Moving to quell a year of turmoil, the new chairman of Time Warner’s music division Wednesday dismissed Doug Morris, the chief executive of the division’s U.S. operations.
Michael Fuchs, who became the chairman of the Warner Music Group six weeks ago after the ouster of Robert Morgado, said Morris was leading a campaign to destabilize Warner at a time when it was under intense pressure because of its involvement in gangsta rap music.
Several record executives said Wednesday that Fuchs’ move could set the stage for a change in Time Warner’s policy toward rap.
Morris is one of the company’s staunchest defenders of the gangsta genre, which is known for its sometimes violent and sexually degrading lyrics.
With Morris out of the picture, these executives said, Fuchs may find it easier to distance Time Warner from gangsta rap-perhaps by selling the company’s 50 percent stake in Interscope, a Los Angeles label that distributes hard-edged rappers like Tupac Shakur and Snoop Doggy Dogg.
But Fuchs said his decision to discharge Morris had nothing to do with his views on rap. He added that Time Warner had not yet decided how to respond to critics like Sen. Bob Dole, the Senate majority leader, and William Bennett, a former Cabinet member, who have called for the company to stop distributing this type of rap music.
“When I got here, I discovered that this place was becoming organizationally dysfunctional,” Fuchs said. “My decision is not just based on my observations over the past six weeks. This is a situation that has been simmering in the music group for more than a year.”
Indeed, Morris has been at almost constant loggerheads with his last two bosses, Fuchs and Morgado. In recent weeks, executives familiar with Warner Music said, Morris had been agitating to be promoted to chief executive of the entire division.
Morris declined to comment Wednesday on the circumstances of his dismissal.
In addition to its three American record labels-Warner Brothers Records, Atlantic, and Elektra/East West-Warner Music has a large international arm and owns music publishing and direct-marketing companies.
