I’m aware of the story with Endless & Blonde and how he basically gave them a fake album to get out of his deal and drop Blonde independently, but the part that never made sense to me was how did Def Jam sign off on counting Endless as a traditional album release?

It wasn’t available for sale anywhere, wasn’t available to stream, and could only be listened officially to via the staircase video.

Do record deals traditionally count visual albums as part of the deal or did he find some other workaround to have Endless count?

Def Jam counted it as an official release

Endless "fake album" ish is dumb tho and just created by people upset at the Endless stair stream - it is an actual project and the songs were genuine worked on songs with Vegyn, he just didn't put any effort into it outside of the music to not waste his own time getting out of there and to not give anymore money to def jam

That's the facts, but on my own conjecture:

• to me he gave them the more "artsy" album that wouldn't make as much money and especially with him not working it to def jam to not feed them, while keeping the more "commerical" album for himself to make money off of to survive whatever transition period and potential issues might arise that would get him till his (at the time) next planned release

Frank was doing as much as he could to sabotage Def Jam making money off of him while making it still as borderline possible

Hence why it was only released as a "visual album" too

As for the contracting, idk of course his specifics, but at the time I would bet specifying between "regular album" and "visual album" didn't exist, so a "visual album" still counts overall (which nowadays labels they do specify directly cuz of Frank lol)

It was Frank being smart and taking advantage of emerging tech, n trends that he can double talk even further with old niggas in a boardroom that don't know how Instagram works and don't use streaming themselves

And he sacrificed one of his projects, as I've said in my own theory to me keeping the one for himself that would more help him survive the aftermath and transition

the fake out wasnt fake album vs real album it was artistic album vs commercial album

It was just that good

He gave Def Jam a great album, with an innovative release style, and they took it.

They just didn't know that he had Blonde in the tuck.

Frank knew which one would sell better, so marketing dollars, and a traditional release, were put towards Blonde.

I also don’t love this description as Blonde is still extremely experimental and artsy. It’s just less ambient which is what makes it more palatable to more people.

I would argue blonde is more experimental honestly because of what it does with traditional pop song structures and melodies

That Endless and Boys Don’t Cry hype from July - August 2016 was some of the most fun I’ve ever had on the internet.

His contract was mostly likely drafted in 2011/early 2012, well before any norms of the streaming era entered the public conscious, let alone the business world and the very intricate language of business deals.

His contract stipulations most likely did not specify things like format, availability, sales, etc.

most contracts will actually stipulate future formats and getting rights to "entire copyright and all other rights of whatsoever nature whether now existing or created in the future"

i think endless had the potential to sell decent but he super finessed with the visual element & streaming exclusive to Apple Music as a final f*** you to the label

s*** is crazy

I bet Frank didn’t have that clause in that exact sense, considering we didn’t get a cO pressing till last year

100%!! I made this argument to someone before and they got very upset but to me its obvious.

I think people have different ideas on what “experimental” means.

I think a lot of people don’t think popular things can be experimental. Have they heard of the Beatles?? Or Bohemian rhapsody? Or Outkast??

S*** was fye

agreed. it doesn't at all reflect how he actually feels about the work, it was just an economic decision. he clearly loves the album and he performs it whenever he performs live which is f***ing once a decade atp but yeah

Promised them a staircase to the 2nd floor of the building

it's not but blonde is also very experimental yes, just has more generally palatable songs for the masses. doesn't reflect on the quality of those songs in any way

He didn’t, it’s always been a lie or a stretching of the truth because the story sounds good. He got out of the deal it didn’t have anything to do with endless highkey

Can anyone give me proof that Def Jam actually counted Endless as an album or was involved in its release?

If Endless was really Def Jam property wouldn’t they have promoted it somehow?

I’ve never seen any proof. And how would Frank be able to sell Endless vinyl a few years later?

what are you basing this on though? how did he get out of the deal if not with endless

His contract was drafted in like 09 lol

they are in the credits of the video

I personally think def jam just wanted any streaming exclusive they could get at the time

and they got one with that

the release style didn’t matter to them as long as they could have that partnership with apple

but frank doing his own deal for blonde f***ed that whole game up

Still wild he gave us 2 albums in a 24 hour period

And both are classics

I just never really saw any solid proof beyond an anecdote. If he really gave endless to def jam it’s crazy that he got it back as quick as he did

I feel like people can maneuver out of deals in different ways, he could’ve called Hov for example and he would probably be all set. The whole story just always seemed like a tall tale to me idk