"When you offer money for your own songs, but they don’t sell it to you, it's strange"

Rapper L ill - about leaving the Black Star and the trial with Timati

Musician Levan Gorosia (aka Lʼone) on July 5 sued the Black Star label, its owner Timur Yunusov (Timati) and general director Pavel Kuryanov (Pasha). Seven years ago, Gorosia signed a contract with Black Star, according to which all the rights to his songs and the stage pseudonym belong to the label. In court, the musician is going to prove the opposite - he is sure that "the papers are right on his side." Gorosia also claims that he himself tried to agree with partners on the terms of termination of the contract - in particular, he offered them money for his own songs - but they refused. "Medusa" discussed from the Lʼone the details of the contract, patriotic duets with Timati and the relationship of music labels with beginner musicians.

- Levan, tell us all from the very beginning. Why did you decide to leave the Black Star label?

- I decided to leave much earlier than this year. But this year the contract ended, and I decided not to prolong it.

- Why?

- I myself write my songs, I find the musicians myself. I am friends with many directors who shoot me the video, I fully work out the promotion of each of my album. That is, I [completely] generate my work with my team of people. There is a label that provides his services in popularization, promotion, PR, for which he receives his money [from the artist], of course. But for a long time I myself stepped over this step [when help is required]. I approximately understand how I want to move; For example, not to ride all year on tour, but to ride only in spring and autumn - this would be enough.

I am 34 years old, I am quite confident in my abilities, I have a lot of creative friends who are ready to do something new. This is the reason why I did not renew the contract.

- That is, you did not even think about changing the conditions and prolong it?

- Two years ago, I came to the guys ( the owner of Life Life Timur Yunusov, General Director Pavel Kuryanov, director of the music label Walter Lerusse - approx. Medusa ) and said that it was time for us to stop our relationship. But I must say that if I were offered to sign this contract under the same conditions seven years ago, [understanding all his nuances] I would sign it. It was a great seven years, we worked perfectly, somewhere complemented each other, helped somewhere. I do not regret these years.

But I did not give any works specifically when signing this agreement - this is an agency agreement under which they received money from income, and all expenses subtracted from me. It turns out that for each studio, every music, every session musician, every shooting of a video clip, for everything that happens in the creative life of the Lʼone project, I paid. From my money that I earned at concerts, at sales, in all other ways.

- What then is the benefit of a contract for an artist?

- Seven years ago, the situation in the Russian musical market was completely different. Yetub and Instagram were not so popular. Sales, videos for clips were completely different. <...> And we signed an agreement under which they could manage my rights for seven years. But it’s not clear to me if I myself paid for everything - the contract reflects that all expenses go to me - then why at the exit, when the contract ends, I have no right to even sing my songs?

- The conditions are exactly what? Do you have any rights to them under the contract?

- In general, no. I understand the situation where a group is made in the production center, they write her songs, teach them to dance, move, smile, dress beautifully - in this case, okay, okay, a person [producer] - creator. And when the artist wrote everything himself, he came up with a record of the album on seven continents , - of course, this is different. He didn’t tell him a uncle where to fly and what the concept of the album will be. But as for young artists - seven years ago I asked the guys only 30 thousand rubles of salaries in the next three months and a studio. And I was ready to sign [any contract].

- Of course, you were without a lawyer and did not go into details in any way.

- Of course, there were no lawyers. I was 27. It seems to be a conscious young man, but when you have nothing to lose and there is some kind of wild dream that you want to fulfill, even if lawyers said to change something in the contract, but the label would not agree, I would have signed it anyway. A bunch of young artists in our country also does, and then they can’t do anything about it. They are left alone with their problems.

- If you return to your care. What did your conversation look like with partners? Did they expect this from you?

- It was not one conversation. And a very long process, the most active phase [negotiations] began in November [2018]. There were meetings one on one, with two, three [the founders of the label], I was present at all meetings. They offered the conditions, I offered the conditions. The last thing they offered me did not suit me. They offered me permission to sing my own songs, which they can pick up at any time. But always walking and looking around is strange. Especially despite the fact that you wrote these songs yourself. And I refused.

- You were one of the key artists of the label?

- This is a story in which everyone won. I do not want the impression that [the founders of the label] are very bad people. We got along with them for seven years. But the situation with the departure of the key artist not only concerns me - if you look at the label now, you can see that he is stripped. It is better for them to ask this question, whether they consider that they have lost a valuable asset. Do I consider myself a valuable asset? It seems to me that this is strange. I consider myself a musician.

- But, apparently, such long negotiations are connected with this.

- This is due to the fact that I did not want to pay a lot of millions of rubles, I did not want to connect anyone to this story from the outside. All this time I talked directly with them. Only after our dialogs have come to a standstill, I connected a law firm. Just about this meeting, Timur wrote on my Instagram - from his words, I, never talking with anyone, suddenly came with lawyers right away, which was not fundamentally not true. I was even ready to leave them royalties [from my songs], which we did as part of our seven -year friendship and work. For me, it would be fine - we would have shook hands and go further to sing our songs. But they refused.

- Why do they need your songs? They cannot call the new artist your name and ask him to sing them?

- No, they cannot. But I can wake up in the morning and find my song in an advertisement in which I would never give it to my life. But they, having rights to her, can do this.

- Now you call Timati and Pasha only former work partners. Are your personal relationships worsened?

- There is no relationship. I have many good memories of this whole story, until the last I did not want to bring it to the public field. But when you offer money for your own songs, but they don’t sell it to you, they just don’t call the price, this is strange.

“So you are not talking to them now?”

- Yes, I have lawyers who, if we need to send, send [label] requests. Now we have received an answer only to one of five requests. I calmly continue to work, I have already emotionally survived this story.

- Yuri Dud asked Yegor Creed about how he managed to leave Black Star while preserving his name and tracks. According to Starhit , the trademark of Yegor Creed for 250 million rubles was bought by Karina and Boris Rotenbergs, but Yegor himself denies this in an interview with Dudia. How exactly he managed to preserve everything, he did not tell. People compare your situations, and obviously, there is some difference in them, since Yegor managed to solve this without trial, but you don’t. Why?

- I think that this question is not for me, but to Yegor - and I do not want to interfere with their relationship with the label. But, let's say, the story of a label relationship with artists is not only the history of me and Yegor. Almost every artist who left this label somehow, some situations were connected that did not give pleasure to any of the parties. An example of Christina Si or Denis Dzhigan , who for some reason took and blocked clips. Well and so on.

There are label artists who, perhaps, want to leave, but see what is happening - how they say goodbye to Christina, how they say goodbye to Levan, with what works Egor leaves. They probably draw conclusions. And what is the difference between me and Yegor? Well, until the last I tried to solve this issue myself. And only in the end I resorted to my right of a citizen - to challenge their statement about the rights to my songs in court. How Yegor decided this issue, I cannot say.

-In the Russian show business, labels often take almost everything at the exit from the artists?

- This is all the old topic. This happens not only in the Russian musical market, in the West - completely and nearby. For example, a story about Taylor Swift , whose rights to the albums were sold to another manager without her consent. Theoretically, I am now also not safe from the fact that tomorrow they will take and sell these songs to someone. And I will have to build a new relationship with this someone. In the West, at least somehow settled, but in Russia, copyright violations occur in Russia. The system is so imperfect that lawyers on both sides can find certain loopholes. Most often, in all this, the side that remains with nothing is a person who created all this.

Copyright is imperfect at all levels. You can confirm this with any famous artist - everyone has probably faced this. It's like a police who want to check your pockets. These are inevitable stories.

I perfectly understand the claims of those people who wrote the comments “What the hell are you now brewing this porridge, if you yourself signed all this seven years ago”. Seven years ago I did not even have money for a lawyer. [Understanding that] the artist can take advantage of the advice of lawyers when concluding a contract probably descends from the state. This is a whole scheme, I understand. [But well, if there is] some kind of regulations. A 20-year-old boy or girl who ended the project on television immediately slip the paper, and they say: “Yes, of course, they only showed me on TV, I will now collect halls, concerts.” Of course, they will sign this paper. <...> And most often, according to these contracts, you cannot even rename and sing your songs under a different pseudonym.

- That is, to conduct a parallel project.

“You can't do this.” You cannot act in films. Suppose a person did not succeed: they did not agree with the characters, the material did not turn out, broke his leg, and the tour ended. He does not earn anything, some minimum money is falling with royalties. They don’t invest in it, he has a signed contract, and he cannot terminate it, because he will need to pay a lot of money that he does not have. He has many years ahead - a cool conscious life in which he can create. But he will not be able to create a contract - he cannot release songs under his own name and cannot.

- Therefore, nothing is heard, for example, about the winners of the musical show “Songs”, who, in particular, signed a contract with Black Star? The whole country watched the project, they were sick and worried about the heroes, but then they seemed to disappear.

“I suppose yes.” But I don't know what contracts they have. This is a common practice, I can only assume. In general, a musical project needs to be developed for a plus or minus for two years. This is a very rare phenomenon when there is a click in the first year of cooperation with the company. Perhaps something does not work out for them. But most often you are given a little money to recording a song, a clip shooting, a concert. And let's imagine the situation - they invested, but there is no parish. The artist has a contract. What should he do? Nothing.

I’m happy in this regard, I worked a lot before-we had a Marselle group, our own indie lab, we knew what tour was. I understood where I was going and what I needed to do. And when you are 18-19 years old, this is a completely different consciousness.

-Were there any things that you were obliged to do under the contract in the creative plan?

-I can’t say that I was obliged [to do something]. But we, like in any business, had to compromise, each for his part. This did not cause any inconvenience.

- Can you give an example of such a compromise?

-For example, a performance at the festival of some television channel or radio station where my songs do not even spin. From the point of view of the musician, this is quite strange. I never played on radio stations, I had my own small trodden path, which I followed all these years. You perform at this festival so that the artists of your label have the opportunity to rotate there. For me, it costs nothing - okay, went, sang. Such that someone forces me to do something is never there.

- And the duets with Timati? At one time you shot patriotic clips with bears and tanks, in 2017, Yuri Dud asked you why. Then you replied that it was just a wave of hype, but you do not share all the eyes of Timur. Then why participated? Have you been obliged to do this?

- No. I’ll explain the example of the song “I will say in the end” (there are two verse in it: one wrote and performed Lʼone, the other - Timati. There are lines in the part of Timati: “Khodorkovsky is free, and it seems that everyone was parted on the Maidan, and we lost the fraternal people, maybe for a long time - thank Obama” - approx. Medusa). If we conduct a linguistic analysis of our texts and compare what they are about, then you will see that they are different.

For myself, I used a clip and a song like a stand to speak out. I certainly love my country, but I see moments that I would like to change. That is, it is not blind love and faith in the Russian world. But I have something to say, this is my only tool with which I can convey something-motivational things, values ​​that I consider correct. This pathos moronic phrase “want to change something-start with yourself” works in any business-both between your neighbors and in Yekaterinburg, where people came out. You can give many such examples.

The shell of all this was a barauli-patriotic: a bear, we drive a tank , press the cars, but I uttered any line that I said there [I can say today]. It was a tribune. I wanted to declare precisely these things.

- This is understandable, and your twigs with Timur are really different - you are talking about family values, and he is about politics. How did you evaluate this neighborhood in one song? Have you seen his text before its release?

- We wrote the track together, we discussed our texts. We have a lot of different views on the political structure of our country, just on life, on some other values. But I try to respect the opinion of another person, because he has the right to tell him. It would be fundamentally incorrect to say that his thoughts voiced in this suit made his bad person [in my eyes]. I know friends, colleagues who do not converge in many political issues, but this does not prevent them from remaining comrades. This proximity does not make me.

-Were there any things that you could not do on a contract, but you really wanted to? Experiments with sound? Any topics that could not be expressed?

- This has never happened. I came to them by the already held artist. Initially, these were partnerships. Most often I did what I wanted. But there were punctures. I am Georgian and I like to drink wine, I have many cool friends, we are often gathering. At the same time, there is a framework, I am an ordinary person who can afford to drink, but at the same time playing sports. So it was in the first years on the label, the song was called "I will never quit drinking." In the video, I sat in a bath with a bottle of Gin, a shower cap, completely dressed and read my text. The next day I went to the office, and we, in general, discussed this situation - in their opinion, [participation in this video] was quite strange. Although I did not lie to people.

- But the image of the label, which promotes healthy lifestyle, is harmful.

- Of course, when they say from all sides: sport, healthy lifestyle, fitness, this is all, and then the artist sits in a bath with a gin ... I say to them, I know athletes better than you! I know them on the football field and outside the football field.

- Wow, athletes drink! Surprise!

- Yes! Wow, they drink rappers! Wow! ( Laughs. ) This [the desire to fall into the extreme] - both about patriotism, and about love for his homeland. According to the logic of many people, there is black and white, and everything can not be another. But there are many other cool colors. You can’t say, either you love the president, or do not like. No average concepts exist as if!

And if I don't care? I am engaged in music and buzz. He is not my best friend, he is the president of my country, under him a large structure, which I have the right to ask any questions as a citizen. This is all. All I want is that I can write a song and go on tour, that's all I need. And so that my neighbors greet each other in the yard.

- It turns out that now without a label you can talk about these shades. You have more freedom.

- Undoubtedly.

- Do you think the labels are obsolete? Do you still need young artists?

- Practice shows that the artist can not always do everything himself - promo, marketing, communication with partners. He writes cool songs and sings them. But on this it ends. Если ты отдаешь 30% компании, которая занимается дистрибуцией, маркетингом и еще чем-то, берет на себя административные функции — это нормальная история. Это современная практика. Но есть миллионы примеров, когда человек только классно поет — и все. Он не может написать текст или музыку. What to do in this case? Для этого существуют лейблы. От них далеко не уйти, они будут существовать, но со временем, думаю, эта практика сойдет на нет, потому что эти 30% тоже плавающие — добавь 10%, и вот тебе уже пишут песни, а ты все еще предоставлен сам себе. Структура будет меняться, но я давно на стороне самостоятельности.

— Как вы оцениваете ваши шансы в суде?

— Есть практика на этот счет, время покажет. Я веду активную борьбу, но для себя я уже перевернул эту страницу. По бумагам правота на моей стороне, поэтому я буду топить за свое до последнего.

- What are you doing now?

— Я пишу новые песни, но это нельзя назвать новым альбомом. Это заигрывание с разным звуком. Сейчас хочется поискать что-то новое — смешать стили или поработать в другом направлении. Даже экспериментирую с электроникой немного — разгружаю мозг. И выбираю фото для своей второй фотовыставки. Во время работы над «Пангеей» я объехал весь мир, вплоть до Антарктиды, и везде старался фотографировать людей, так что хочу посвятить выставку этому пути по семи континентам. There are a lot of plans. Но в общем продолжу делать музыку.

«Медуза» направила запрос лейблу Black Star. На момент публикации комментариев не последовало.

Natalia Gredina