“We have stopped everything about Lil Kleine on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Because, provided, we are also very scared that this is happening. Then you don’t want to promote the same artist,” says Patty in NRC. The rapper was arrested in Amsterdam last weekend for assault, allegedly from his fiancée Jaimie Vaes. Since then, his current label Sony Music and his management have not responded.
In recent years, Top Notch has been very reluctant to comment on artists who have received negative media coverage. This also applies to rapper Bilal Wahib, who became discredited after he asked an underage boy on Instagram to show his genitals. “We learn as we go along. I first map out what is going on with the artist’s management and then consult with the team. The ambition is that things will go faster in the future. I understand the call that we must take our responsibility; we also feel that urgency. I dare to promise that we will do better in the coming years”, says Patty
The album Ibiza Stories, on which Jorik Scholten, as Kleine is really called, discusses the alleged abuse of his girlfriend in Ibiza, was still promoted by the label. The press release stated that Lil Kleine would “candidly discuss the much-discussed situation in Ibiza”. “We’ve had a discussion about that, yes,” Patty told the newspaper. “Looking back, that wasn’t the most appetizing press release we sent out.”