advertisement advertisement The leak late last week of an angry email from rapper Nas to the folks running the label that may or may not be putting out his new record this winter, Def Jam (subject: “Put my shit out!” — text below), is shocking mostly because it was leaked at all. You hear plenty of rumblings in the press these days about artists battling their labels (Lupe Fiasco’s Twitter-fueled protest outside of his label, Atlantic, for example), but you rarely get to see the explosion up close. Then again, it’s a volatile time. Labels aren’t making as much money, the musicians aren’t making as much money, and they scream at one another as they flame out. Or until the artist breaks free, a la OK Go or Nine Inch Nails—and still, with rare exceptions, doesn’t make the money they would have made under the old system. There’s a third way to go, the compromise route, which is what Somali rapper K’naan is trying … [Read more...] about K’Naan and Nas: Two Ways to “Manage” a Music Career