Page 7:Carlton laughs coyly, her eyes twinkling a bit. "But he totally won me over in the end. What realy got me was that he's more of an intellectual than anything else." Carlton sasy that early in their relationship , Jenkins handed her a copy of J.T LeRoy's Sarah,and suggested that she read it. I was like, "He's existing on another plan,' and that was very attractive to me."
Jenkins became Carlton's creative partner,co producing her sophmore effort, 2005's critically acclaimed,though commercially unsuccessful, Harmonium
"Thank god for Harmonium" Carlton says. "It wasn't the biggest record in the world, but it was the foundation for this album. It was like a fork in the road and i could go one way or the other,and i chose the harder path.I've been able to really establish an aesthetic for myself, and i wasn't compromised. There's this quirky, classical pop thing going on with my music, and there's a real purity there that can instantly be tainted by any element that's being built to sell records. I hit a point where im like, 'I have no problem walking away from all of this. Unless this feels right, I'm not doing it.' And i found this clarity in myself and the kind of music i want to make.
Carlton's refusal to compromise her art prompted her to walk away from her deal at Interscope and search for a new label.
In 2006 during a meeting with Universal Music Group CEO and Chairman Doug Morris, Carlton was introduced to her future label head, Irving Lorinzo, aka Irv Gotti founder and head of The Ink Records, the label that oversaw the careers of platinum artists JaRule and Ashanti.At the time Gotti was finallizing a deal to house his imprint at Universal and attempting to rebuild his empire after being acquitted in December 2005 of federal money-laundering charges brought aginst him and his brother,Christopher. Gotti had just wrapped up a meeting with Mel Lewinter, Universal'a CEO, when Senior Vice President of A&R Jolene Cherry invited him into Morris's office to hear Carlton play.
"I saw Vanessa, and she looked familiar, but I didn't know her name," Gotti says at his Midtown Mahattan office. "I didn't put the pieces of the puzzle together. She got on the piano and played this record "Hands On Me," and i started going crazy,like, "You're the fucking shit! I've never heard anything so hot!" Gotti says with a laugh. "She was looking at me like 'Yo,this dude is fucking crazy.' So after I was done ranting and raving, she started playing "A Thousand Miles" and I was like 'Oh, shit!" cause that song is in the movie "White Chicks" so i was like,"Yo, you're the fucking white chick! People in the hood love your shit!' So I'm looking at Jolene Cherry, ans she's like, "Irv, why don't you sign her?" But I was like, "She don't wana be with no hip-hop gangsta-rap label..."
Gotti was wrong. Carlton called him expressing intrest ino signing with him, and the two arranged to meet for dinner. "I said, 'Yo before we even move forward with this, Google me cause there's a lot of shit with me. Get all the information and think," Gotti says."Then we went to dinner agian, and she said, 'I don't care what anyone says. The reaction you gave me at the meeting, I've been waiting for that my whole life. I believe in you, and I want you to guide my carrer." I signed her right there."
"I call him Ganesh," Carlton says of Gotti."In Buddhist mythology Ganesh is a warrior who never gives up, and he fights with with a smile and wins through positivity. I love being surrounded by that. Irv is my warrior.
Although it's an unexpected match both Gotti and Carlton are ecstatic with the in-studio chemestry they've created. "Everyone is curious," Gotti says, "They want to see if i've taken her the Nelly Furtado or Gwen Stefani route,but I didn't want to do that. Vanessa is very much and artist's artist.She's very into her art and how she wants to present it to people,so what i had to do is find the magic in what she does. I'm not into changing artists. I believe to sell the most record you have to give people the inner you."
