BOBBY VALENTINO LEAVES DEF JAM....

Bobby Valentino has left the Def-Jam distributed label Disturbing The Peace (DTP). He says he left to his own accord (though I am finding that very hard to believe. It was previously reported that both he and Shareefa faced the chop): "The decision to leave [the label] was totally mine. I sat down with Ludacris and Chaka Zulu, and I explained to them that it was time for me to venture out on my own. They had no problem with it; they are cool with it, no beef at all". Why he'd do that when he was about to release his new record 'Come With Me' in 3 weeks has left me quite baffled.

If he didn't get dropped (which I doubt), does he actually realise how hard it is to get a record deal these days? Unless you're Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey or any of those other Veteran acts, he could end up on a bootlegged label (like *cough* Myspace) with a dingy budget and a piece of string for promotional gain. If he wasn't happy with the way he was being handled, I guess you can't knock him for wanting to depart ways (he did bitch last year that Ne-yo got all the preferential treatment). Good luck to him either way.