Widely known for his cameo appearances on HBO's Entourage, Brooklyn hip-hop artist Saigon has quit the music business, posting the news to his fans via his MySpace blog, before telling his own record label. Known for his anti-industry beliefs, the media was the primary cause for his leave, stating "No more ass kissing for me, there is no honor amongst thieves."
Hours after his blog post entitled "I Quit," Saigon gave a confirmation statement to HipHopGame.com, explaining that he wants to focus more on his nonprofit organisation In Arms Reach and Abandoned Nation, which helps the children of NYC whose parents are incarcerated.
Neither Atlantic or Fort Knox Entertainment have yet to confirm the retirement, or whether the already delayed release of his forthcoming album, ironically titled Greatest Story Never Told, is still set for early 2008.
Here is the entire blog entry:
"I QUIT........
You see I got into rap a very very long time ago, I didnt do it to become rich, I didnt do it to become famous, I did it because it was a way for me to vent about the bad things that were happening around me, It was therapy for me so to speak.....Ive realized now that sooo many people have gotten into Hip Hop, whether the business aspect or otherwise, its not really for me anymore...First of all, people need to know that I am a contraversial person period, before I ever was in a magazine, on T.V. in a studio, I was very very deep in the street shit..Contraversy has always followed me, Its unfortunate but it is what it is...Its my life...I dont try to start shit to cause contraversy, its the media, the press and yall who eat off contraversy who start the shit, try to make me look wild or out of control when Im just being who I am. Everybody is like, 'OMG how is gonna show up to a radio station drunk', hahaha, Im a rebel, I done showed up to court drunk facing 15 years and yall talking about a radio show.. This is the bullshit, hahaha its funny how people listen to all these rappers talk about all these guns they bust and being in the trap and hustling, and everybody loves the music and celebrates it, the second he gets caught up in some of the shit he was rapping about, everybody is talking about how stupid he is and all this shit.. ...I cant take turning on a computer and seeing my name being thrown around in all kinds of ways, Its not good for me, and not good for these writers, I am accident prone for life, I will take a page out of the Wu Tang book and beat the shit outta one of yall niggaz man, youre playing with fire.. Should I post my rap sheet on the internet to remind yall , Im not a fucking studio thug man, ... I never signed up for this so Im stepping away from this fake shit.....I did a interview on Shade45, the interview was 2 hours long mind you, we talked about EVERYTHING from what we need to do as a people to get on track to economizing and everything but you know whats on all the so called media outlets in boldface as the headline, 'Saigon Disses Whoever'...You know what part of a 2 hr interview people replay? Me saying something about someone...If I woulda said, Ill slap John Hardy Hawkins for his role in the Slave trade, they would never put it in boldface or re run it 1000 times, but If I say Ill slap a rapper or something, Its the headline news of the day....Thats ass backwards to me so Im done. I dont like not being able to speak my mind without some fucking clown being able to make a story out of it because Im a "rapper" and "rappers" shouldnt say those things....hahahah I didnt sign up for this..No more interviews, no more mixtapes, no nothing....Im not a rapper anymore, Im done.. Im back to being regular me...This shit is too fake for me, I found myself getting caught up in the bullshit but now Ill gladly walk away...These people are so predictable that to prove to my niggas who would say my buzz was dying or whatever, I would say 'oh yeah', watch this, then for fun, I would just do an interview and make a comment about someone because I knew they would run back like little bitches who instigate something to get the people talking. Then walah, my buzz is back, (nevermind the 10 great new songs i wouldve just put out)..But its not fun anymore...I look at the Prodigy incident, that started not because of anything but these media outlets...He told me to suck his dick in an INTERVIEW..Then it becomes physical, we both coulda got shot, stabbed or even killed...Had I been with my crew somebody wouldve died in there all over something that started in an INTERVIEW. You got this other guy throwing my name around on T.V. now thats going to get physical, Then watch, the same people who instigated it will be talking about how senseless we are..I dont give a fuck if nobody ever does a story on me again..I dont rap anymore, I dont need it anymore... I no longer have to keep pretending to be a certain way to care about a radio spin, or an interview, so I can address these people when I see them like I BEEEEN wanting to, and thats unbiased. NO MORE ASS KISSING FOR ME. All of that trying to be politically correct bullshit is just that, bullshit..There is no honor amongst theives...Now I can say what the fuck I want, when I want, however the fuck I want without people feeling like they have the right to ridicule me, judge me and talk slick about me because I have this title "Rapper" attached to my name, or because Im a "Rapper" who supposed to know how to talk to these media people who really dont give 2 fucks about hip hop or black culture period. How many of these outlets are owned by black people anyway? I know alot of people dont give a fuck about me stepping away, some people might but so what, its a wrap...Some people will say I was wack, I never had punchlines or funny metaphores , but that wasnt my thing anyway....I left enough great music behind for people to understand I was good at rapping, thats all I ever wanted out of it, But now Im back on my bullshit...I have no KIDS, I have nothing to lose..My reason for ever taking it to this level in the first place was to use the music to to try to get black people out of the stages of deaf, dumb and blindness and that was a fight I probably couldve never won anyway...I wouldve given my life trying to save my people and died in vein like alot of people did.. Oh, and to that rapper thats throwing my name around, U must be retarted or like hospital food or something, we have BEEF homie, not rap beef, beef beef I have no more to say about that, its a small world, Ill see him...Fuck this bum ass rap game anyway, its full of fake ass niggaz who pump poison to the kids, make a few dollars and act like theyre larger then life when they know their music is detrimental to their fucking communities, If it aint about sex, its about drugs or violence, where are the songs about getting an eduacation, or being responsible parents and shit, or stopping the Gang Violence...This shit is sickening...........SAIGON IS DEAD...Should I say Ill slap a rapper so they run and put it in all their news section and gossip columns..Okay Ill slap the shit outta EVERY Rapper hows that....I QUIT, Now I have time to focus on my non profit organazation, In Arms Reach/Abandoned Nation, Please if you get the chance, check out Inarmsreach.org and lend your support to the work we do for the children in NYC whose parent(s) are incarcerated, Thank You now I gotta figure out how Im gonna break this to Just Blaze......THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD....hahahahahahaha PROPHECY"
Saigon feat. Trey Songz "Pain in My Life"
Hours after his blog post entitled "I Quit," Saigon gave a confirmation statement to HipHopGame.com, explaining that he wants to focus more on his nonprofit organisation In Arms Reach and Abandoned Nation, which helps the children of NYC whose parents are incarcerated.
Neither Atlantic or Fort Knox Entertainment have yet to confirm the retirement, or whether the already delayed release of his forthcoming album, ironically titled Greatest Story Never Told, is still set for early 2008.
Here is the entire blog entry:
"I QUIT........
You see I got into rap a very very long time ago, I didnt do it to become rich, I didnt do it to become famous, I did it because it was a way for me to vent about the bad things that were happening around me, It was therapy for me so to speak.....Ive realized now that sooo many people have gotten into Hip Hop, whether the business aspect or otherwise, its not really for me anymore...First of all, people need to know that I am a contraversial person period, before I ever was in a magazine, on T.V. in a studio, I was very very deep in the street shit..Contraversy has always followed me, Its unfortunate but it is what it is...Its my life...I dont try to start shit to cause contraversy, its the media, the press and yall who eat off contraversy who start the shit, try to make me look wild or out of control when Im just being who I am. Everybody is like, 'OMG how is gonna show up to a radio station drunk', hahaha, Im a rebel, I done showed up to court drunk facing 15 years and yall talking about a radio show.. This is the bullshit, hahaha its funny how people listen to all these rappers talk about all these guns they bust and being in the trap and hustling, and everybody loves the music and celebrates it, the second he gets caught up in some of the shit he was rapping about, everybody is talking about how stupid he is and all this shit.. ...I cant take turning on a computer and seeing my name being thrown around in all kinds of ways, Its not good for me, and not good for these writers, I am accident prone for life, I will take a page out of the Wu Tang book and beat the shit outta one of yall niggaz man, youre playing with fire.. Should I post my rap sheet on the internet to remind yall , Im not a fucking studio thug man, ... I never signed up for this so Im stepping away from this fake shit.....I did a interview on Shade45, the interview was 2 hours long mind you, we talked about EVERYTHING from what we need to do as a people to get on track to economizing and everything but you know whats on all the so called media outlets in boldface as the headline, 'Saigon Disses Whoever'...You know what part of a 2 hr interview people replay? Me saying something about someone...If I woulda said, Ill slap John Hardy Hawkins for his role in the Slave trade, they would never put it in boldface or re run it 1000 times, but If I say Ill slap a rapper or something, Its the headline news of the day....Thats ass backwards to me so Im done. I dont like not being able to speak my mind without some fucking clown being able to make a story out of it because Im a "rapper" and "rappers" shouldnt say those things....hahahah I didnt sign up for this..No more interviews, no more mixtapes, no nothing....Im not a rapper anymore, Im done.. Im back to being regular me...This shit is too fake for me, I found myself getting caught up in the bullshit but now Ill gladly walk away...These people are so predictable that to prove to my niggas who would say my buzz was dying or whatever, I would say 'oh yeah', watch this, then for fun, I would just do an interview and make a comment about someone because I knew they would run back like little bitches who instigate something to get the people talking. Then walah, my buzz is back, (nevermind the 10 great new songs i wouldve just put out)..But its not fun anymore...I look at the Prodigy incident, that started not because of anything but these media outlets...He told me to suck his dick in an INTERVIEW..Then it becomes physical, we both coulda got shot, stabbed or even killed...Had I been with my crew somebody wouldve died in there all over something that started in an INTERVIEW. You got this other guy throwing my name around on T.V. now thats going to get physical, Then watch, the same people who instigated it will be talking about how senseless we are..I dont give a fuck if nobody ever does a story on me again..I dont rap anymore, I dont need it anymore... I no longer have to keep pretending to be a certain way to care about a radio spin, or an interview, so I can address these people when I see them like I BEEEEN wanting to, and thats unbiased. NO MORE ASS KISSING FOR ME. All of that trying to be politically correct bullshit is just that, bullshit..There is no honor amongst theives...Now I can say what the fuck I want, when I want, however the fuck I want without people feeling like they have the right to ridicule me, judge me and talk slick about me because I have this title "Rapper" attached to my name, or because Im a "Rapper" who supposed to know how to talk to these media people who really dont give 2 fucks about hip hop or black culture period. How many of these outlets are owned by black people anyway? I know alot of people dont give a fuck about me stepping away, some people might but so what, its a wrap...Some people will say I was wack, I never had punchlines or funny metaphores , but that wasnt my thing anyway....I left enough great music behind for people to understand I was good at rapping, thats all I ever wanted out of it, But now Im back on my bullshit...I have no KIDS, I have nothing to lose..My reason for ever taking it to this level in the first place was to use the music to to try to get black people out of the stages of deaf, dumb and blindness and that was a fight I probably couldve never won anyway...I wouldve given my life trying to save my people and died in vein like alot of people did.. Oh, and to that rapper thats throwing my name around, U must be retarted or like hospital food or something, we have BEEF homie, not rap beef, beef beef I have no more to say about that, its a small world, Ill see him...Fuck this bum ass rap game anyway, its full of fake ass niggaz who pump poison to the kids, make a few dollars and act like theyre larger then life when they know their music is detrimental to their fucking communities, If it aint about sex, its about drugs or violence, where are the songs about getting an eduacation, or being responsible parents and shit, or stopping the Gang Violence...This shit is sickening...........SAIGON IS DEAD...Should I say Ill slap a rapper so they run and put it in all their news section and gossip columns..Okay Ill slap the shit outta EVERY Rapper hows that....I QUIT, Now I have time to focus on my non profit organazation, In Arms Reach/Abandoned Nation, Please if you get the chance, check out Inarmsreach.org and lend your support to the work we do for the children in NYC whose parent(s) are incarcerated, Thank You now I gotta figure out how Im gonna break this to Just Blaze......THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD....hahahahahahaha PROPHECY"
Saigon feat. Trey Songz "Pain in My Life"