Now you know!

In 1999, Alicia LEFT Columbia Records with Clive Davis. As they tried to keep all of her music that she recorded with them, they finally allowed her to leave. She disliked Columbia Records because they wanted to mimic her as a Mariah, Jlo, and Whitney but she didn’t want to be like that so she left with Clive. It was an interesting situation.

Sarah is right, Alicia did not get dropped, she asked to leave because Colombia wanted to box her in and market her similarly to other popular R&B divas at the time (btw Sarah never said Whitney was on Colombia). Colombia however, did not want to let her go, but they also didn’t want to let her do her music her way, so they tried to keep all the music she had recorded, but luckily Clive Davis managed to step in and buy out her contract from Colombia.

A similar situation happened again, when Arista was forcing Clive out, Alicia had to make a choice whether to stay at Arista or follow Clive to J Records, which she decided to do. It is well documented, in various interviews with Alicia herself as well as with many record executives, that she was never dropped from any label, but rather chose to leave for a label that would allow her to express who she truly is as a singer, song-writer and musician.