Sunday, January 09, 2011

You Know You've Made It As An Artist When...

...you set the reward for your stolen laptop at $1 million. If you didn't hear the original story, R Les was out on the town on October 23rd in Cologne, Germany at a nightclub called Loom when his laptop (mac book) and external hard drive were stolen out of his car. In response, @RYANLESLIE quickly took to the streets and put out a YouTube video offering a $20,000 reward for the return of his stolen tools. In the video he mentions how much he loves touring Germany and how the intellectual information that was lost included many of the tools that contributed to his success. At the end, he also mentions the email address he set up for any tips or information on the whereabouts of it (ryanleslielaptopreturn@gmail.com)(see video below).
When a couple of weeks passed without a significant lead, R Les was prompted to up the ante from $20,000 to $1,000,000. Say WHAT?? $1 million? Now I'll be the first to admit, if I had a hard drive get stolen, or even worse one of my external hard drives, I'd be wrecked because so much meaningful stuff is saved on there, but willing to pay a $1 million to get it all back is a steep price you'd think. Still the bounty was upped and very publicly, too, with another video and verse dedicated to the event...
"Said they tried to take a piece of me,
Out in Cologne, Germany...yea
So if you're wondering where I am
Then look for me in Rotterdam
Said they stole a little piece of my heart
So I'm on my way to Stuttgart...yea
Find me outta next words?
When I finish with them in Frankfurt"
Evidently not though, as he then later divulged that he'd been secretly recording his album Less Is More and all of the tracks were on his laptop/external hard drive. Ouch!

But like everything with $1 million bounties on it, the laptop/stolen bag finally turned up this week when a man name Bernd P. (name changed) "found it while walking through the forest in Stommlerbusch, near Cologne" (HAH!) (Source Bild.de). With the goods safely returned, Hip Hop and fans of R Les can breathe a sigh of relief and hope that all of his intellectual property was kept intact. The only things that remain to be seen now are 1) Were the contents of the laptop/hard drive copied prior to the return of the laptop (wouldn't be fun to see his new album slowly leak) and 2) Is he going to pay the $1 million reward for the return of his stuff. While the answer to number 1 remains to be seen, he has yet to pay up for the return of his goods prompting a bit of an uproar as Bernd P. is reaching out to media outlets for coverage. For example, deeva-tude.com is shining light on the story as well as the website sosickwithit.com (who has been in touch with Bernd) is reporting that there is in fact plenty of reason why the laptop reward was upped to $1 million, as it may contain a whole lot of personal stuff, *secrets* that could be of worth to Ryan. We'll see where this all goes, but the story has yet to have a conclusion and I for one am pretty pumped to hear his live instrumentation driven new album Les Is More.

Bonus: Check out his recent performance with Kanye at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC where he spits his verse off Christina Dior Denim Flow...

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