/ / JoJo: "My situation was not the same as Taylor’s" (We know. It was MUCH WORSE.)

JoJo: "My situation was not the same as Taylor’s" (We know. It was MUCH WORSE.)

Are folks really comparing Taylor to JoJo?!
JoJo has responded to a fan, claiming that her record label drama was worse than Taylor Swift’s AMAs situation: “My career is far from ruined. And my situation was not the same as Taylor’s - the players are completely different.”

She's right. It’s almost insulting to compare JoJo’s situation to Taylor’s. Barry Hankerson acted like a damn tyrant when he bound her to a contractual imprisonment nightmare with Blackground Records for so many years. His behaviour towards her plight was purely diabolical. He is a giant piece of dog shit for doing what he did to her. Last week, Taylor accused Big Machine of trying to stop her performing tracks from her first six albums at tomorrow night's AMAs. In case you didn't know, Big Machine owns most of Taylor's music. Her first six albums were released through Big Machine, which was bought out by a company owned by talent manager Scooter Braun earlier this year. She claimed the label thought the performance would amount to a re-recording. JoJo recently had to re-record her entire back catalogue so she could once again reap the financial benefits. It seems Taylor is probably going to do the same once she’s legally able to do so.

Taylor also accused Big Machine of holding back permission to use any music in an upcoming Netflix documentary about her life. Scooter Braun says him and his family have been receiving an excessive amount of death threats. Perhaps this was Taylor's intention in an attempt to get him to back down. You don't publicly use your largest social media platforms to beg your fans for help (so you can perform your own music) without being aware of the severe consequences. Of course her fans will act aggressively, and death threats would ensue. Taylor practically and irresponsibly used the same bullying tactics as the ones she accuses Braun of using. Years of "incessant, manipulative bullying" is what she accuses him of, and yet, she used that very same playbook to get things to go her way. It worked. After reaching out to her fans on social media, Big Machine says she didn't need their permission in the first place to perform her old music. And now she's allowed to play her old music at the AMAs after all. Yay.

In all seriousness, I don't care for Taylor's music, but I do feel bad for her. When JoJo faced this and worse, nobody channeled the same energy. It made me sad. She was a lesser known artist who didn't even enjoy a fraction of Taylor's success despite being ten times more talented. Taylor is a global superstar, so she can make all the noise she wants and it will resonate. I remember hearing JoJo’s re-recordings for the first time and feeling sad because of how mature her voice sounded. Those original recordings had that youthful innocence to them, which could not be emulated in a re-recording many years later. Can you imagine if Britney Spears had to re-record all of her old albums just for licensing purposes? Hell f*cking no. Indeed, Taylor's story is no where near as tragic as JoJo's, but it's good that massive names like Taylor and Kesha are bringing widespread awareness to these industry injustices.

JoJo also performed a set at Out magazine's Out100 event presented by Lexus on November 21st, 2019 in Long Island City, New York. Here are some recent pics:
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