Jorjiana didn’t rush into picking a label.
The Michigan rapper, who exploded on TikTok and had her big break last November with an On the Radar Radio freestyle, chatted with Complex’s Jordan Rose about her brief but intense label decision period. Jorjiana remembered getting contacted by 30 labels within just one week of her OTR freestyle dropping. She made a list of all the offers and brought in an entertainment lawyer to help sort things out. A “few artists” also reached out to the “ILBB2” rapper with advice.
“I could have made the wrong decision if I didn’t listen to them,” Jorjiana explained. “A week goes by, all the labels hit me up, and then I have my first label trip. I was sending everybody off because I’m scared to fly. I’ve never flown before. But one offered to fly me out [to LA].”
Although the rapper had a “great time” with the LA-based label, she turned them down before heading to New York to meet with more companies. It wasn’t until she got back to Michigan that Jorjiana made up her mind “within a month.”
“I waited like a month and a half to sign my deal. I didn’t want to wait too long, and I didn’t want to sign fast as fuck, just fast to get the money,” she admitted. “My first offer was bullshit. My first offer was $15,000 in a marketing and recording budget split in half, no advance. I ended up with some crazy shit.”
What drove Jorjiana’s decision was wanting “at least $50,000” in her signing agreement, even though her lawyer suggested she could get “way more.” “I don’t care about the money. I want longevity,” she revealed. “So I want the best team that I can have. And if I’m signing to a group of people, I want that team to be able to talk to me. I want us to be civil.”
Jorjiana added, “I want us to have a connection because the more that I do for them, the more they do for me. If I show up, they show up for me. So I went with the team who I felt I could best bond with and who also do a good job at what they do.”
So far, Jorjiana Baby’s deal seems to be working out well – she’s collaborated with GloRilla and Babychiefdoit on different versions of “ILBB2” and dropped her new single “Wok Sauce.”
