UMG Finally Obtains Def Jam

Universal Music Group has completed the process of assembling the record industry's| largest music conglomerate by finally closing their deal to buy Def Jam Records.

Def Jam had been holding out, demanding the hefty sum of $100 million for the remaining forty percent of the company they didn't already own, which is a great deal higher than the $33 million Polygram (now owned by UMG) paid for the original sixty percent in 1993.

Russell "Rush" Simmons is expected to stay on as Def Jam's chairman, with his CEO, Lyor Cohen, running Universal's urban music dept. As a show of just how important an acquisition this is to UMG, it's been decided that Universal's recently merged Island-Mercury group will now be known as the Island-Def Jam group.

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

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