X Factor’ winner James Arthur has been fired by Simon Cowell from record label Syco, according to reports. The move came over references to committing a terrorist act in one of his latest tracks and Cowell thinks that James has pushed things too far this time.
“It seems James is self-destructing. He has done himself no favours with his outbursts. It’s as if he’s almost willing Syco to drop him. Simon and Syco have been extremely loyal to James throughout his problems but there’s only so much they are prepared to put up with.”
In mixtape track Follow The Leader, James raps, “Look at what you do to me, I’m crying over stupid s***, you’re such a f***ing homophobe, wish I’d never let you in, to think that I was thinking maybe I should let you live, I’m gonna blow up your family like I’m a terrorist.”
James has already taken to Twitter to defend the lyrics, stating that they are actually taken from a letter from a demented fan. “The song “follow the leader” from the mixtape is not promoting terrorism, it’s a story, a reciting of a Stan Esc letter from a demented fan,” he tweeted.
However Simon and the rest of the bosses are having none of it and James has been given his marching orders.
“He’s blown it now. James was given a lot of special treatment that no other artist signed to a record label like Syco would get. The top bosses there were prepared to go ahead with another album and try and rehabilitate James with the public. But he had to be prepared to actually change and take some responsibility. He’s made it clear that’s not going to happen. It’s a very sad and messy way for this to all end.”
What happens next for the X-Factor winner remains to be seen; its not clear if he has any offers from other labels or if he’s going to go it alone and see what happens. Whatever his plans, it’s clear that if he is going to get the backing of another major label he’s going to have to compromise and change his ways some bit if he is to survive in the industry.
(Images and source article Huffpost, Tumblr, Twitter, Fanzone)
