B-Money in the Bank

"They weren't really willing to give up any publishing on the record, and my lawyer didn't have any experience in how to back them into a corner." Neither B-Money nor his lawyer understood what cards they were holding. The filmmakers, it turns out, had already included the track in the movie, and had B-Money refused the initial offers and held out for a cut of publishing, it would have cost thousands of dollars to remove the track. "So I had way more leverage, but my lawyer wasn't poised and let it slide."

So, says B-Money despondently, he received a single-payment advance, and nothing more. He's since canned his old lawyer and hired an industry veteran. As a result, he says, he'll get paid much more for his work on Kingdom Come. Exactly how much, he says, is unclear. He's got an advance on the way, and is currently negotiating publishing rights. "We're still trying to work that out to find out how much the [Mel & Tim] sample's going to cost," he says as the rumble of the subways gives way to the silence of an office building. "But that's common in this business. Just because the ink's dry doesn't mean all the business is done."

(For Andrew Friedman's review of the entire Jay-Z album, click here.)