Photo courtesy of Fat Lace.
I just received this letter from the CEO of Tuff City, in response to some comments Funkmaster Wizard Wiz made about him in this interview:
February 1, 2010
I’m sorry that it has taken so long, but I don’t troll the net obsessively and there were some remarks by Funkmaster Wizard Wiz in your interview from February 25, 2009 that I feel I must correct.
In the early 80s before rap was a business and any of us were businessmen, Tuff City’s calculus for signing a rapper was, “Does their level of artistry make them worth the trouble?” and no artist was more trouble despite being worth it than Funkmaster Wizard Wiz.
Wiz was the king of bad behavior. When we finished “I Stink ‘Cause I’m Funky,” Marley Marl turned to me privately and said, “I respect what you’re doing with him [Wiz]. When Biz [Markie] goes out there, people know that they’re in on the joke. With Wiz, it’s the real thing.”
Some things don’t change. The interview that you printed is so filled with inaccuracies, so many of which are meant to marginalize my efforts, the talent-to-trouble ratio Wiz & I share remains the same.
It is important that I make the following corrections:
A) I did not rush out his first solo record to make the other members of The Undefeated Three look bad. In those hardscrabble days, no label could afford that luxury.
Wiz’s verbal superiority and expansive personality separated him from the crew; taking him a solo was as natural as separating Kool Moe Dee from the Treacherous Three.
B) I was responsible for almost every A&R decision throughout his career (not to mention every other Tuff City artist), picking and employing an all-star cast of beat masters from Master OC, to Pumpkin, to Marley Marl, to the Ultramagnetic MC’s Ced-Gee. Perhaps no other artist of that era had access to such a constellation of talent. If anything, I took too few production credits.
C) Wiz never beat me up, and I never sent him or any other rapper to jail. In contrast, I got rappers out of jail. In Wiz’ case, I made sure he knew that he would have a recording career waiting for him when he returned from jail. If you listen to the storyline in “She Flipped On Me,” about a guy whose best friend took his gal when he was incarcerated, you will see how quickly I resumed his career.
Though it’s disappointing that he would say these things even as we’ve “matured,” I still think he’s worth the trouble, as we have just resigned for the purpose of fleshing out other phases of a career that only gets more critically worthy with time. On the boards for reissue is an anthology of early 80s recordings with his first crew, The Undefeated Three, and the fleshing out of a late 80s project, a full-length narrative of his incarceration, Behind the Wall.
– Aaron Fuchs
Oh Shit Robbie you even got the devil himself to write a personal letter!! Unkut is mega large kid!!!
So buying beats makes u a producer or an executive producer….theres a difference
someone should do an article on how this guy allegedly took a lot of artists for their publishing, i think that would be pretty interesting.
Fuchsouttahere
this fucker even looks shady ….fuckin dickhead …
prolly made a ton of money and still bitching out of em ..
1. Undefeated Three anthology? Bring it on! Loved “Unity Rap”, didn’t realize they’d recorded anything else.
2. Kool Moe Dee was better with Treach 3.
Lakim Shabazz did go to Egypt to film a video right?? I guess he’s ok .. nah!! you know i’am buggin. At least his name is not as bad as say STU FINE!! Those shady ass dudes deprived us from some classic shelved material!!!
Aaron Fuchs (Tuff City Records), Stu Fine (Wild Pitch Records), Corey Robbins (Profile Records), and Eddie O’Loughin (Next Plateau Records) all caught the wave of releasing hip hop records during the early 80’s and in the process tried to drain every penny they could get away with from the artists.
I miss the classic rapper vs label battles like this.
Won’t get that now, might get a rapper vs his broken cd-r burner. Not nearly as entertaining.
In most of these I tend to side with the label everytime. Its the classic story, smart dude with $$$ and skill to sell a product vs a (usually) dumb , (always) poor (looking to upgrade his wardrobe and car situation) dude with a little talent and no idea how to sell it himself.
Nobody made these dudes sign these bad deals, they did it on their own. Sly record label dudes came way before rap music.
No more of these stories anymore. Music is free. In your face shady record label dude, oh and broke cd-r mix cd rap maker guy too.
GET A JOB
Im shocked! 2010 and tuff city records is still here? Aaron should of been arrested a long time ago for shady business deals.
first! i must introduce my self,!! jay crue ,,a very good friend of wiz!! and everything this brother says is genuine and real!! we’ve worked on many projects ,,me as a professional singer know how these labels work,, and as for arron!! sorry bro too many of the same opinion about you makes it a fact that your shady!!!! that is the reason why rappers in 2010 work on there own indies versers major labels!! and that is a huge factor of rappers making millions !!!
I think this guy is definitely shady. Way way back in 1996, I ordered 3 Ultramagnetic Basement Tapes CDs from Tuff City via their ad in the back of the Source. 2 of them showed up, ‘The Basement Tapes’ and ‘New York What is Funky’, I never received ‘Mo Love’s Basement Tapes’. I wrote them a letter (this is back before emailin was poppin for me), they wrote one back saying they were mailing the CD. The CD never showed up. I wrote back saying that I was going to drive a Mack Truck into their offices…. Fuck you Fuchs, you still owe me $15.99 plus Shipping and Handling, bitch!
aaron is only still there cuz of the publishing money. he fools himself into thinking he “makes records” .. no. not anymore. now he steals copyrights.
oh and @rene .. my article is coming
I know this dude from the ’90s – did some business with him. Even after 15 years or so, I think he’s the worst damn human being I’ve ever met. Rank maaga jinnal. He’ll never make it through the Hall of Two Truths.
Oh yeah, and his lawyer too. That dude got a curse put on himself for the way he acts. Krek-w senti, lawyer man.
AARON FUCHS HAS BEEN SWINDLING PEOPLE SINCE WAY BACK, MY FATER WAS A JAZZ DRUMMER FROM NEW ORLEANS, ALL MY FATHER LEFT HIS 2 DAUGHTERS WAS HIS MUSIC…WE SIGNED A CONTRACT BACK IN 2001, WE HAVENT HEARD A THING FROM HIM YET, HE EVEN HAS SOME ORIGINAL MUSIC FROM MY FATHER, I BELIEVE HE USED OUR FATHER’S BEATS IN SOME RAPPERS SONGS…HE WAS SUED ONCE BEFORE THAT I KNOW OF FOR STEALING MUSICIANS MUSIC AND HAD TO PAY BACK ROYALTIES.YOU CAN BET IF I EVER COME INTO SOME MONEY, THE VERY FIRST THING I WILL DO IS GET US AN ENTERTAINMENT LAWYER TO INVESTIGATE HIS ASS….
There is nothing you can say about Aaron Fuchs that can possibly make him look innocent with good intentions. He bought the rights to “impeach the president” for almost nothing at all and he went back and sued everyone who ever used the break. THAT is a snake / devil / bastard if i’ve ever seen one. Fuck Aaron Fuchs ya jewish bastard
AARON FUCHS IS A CROOK, LIAR, CHEAT AND OVERALL BITCH WHO DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT NO ONE BUT HIS OWN INTERESTS AND MAKES HIS LIVING OFF OF THE BLOOD AND SWEAT OF OTHERS. HE’S THE ANTI CHRIST OF HIP-HOP FOR LACK OF A BETTER WORD AND IS STILL FUCKING OVER HIS FORMER ARTISTS BY HOLDING MONEY
OWED TO THEM THROUGH SETTLED LAWSUITS!!! THIS MOTHER FUCKER GON DIE ALONE HOPEFULLY IN AN OVEN!!