John Givez Responds to Ruslan's Video with His Own Explanation

A few days ago, John Givez made a long post (post below) about a “nameless” person who he alleged wronged him in business concerning contracts and his future signing with Interscope records. Putting two and two together, it was quite obvious he was talking about Ruslan and King’s Dream Entertainment.

Ruslan responded with a video to the post showing all his notes and documents showing that Givez was getting the money he said he wasn’t and explained the business decisions behind what he did. Read some of the highlights of that video here. (Full video at bottom of post)

John Givez returned to Instagram, this time in a live, to respond to Ruslan’s video. He disputed some of the things Ruslan said, admitted a little ignorance on his behalf for some of the time, and also holds no animosity.

Some of the details of the video:

Initially, Givez said he agreed to a four-year contract with Ruslan, but thought it was for management. After releasing Soul Rebel in 2015, he started being courted by major labels. He was given short form agreement by Interscope for six figures.

Looking back at his contract with Ruslan with a lawyer, Givez now had some questions.

He said they go back and forth on the agreement and claimed Ruslan said he wanted 40% of advance from the label and 20% as manager. “Can you explain what you will do with 40%?…it’s for my career,” he asked Ruslan.

Givez didn’t think that Ruslan deserved that much. He then said something to the effect of, “Don’t hoe me” and Ruslan said, “John I’m trying to build an entertainment company.”

Eventually, what was settled, was settled as evidenced in Ruslan’s video, and Givez had to sign the Interscope deal so he didn’t lose it.

“There’s no bad blood…I’m just trying to tell my story,” said the rapper.

Additionally, Givez confirmed what Ruslan said about him being unaware he was getting the 50% of the record from 2016 to 2018 as Ruslan showed in his video because he thought he signed a 100% masters to Ruslan agreement. Givez claims he’s only been receiving that total since 2018. Ruslan commented that he’d be willing to release his 1099 and PayPal receipts to prove it.

He’s grateful for Ruslan giving him 100% but feels it’s now a lost window because of the life of album cycles.

At the end of the day, John Givez is happy where he’s at now and holds no ill will to Ruslan. In fact, he wishes him and his family the best and says he wants Ruslan “to eat” too.

View both posts below:

View this post on Instagram

STORY TIME. In 2011, a year after high school I was fighting a drug case for possession with intent to sale & burglary. I ended up paying for a solid lawyer & getting a years probation. I knew I had too much potential to b wasting life in & out of jail so I got wit this positive Hiphop group called theBREAX & we became tha dream junkies. It was cool at first because I was around dudes that would encourage me to stay out of that life and make music. Fast forward a few years and we touring all over America. Shit is goin great. it was “family business” so I thought. Then things took a turn when tha spotlight came on me & major labels started reaching out. I noticed what I thought was “family business” was in fact JUST business. soon as tha money came I was taken advantage of by a dude that shall remain nameless. He basically put me in a position where I felt like he was trynna prostitute me & my artistry. Me being me, I couldn’t go for that. So boom, now I’m signed to a major label but still stuck in a contract with his entertainment company. His terms were he keeps my masters from tha soul rebel and four seasons albums and he’ll let me out of my contract. Bullshit, I know. After going through that I was really cool off rapping. Mainly cuz I didn’t wanna come across bitter in my music. I started making more r&b music to try and get over tha misfortune I felt “positive” rap brought me. Meanwhile tha major label is waiting for me to rap my ass off cuz they knew I could. In my rebellious ways I couldn’t oblige. My A&R & I would go bac & forth about it for pretty much tha duration of my time there. He would say you have rap fans so RAP. I just couldn’t get with it out of fear of being taken advantage of again. But you know what they say.. FEAR is false evidence appearing real. So fast forward to today and I wanna give clarity to those of you who found me cuz of my raps & were disappointed when I stopped really giving u rap material. I also wanna thank those who stayed down thru my journey. I’m bac rapping & im having fun with it! I’m working on a rap album. Uncensored & fully me at this point in time. Stay tuned… I hope this don’t go over y’all heads ???

A post shared by magicjuandando (@johngivez) on Oct 28, 2020 at 10:27am PDT