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Mass Appeal, the company founded by legendary Queens rapper Nas, is the target of a lawsuit from a former white executive alleging racial discrimination among other issues. Melissa Cooper filed suit against Mass Appeal on Tuesday and added that a fellow white executive was also responsible for creating a hostile work environment.
The Daily Beast reports that Melissa Cooper, a longtime documentary producer whose credits include the upcoming Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told, says that she faced racial discrimination and other hostilities while working at Mass Appeal as its head of development.
According to Cooper’s lawsuit, Peter Bittenbender, Mass Appeal’s chief executive and is a white man, and Jenya Meggs, the company’s senior VP for partnerships & content acquisition and a Black woman, “discriminated against her by removing her from several high value projects, creating a hostile work environment, and terminating her employment.”
As the outlet adds, terms like “White folks” and “crackers” rankled Cooper and there was evidence of tension between Cooper and Meggs in relation to the aforementioned Freaknik documentary.
From The Daily Beast:
In a series of these back-and-forth messages between Meggs and Terry Ross, a Freaknik executive producer who is Black and does not work for Mass Appeal, they discuss Meggs’ frustration at Cooper being brought on the project instead of her. Meggs texts, “I blame Alex for Freaknik,” referring to Alex Avant, an executive producer on Freaknik, who is Black and with whom Cooper had a long professional relationship. “Meggs was upset that Avant had decided to pitch the Freaknik project to Cooper and not Meggs, since Avant knew that Meggs was at Mass Appeal as well,” the complaint says. “Ross responded with surprise and said that this was ‘terrible.’ Meggs then texted that there were no hard feelings before qualifying Cooper’s selection for the Freaknik project as ‘Usual white folk behavior.’” In later messages, Meggs complains about Bittenbender’s decision not to hire a candidate she referred to Mass Appeal. Ross responded: “These white folk something else.”
Nas is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit despite his ownership.
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Photo: Johnny Nunez / Getty
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Ebony Magazine is joining the celebration of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary by releasing a limited-edition print issue with Mass Appeal.
As Hip-Hop culture is receiving all of its flowers while celebrating its 50th anniversary, Ebony Magazine is celebrating with a limited-edition printed fall issue of its publication. Done in partnership with the Mass Appeal entertainment company, the issue will be one of a few available to the public since the magazine stopped print publishing in 2019.
The new issue will feature five cover stories featuring some of the culture’s most iconic artists in 50 Cent, Lil Kim, Swizz Beatz, Busta Rhymes, and Rick Ross. The cover photographs for the issue were taken by Keith Major and Shamaal Bloodman in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. In addition to the profiles, Mass Appeal will be curating a “Hip Hop 50 List,” on Ebony’s website, with support from Google.
Ebony “has been a pioneer publication documenting Black life in America since its inception,” said Jenya Meggs, Mass Appeal’s senior vice president of partnerships and content acquisition in a statement, adding that the company was pleased to work with Ebony to “continue documenting the moments that made history and those which undoubtedly will.”
“For the past 50 years, Hip Hop has been a cornerstone in our community and an undeniable world force,” said Ashlee Green, Ebony’s executive vice president of brand and marketing in the same statement. She continued by referencing the five artists chosen for the issue, saying it was “because they represent the excellence of the genre. Their style and business acumen are as influential to our culture as their musical prowess, and we could not miss this opportunity to give our loyal readers what they have long been asking for – a physical copy of our legendary print magazine.”
The limited-edition print issue will be available for purchase on September 19th. For more information, visit Ebony.com.
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Sony Music Entertainment and its Certified unit have partnered with Mass Appeal to unveil 50 product releases to commemorate HipHop50 through Legacy Recordings, Record Store Day, Vinyl Me, Please, Get On Down, Mobile Fidelity and Urban Outfitters.
By way of Legacy Recordings, fans will be able to enjoy “new physical configurations, first-time digital releases, and limited-edition vinyl from the genre’s most influential and indelible icons, including Big Pun, Cypress Hill, Nas, OutKast, Q-Tip, RUN D.M.C., Three 6 Mafia, Wu-Tang Clan and more.”
To kick off the celebratory rollout, Nas’ Made You Look: God’s Son Live 2002 will drop on April 22. The exclusive Record Store Day vinyl will highlight Nas’ historic performance at Webster Hall in New York. It’ll also be available to stream the day before. Following that release, on May 12, Run D.M.C.’s 1988 classic Tougher Than Leather will be released on black vinyl on Legacy Recordings to celebrate its 35th anniversary. Then, Nas will have another reason to celebrate as his lauded 2003 effort, The Lost Tapes, will receive a vinyl update on May 26. According to a press release, “Get On Down is releasing Nas’ The Lost Tapes on limited edition double colored-vinyl in a gatefold jacket with numbered OBI limited to 2000 units.”
Last January, SME and Mass Appeal announced their initial partnership. “Sony Music and Mass Appeal will work together to showcase the creative excellence of SME’s dynamic talent and their contributions to music history through original content, experiences, merch and product collaborations in connection with Mass Appeal’s campaign leading up to this key milestone in Hip Hop culture,” said the release.
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New York artist, Danny Cortes, has gained massive acclaim for depicting striking scenes from Hip-Hop & popular culture in miniature form.
For Danny Cortes, his artwork is an homage to the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn that he grew up in and all of the nostalgia that’s associated with it. The miniature collectibles he crafts by hand are a look at “the little things that we pass by every day” from the recreation of the nearby Chinese takeout restaurant Ho May Kitchen to one of his first creations – a white commercial ice box that’s often seen outside delis and bodegas in the city right down to the graffiti on its sides.
“If we take the time to notice we are surrounded by inspiration,” he says on his website.
Other works also include odes to The Notorious B.I.G. and the Wu-Tang Clan. For the 42-year-old artist, what began as a hobby from his childhood became more as the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold in New York City and the rest of the country.
“We are adults, but we never stopped being kids,” Cortes said. “Who doesn’t like toys? Who doesn’t like miniatures?” He began to post his work on social media, which garnered him a lot of attention. That led to a commission by Mass Appeal, the artistic label that has partnered with Hip-Hop legend Nas.
That connection led to Cortes doing a model of a classic boombox radio for the cover of DJ Premier’s EP, Hip Hop 50: Vol. 1. In March of this year, four of his works were sold at a special Sotheby’s auction of Hip-Hop related items with one item selling for $2,200. The aforementioned restaurant replica? It was purchased by Joel Ortiz, for a price of over $10,000 dollars.
“He has really captured the grimy, gritty atmosphere that was the birthplace for a lot of the ’90s style of hip-hop music,” said Monica Lynch, the former head of Tommy Boy Records and a consultant on the Sotheby’s auction.
Cortes is pressing on with his art, aiming to document his beloved Bushwick where “there is a lot of change” occurring. As the neighborhood’s reputation as an artistic haven grows, so do concerns about gentrification having a serious impact. But he sees the changes as a good step. “I think it’s good, I think it’s safer, even though Bushwick is always gonna be Bushwick,” he said. “There are more opportunities.”
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