website, which is curious since per our contract our NAME and LOGO and all LIKENESSES belong to US and NOT Avatar Records and “unexpectedly” were retailed without our permission, so I supposed we can add this into sales reports undisclosed to us and money that is owed to us that we have never received.
In summary, out of a possible $15,000 promised us in the written contract our two parties have both signed (A disputed $10000 of what’s left in advance money, $5000 in tour support), we have only received a bounced check for $250 which Avatar had to resend again and clear. That’s right, TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS out of the FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS we are still owed and have never received. Out of total album sales we have received ZERO DOLLARS. That’s right ZERO DOLLARS. Out of all ITUNES sales we have received ZERO DOLLARS, again that’s ZERO DOLLARS. This would seem to be an impossibility as everyone knows an artist doesn’t get paid from product until the artists advance is recouped, the catch here is that WE NEVER RECEIVED THE ADVANCE in the first place. Therefore, legally we should be entitled to ALL sales royalties as well. Instead we can probably “expect” to not receive any of the above even though they are legally entitled to us in a written contract both of our parties have signed and agreed to.
As we have begun taking legal action against you and Avatar Records, it can only be “expected” that Avatar Records’ lawyer–er, uh, excuse me, intern, would continue to avoid and ignore our lawyer’s phone calls and written correspondence.
In light of the many facts I have included in this letter, in is inconceivable both morally and more importantly, LEGALLY that you, Larry Robinson, and your company AVATAR Records could “expect” to retain ANY rights to Deux Process’ debut album “In Deux Time”. To further advocate this conclusion the standing of Avatar’s Business License upon the date of the execution of this contract is currently in question, and if it is proven to be indeed suspended at the time of the inception of our agreement it will automatically nullify and void our contract agreement under California Contract Law. The gross negligence and horrible business practices perpetrated by Avatar Records against Deux Process, L.L.C. will not be tolerated and will be fully pursued and prosecuted by Deux Process in all manners considered legal by the State of California. Until such time I hereby challenge that the album “In Deux Time” is no longer the intellectual property of Avatar Records as our recording contract with Avatar shall be considered null and void due to Avatar Records’ constant negligence, mismanagement, complete disregard and non-execution of the terms agreed upon in its written contract with recording act, Deux Process. The rights to “In Deux Time” shall become sole property of the artists Deux Process, until a court of law can prove otherwise.
In closing, I can only hope that you and Avatar Records will not get the chance to continue to completely take advantage of the hopes and dreams of other aspiring artists, and attempt to hinder the spirit, creativity, passion, and drive of these artists as you have tried with my group, Deux Process. You can not have “expected” to have met a group of young men with as much resolve, determination, intelligence, and passion as myself and my brothers, Chief, Shawn, and Mils. You can “expect” that you will NOT be able to slow down, stop, or kill a dream that is much bigger, much stronger and much more sincere than yourself and your label Avatar Records. I can not imagine myself in your shoes, looking in the mirror every morning unable to find any semblence of honor or respectability in myself, knowing how many young people I have knowingly railroaded and taken advantage of, the impact of which will only fully be felt through “karma” and “Judgment” and various other spiritual capacities that you may or may not actually experience. The last thing I don’t “expect” is someone as less of a man as you to ever understand or care.
Here’s to “expectations” Mr. Robinson.
Cheers,
Mike Landers
Aka “Vise Versa” of Deux Process
