Sony Music is very conspicuously looking the other way after the abuse of Jamie Vaes by the cash cow of the record label: Lil Kleine. “You don’t want to be associated with this, do you?”
The Sony Music bobos could almost see with their own eyes from their head office in the A’DAM Toren in Amsterdam how Lil Kleine pulled his girlfriend Jaimie Vaes out of the car and then pushed the car door against her head. Still, the record label does not want to say what they will do with their contract with Lil Kleine, which is said to be worth 3 million euros.
Olcay angry
Initially, Sony promised a response. Last Monday it already caused annoyance that Sony’s statement took so long, but now the company has announced not going to respond at all† What kind of an organization is this? “Our culture is about how we treat each other”, it says on their own website.
Olcay Gulsen reacts incensed on Instagram: “Interesting Sony Music, that your culture is determined by how we treat each other (how we treat each other). I really need to think about it.”
cash cow
Sony is purely about the money, thinks RTL Boulevard star Luuk Ikink. “Lil Kleine is of course a huge cash cow for the management agency and the record company.”
That is no excuse, says colleague John van den Heuvel. “They earn huge amounts of money from this. You don’t want to be associated with that as a major record company, do you? I also resent the signal that they are sending out to victims of domestic violence.”
spit in face
Sony spits in the face of victims of domestic violence, John says. “As a socially involved party and large company you have to radiate that you do not tolerate this and that you distance yourself from it. That you put such an artist in the fridge, even if it were temporary, to find out exactly what happened.”
He continues: “The evidence is piling up. That boy clearly can’t keep his hands to himself. By now you can no longer avoid handing out a hefty prison sentence, I think.”
‘Sony rewards its behavior’
Nance Coolen thinks that Sony plays a very bad role, she says in the podcast Off the Record. “Jorik has just signed a deal for 3 million. The highest paid Dutch-speaking artist. Do you actually reward that amount as well?”
Henkjan Smits then says: “Of course. But hey, a record company isn’t going to give 3 million if you don’t think they can earn it back. It is an advance on royalties. Nothing anymore. It’s not like you just get 3 million. You expect to sell so many records and so many streams and you get 3 million for that. At the moment he is still number 1 and Sony is just making money.”
‘This is not allowed’
Don’t be a Sony, says Olcay Gulsen. “Let’s never see violence as normal together. It can and should not. Everyone has to take responsibility for this. This is not a private problem but a social problem.”
The big question is: do other Sony artists like Nielson, BLØF, Suzan & Freek, Racoon and Eefje de Visser still want to be associated with a record label that ignores domestic violence?
Tino Martin
In any case, Tino Martin is canceling his collaboration with Lil Kleine. “I will be clear about it. I learned at home: you can’t touch women. I was raised by three women, two sisters and my mother. They did put that in with me, that’s really a no go. That’s really not possible,” he says on Qmusic†
The two gentlemen sang the song Gabbers last year, but Lil Kleine is no longer his gabber. The rapper is no longer welcome at Tino’s concerts in May. “I was looking at those images with my girlfriend and I say: what a dick. You can’t get around that.”