Kareem “Biggs” Burke is the latest in a long line of Hip Hop elites who are finding themselves having to defend or reject the musings of Kanye West seemingly every other week.
Recently Biggs Burke spoke with TMZ to offer his take on West’s latest attempt at free thinking, those ‘White Lives Matter” shirts he had people rocking for Fashion Week. Biggs was a co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records along with JAY-Z and Damon Dash, the first label to sign Kanye West.
“I condemn the shirt,” Burke told TMZ. “That was born out of something else. Obviously, All Lives Matter. I think that’s what we should concentrate on, not the fact that somebody in Black Lives Matter may have stolen some money, and the movement may have taken a left turn somewhere.
“We should focus on the lives that were lost and the people that were hurt and all the injustice that’s been done. To be honest, the t-shirt hurt, and all the injustice that’s been done.
“You know, I love Kanye, and that’s my brother. I’ve always supported him. But I just think that even if his mind state was that Black Lives Matter was something that was handled improperly, the genesis, where it came from, with George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. The injustice is you know, we’ve got people that were killed, police brutality and so forth.”
Biggs Burke, who is the manager for Grammy Award winner Saint Jhn, also had a few things to say about their label, HitCo, selling their masters. In a recent interview, Burke accuses L.A. Reid and Charles Goldstruck of bad business because they didn’t tell Burke and Saint about what was really going on until it was too late.
“We were signed to HitCo, Saint was working on his last album. We didn’t know the company was getting ready to sell their masters until it was too late. We were hearing rumors of it, but it was being denied,” he explained in an interview.
“When we found out it was actually being sold, we tried to step in and say ‘if you guys are gonna sell, we would’ve wished you would’ve come to us.’ Charles, the one who seems to be leading that venture. Him and L.A. are partners. But, then they said it might be too late.”
