Musician Refuses Millions to Stay in His Bedroom
Thursday October 31, 5:20 am ET

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Can an artist sell a CD directly from his bedroom? The media believes so: "He's accessible, he's fun. It's soul music like we heard in the 70s. This is going to be a blockbuster!" declares national music journalist, Toure, on CNN's "Access" with Arthel Neville.

Ready Set Go! unleashes, The Headphone Masterpiece, the much anticipated 36-track double-disc from Cody ChesnuTT. Exclusively available via www.CodyChesnuTT.com , the songs were composed, recorded and mixed by ChesnuTT in his $5,000 bedroom studio "The Sonic Promiseland." Those unorthodox recordings both excited and baffled the industry, including several major labels which offered the Atlanta native seven figure deals to re-record the songs.

Excitement transformed into disbelief when ChesnuTT refused their offers. "I created this completely in my bedroom; myself, my instruments and one microphone," he explains. "I've captured bad morning-breath, sweat, emotional highs and lows...how much more personal can you get? To try and recreate that for any amount of money would cheat the true story."

Unable to concur with a major label, Headphone Masterpiece will be released on the upstart Ready Set Go! run by ChesnuTT's cousin, Donray Von. Von compares the pre-release buzz to a musical Blair Witch Project, crediting the intimacy of the recording, grassroots promotion, international touring, and 5,000+ visitors a day on ChesnuTT's website as the catalysts for spawning the frenzy.

Furthermore, early exposure on MTV News, VH-1 Soul, and two separate appearances on MTV2's "2$" concert series first with The Strokes and then The Roots introduced ChesnuTT to the big leagues. Other national outlets that championed the project include Vibe which referred to Masterpiece as "the greatest rock album you've never heard" and Rolling Stone which stamped a 4-star review proclaiming, "It's ragged, sure and messy too. But then so's real life."

Although he rejected large sums to re-record his songs, ChesnuTT did collaborate with The Roots revisiting "The Seed," a Headphone Masterpiece original, scheduled to appear on their forthcoming Phrenology (MCA) due November 26.

The Headphone Masterpiece recently made its big screen debut with Brown Sugar (Fox Searchlight) in which ChesnuTT's future R&B classic "Serve this Royalty" is featured. The disc's first single "Look Good in Leather" is currently flooding national radio and video outlets.

That's bad-A !!!

I couldn't click there, btw.

:first post:

Here comes the future!

cool

hmm. not shur how to respond.

the future's a little brighter

The future is the capturing of morning breath on audio?

Personally, I'm not sure I would have turned down 7 figures. But at the same time, he wouldn't have to pay someone to promote him on "his behalf".

I wish I could shake that guys' hand.

The story reminds me of Lewis Taylor, a british musician who has been self-producing/performing brilliant psychedelic soul music in his grandma's attic.
Unfortunately, he took the 'golden offer' from Island records and they've been fucking him over ever since.
Another basement studio wunderkind is Remy Shand from Winnipeg in Canada, I think he got signed to Motown.
He's been doing well in Canada thanks to our controversial 'Canadian content' regulations which require 30% or so of radio content to be of Canadian orgin.
I don't know how he's doing elsewhere though.

Another basement studio DIY musician is 'The Bongolian', who is doing amazing kick-ass porn-funk on an old analog 8-track recorder.

Check those guys out, especially you Neo, we've got to wean you off of Yanni somehow.

I'm not sure which side to take - the Yanni, or the "amazing kick-ass porn-funk".

I imagine either way, the only place I'll be hearing much is if I end up in hell.

If you wanna keep full control of your musical career then you DON'T sign with a major label. Simple as that. the key word is CONTROL.

Actually, yanni is stereotypical heaven music, whereas I'm sure a lot of Christians would consider porno music to be hell's soundtrack,(after rap and heavy metal of course).
For me it would be the other way around.

The particular brand of easy listening music that yanni represents, as well as his contemporaries Zamfir, John Tesh etc, has got to be the most banal and insipid music this side of Asian-romantic-pop-ballad-land.

I'm not in the habit of judging the quality of music, I prefer to let the listener decide what he or she likes, but lines must be drawn sometimes.

So what happens when his independent record is shared on Gnutella and Win MX and such? He'll lose potential sales, and maybe have to go back to his day job, make less music, and wish that he'd signed with a label (which is never a very good deal in the first place). A total shame. That could put a serious kebosh on this great alternative to releasing through labels.

yea i heard about this guy a while back...you'll never guess who did a feature story on him...

MTV...thats right, i said it...lol

but uhh...thats where i heard about him from...and i quite like his music as well...

Some music is fine, but the shit the labels are usually marketing just shouldn't exist at all.
Rap and HipHop are for retarded people. Those who blast rap late at night should be f*cking shot and fed to farm animals.
Actually, I refuse to call them "people". Those who buy rap/hiphop CD's are just cattle, and should be treated as such.
It is their stupid addiction to ape-shit-noise that pumps the dirty money into RIAA pockets. Then, the RIAA goes after _real humans, who listen to _real music and have _real jobs.
Damn I'm pissed.

^^ you should be shot for making that kind of asinine comment...but i guess in your case, ignorance is bliss?

good luck to the guy. the only way to screw over the man is to change the game so he can't control it. tee hee!

I think the main point of this issue is that a guy was able to record a quality cd by himself without having to suck any RIAA dick in the process.
Even if he loses money through file sharing,(and that is debatable), he is now in a position to make an honest living as a performing musician should, on tour.
In fact, the amount of people who trade his music using p2p is a good indication of how well he would do on the road.