by Keith Nelson Jr (@JusAire) November 16th, 2013 @ 3:36pm
(AllHipHop News) Last night (November 15th), some of the founding members of Wu
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(AllHipHop News) Last Friday’s (November 15th) screening of the Ol’ Dirty Bastard documentary Dirty Platinum at Brooklyn Academy of music went from a celebration of the life of one of the most celebrated figures in Hip Hop history to a near violent mess. During an interview with XXL, NuHo Film Festival’s owner, Chris Kanik explains how the alleged greed of ODB’s family is what kept the documentary from being screened.
At the event, Kanik informed the packed crowd that the film would not be shown due to the lawyers of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s estate filing a cease and desist order. However, in his interview, Kanik reveals that he knew of the cease and desist order a full day before the screening was supposed to happen and attributed its failure to ODB’s family’s “greed”.
I thought everything was handled, and then 24 hours before the event, their lawyers contact us again and start spelling out all the money and damages. It’s an issue of plain and simple greed. It’s plain and simple greed. These people are not interested in enhancing the legacy of ODB, they’re more interested in putting up front money in their pockets.
According to Kanik, he was under the assumption that Raison Allah had secured all the rights for the documentary he brought to Kanik in March due to the fact that some of the documentation had the signature of Icelene Jones, ODB’s widow on them. Kanik alleges that ODB’s son, Young Dirty Bastard sent text messages to Kanik demanding $50,000 and a percentage of the DVD sales. Kanik offered the estate and ODB’s family 25% of all the money made from the film and was allegedly never counter offered by the family.
The family has not issued a formal comment, countering Kanik’s claims.
(AllHipHop News) Threats, misinformation and entitlement are three themes that permeate Icelene Jones’ response to Chris Kanik’s retelling of why the screening of the Ol Dirty Bastard documentary Dirty Platinum failed to come to fruition. In an interview with XXL, Jones spoke on the legal issues that prevented the documentary from being screened, the inconsistencies in NuHo Film Festival’s owner’s Chris Kanik’s story and more.
The documentary Dirty Platinum was scheduled to be screened on the late rapper’s birthday (November 15th) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Kanik maintained that he was notified about a cease and desist order placed on the film by ODB’s estate 24 hours prior to the screening. However, Ms. Jones claims Kanik knew about the order “2-3 weeks” before the event:
It wasn’t a last minute thing. The communication has been very clear. The letter didn’t go out the day of, this is something that’s been going back and forth for a while. And that’s what they tried to make it seem like�"like Icelene Jones messed up everybody’s good time and stopped everybody from seeing the film.
Both Kanik and Jones agree that the family requested up front money for the rights to ODB’s likeness, image and music. However, whereas Kanik viewed the request as “greed”, Jones’ manager Melissa Jacobs believes the estate is entitled to such compensation:
He’s turning this into a personal thing. We asked for money up front. We are the estate of Russell Jones, we have been appointed by the courts. You’re using his birthday, you’re using his picture, you’re promoting this event, you’re promoting this website. Then when we ask for compensation he’s trying to make it sound like we’re asking for something we’re not entitled to have.
Jones also refutes Kanik’s claim that he offered her and/or the estate 25% of all the profit the documentary accumulated.
Check out the full interview
