Record Labels: The Biggest Scam in Hip Hop 

True!!!

Just one of the many reasons I left corporate and went full time into day trading. It's amazing how much you realize you don't need a 9 - 5 when you discover how to generate your own income without needing other people.

Bingo

This is very true

This is exactly what people are talking about when they say "seize the means of production". What the business world calls "profits" is actually wage theft. Literally money that is taken from workers by underpaying them for their work, and is instead funnelled to the owners and executives of that business. The only way to prevent that is for the workers to own their place of work or to do everything yourself.

Master P has more in common with a label head then an artist. He literally had a squad of artist that he could point at & say "these guys will generate millions for years." Also he sign the 80/20 deal with priority records which gave HIM the masters. He's literally the only who got paid in No Limit. Homey is just the Puffy of the South.

@@maximbelmont4641 Lmao! Well said.

Kanye

Finesse

How did Frank do that without getting sued?

Young legs young heads get the higher ups more money and more willing to do whatever to get that paper

Exactly.....

they are actually getting older. back in the day they had small kids now it's older teens. I think ppl stop pimping their babies out

Predatory.

@@bajabl student loans

Nobody really is into exposing country and rock music but I’d love to hear the stories thou

Facts. The Summer Walker part had me interested i had no idea before this video

Frank Ocean, Taylor Swift every genre has cautionary tales!

Facts doesn't matter the language

word

its crazy because NO ONE talks about it, the man really finessed the game to the fullest

@@DWhite205 of course no one gone talk about this. It’s damaging to all record labels no matter how prowess their history with these artists is. The best artists signed, especially in the hip hop genre is: artists who hate education so bad, and appease to the dangerous environment that they choose to love living in. No reinforcements to divert them from the street, all authoritative figures in their personal lives are blatantly occupied. These are facts so as for Frank Ocean, a lot of people don’t know this, his mom is a businesswoman and has had a cosmetic establishment way before Frank was even born. Look it up I’m not making this up. So these labels will NEVER go after the parents or potential artists, who has a status like that. It’s easier to go after the one who HATE they jobs and will do anything to get out of the “hood” even if it means sacrificing the happiness of they own children. So shout out to Frank ocean and his mom. And my condolences to bruh.

@@DWhite205 they don’t wanna put it in the textbooks lol

They don't talk about it cause more artists would do it frank is the goat for it

Tons of industry artists talked about it. As well as this page themselves y’all sleep

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WUynLg_K-O8.html it’s finally getting reveal

Yoooo I heard they only got back 50k a year for 2 years after getting nearly 4 mil 😳 shiddd I’d be pissed too having to pay back all that

Isn't TLC a cooking channel

If you honestly believe that TLC is one of the biggest acts ever, you may want to consider broadening your musical knowledge because they are not. Yes they were popular for a time, yes they had some hits, but to say that they were one of the biggest acts ever is laughable at best. Think….really think of all the music groups out there or were out there, and go back a little further than the 90s and early 2000. Maybe think outside of just hip hop and then try saying that they were one of the biggest, 😂they will never be in the hall of fame either

What’s your ig? (I’m deleting this comment if you respond)

@@chip9589 HustleHardTony

@@chip9589 liar

My homie told me he went to school wit his sister. U are speakin facts!!!!

How isn’t that indie?

Exactly. You also need to have GOOD CREDIT to get that kind of money from the bank. How many Americans period have strong enough credit history for that?? He is the exception.

@@KilwaKMusic3O1TrippYMVTT it is, I'm just saying comparing Russ to the average independent artist and being like "you can too!" Is kinda misleading

Show proof.

Bro listen to chomp 2 it's an secret album of the year

Yo I own all my shit I’m currently on no record deal 3 look me up

even better if they’re not signed at all or just with a distribution deal like Bones’ deal with empire where the label doesn’t even hear or see the music till it’s ready to drop & they have no say in it

Facts 💯

Like some ppl said b4...owning something not worth much...what's the purpose?? Its not even that serious. Thats what an advance is for bruh. Owning your masters ain't that serious

Yeh

On God😂😂 like calm yo ahhh down😭😭

Underrated comment

This

💯 💯 💯 💯 💯

I’ve been saying this !

Damn

Facts, don't forget E-40 !

@TuPerra Ma Dre know the story. Chamillionaire explained it. The record label (I believe it was a distribution company because he had his own label) tried to charge fees for the stuff master P paid for out of his own pocket after his successful album and tour runs. Master p thought since he saved them money they would give him the difference plus what he was owed for sales. They said no and knew he wouldn't have the capital or connections to prove it in court. P had the receipts and he knew they would be so greedy that they would loan him money again so he could have another successful run for the label. P said he had more artists and things he wanted to do, so they gave him like 30 mill to handle all these artists and projects. P just walked away with the money and there was nothing they could do about it because P had the receipts if they really wanted to take it to court. All the artists he signed may have felt robbed but oh well. Lesson: Everyone thinks that reading and understanding the contract is all you need. You need money to hire the people to enforce the contract. This is why labels like all these new poor wack rappers. They can forever sell you another artist while ripping them off because the artist is usually very poor. All those houses you see artist in are some rich white dude collecting rent from the artist they forced through contract to be there. It's a giant greedy game of thrones.

@TuPerra Ma Dre everybody say that once they blow all their money 💰🤑lmbo

That was different, he had start up money in his pockets and he still dealt with labels. Priority distributed his cd's

All he did was copy Michael Jackson. MJ laid out the blue print. P just bit the idea. Same way he bites other rappers lyrics and album names and damn near anything Tupac did. Only thing I respect about P is his money.

You can hire people who have these connections etc. but definitely a lot more work in being independent.

0p0

Honestly, find the people who work at that and hit them up on IG, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. The same with the people around them.

Look up Money mans interview on saycheese He got rich before he started rapping He put 250k of his own money at the start to market his career and he took off Blogs, worldstar etc

Its the reason, however hard it is, we need to look at our art like a business and treat it that way. Take time to find a good co-founder/business partner...someone who is willing to study and learn the industry. There's enough hangers on who call themselves managers/team but havent attended a single workshop or conference in 12 months. If you have someone you have taken time to vet, who is willing to learn the industry you are already 50% there. And also...music industry sucks in general

Doing everything together

@@YoursTrulyRob i feel you it jus be hard to find people to genuinely rock wit you when you making music. Trust me

@@YoursTrulyRob I guess you didn't get the video... There is no together!! You have to do it alone or you're gonna be getting cheated out your money dude

Trying man, definitely trying, good luck to each of us in their own hustles and creative processes

Like Russ lol

They get imprints, and even those usually are majority owned by the major. For instance, Lil Wayne only owned 49% of young money, Cash money owned the other 51%

@@FirstnameLastname-yc2mt and whoever owns 51% or majority is the legal owner. it don’t matter if you own 49.9999% of the product, if you don’t own 50%, they own you.

@@twentyoneHz there are operating agreements you can sign to settle certain matters. But, essentially, yea, whoever is majority shareholder is technically the owner.

The biggest and best get set up and cancelled and imprisoned and broke.

@@slim420MM because of not using there own mind

Sadly you're right.They'd get the advance and head into the first jewelry store to get ''iced out''.

@@todorivanov2652 it’s the lifestyle that gets pushed; I think many people can say that they’ve thought of having that type of life as well. That shit really isn’t worth it, compared to what you could get after really owning it

As long as you're smart, you're good. Nothing wrong with a record deal. To each their own. What fits 1 won't fit another, so it is what it is.

And when you start making serious bread, hire another accountant to double check the figures.

Not just any accountant, a cpa

@@naturallyeccentric05 what’s a cpa?

Audit everything

don’t worry he’ll never get a deal to sign 😂

All ppl gotta do is read for this to stop

Same about athletes.

Hip Hop is the culture, Rap is the genre.

Nothing wrong with labels bruh. Its just business. Gotta be smart about it. It is what it is.

yo momma

Record labels in general need to. Anybody that’s stood up or outsmarted ends up ridiculed on tv and eventually dies

Thats with any genre bro….they in it for them not the artist….

Ye everything has a connection

This has been happening decades ago

💯

Q-Tip's knowledge will be cemented in hip-hop culture til the end of time

I don’t even listen to the Tribe and that’s my era but that line will ALWAYS stand out lol

but you don't... stay independent.

Don’t be stupid. Stay away from the small hats.

You don't have to be good. Most of mainstream music today are garbage 🗑. They just have to choose you, to promote. You can make the best music. But without marketing and promotion it's nothing.

@@KingBabaJames facts I started doing music and learn this. Music is all promotion nothing else.

@@keem7910 I’m tryna put out a bunch of music out first, then focus on straight promotion of my brand. That way people discover my catalogs

Been thinking this for some time, glad to see someone with this idea. Music hasn't got bad trough the years like a lot of old people say, but you can tell there's a serious lack of soul in most of the songs, specially since the 2008 crisis. People do not realize how expensive is to produce good quality music, there's education you have to take for that or have the time (not have a job) to learn it by yourself. With music we are hearing normally someone's else experience/feelings, and nowadays they come from boring middle-upper class people with their most wild experience was a trip to paris. Hard to find an artist who couldn't pay the rent or worked 60h at mcdonals. They're just part of the elite. All good, professional looking, respectable boring people.

BETTA GET UNDER THA RIGHT UMBRELLA..

Clearly, this is a complicated issue. Russ isn’t teaching a financial literacy course; he’s just giving people advice.

Yeah, I been seen through some of Russ bs. Most of his shit I believe...although the difference with me is I respect other's mind and business...unlike him. But other times, he do be saying bs Just to try to over-prove his point.

@@KhidrJoseph Giving people bad advice because doing what he said is not as cut and dry as he tried to put it. Most rappers who are trying to come up in the rap game would get laughed at by a bank if they tried to do what he said.

Business credit not personal credit

@@axolb8806 I didn’t say personal credit. A business LOC is actually far more difficult to obtain than a personal LOC too.

FACTS!!!! white privilege 🤣🤣🤣

Fact he doesn’t understand because he white black people cant get Loan like that 🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️

He just say shit that sound nice lol

He had a rich friend so he wasn’t independent he friend invested in him

To be fair he said he took that route after he had made it.

There is more to it than this! You better have a big ass budget for yourself and still pray somebody buy ur song. The thing is a artist can’t do it by themselves u need a TEAM and if u want to reach certain heights you need a machine

1 word....Relationships

@@derrienscott23 Exactly

@@derrienscott23 exactly! A team that would be doing research for you, build relationships, does marketing and take care of your financial system ect… An artist can’t just do all by themselves. A team your trust is a must.

@@derrienscott23 bro you low key dropped a bar with that last sentence lol 👌🏽

Unfortunately….. this is facts

Straight facts 🔥🔥🔥🔥

All you gotta do is have more than 2 million in your bank. Easy.

@@emceeunderdogrising 😭😭

As you clock in for your 9 to 5 you all getting mad for someone who is richer than you will ever be lol

True

Bing bong

Not true, viral songs usually blow up independently then a label comes in with an offer

Olivia rodrigo was put on by disney since she was a kid, same as miley, selena and others, but you right on Yb and lil nas

Olivia fraudrigo Disney plant🤮🤢

It's not as much of a scam as it is a business looking out for themselves. If you sign a bogus contract, that's on you. The artists need to have their own lawyers and *negotiate* , otherwise, they will sign bogus contracts. The same for sports, that's why athletes have agent's and often hold out for better contracts, or if they don't get a good one, sign elsewhere. These guys gotta stop signing just because a contract was put in their face

@@FirstnameLastname-yc2mt yeah... it's a scam. They need to keep exposing it. Upcoming artists need to know there's other ways. When they're young and broke, they don't have access to that type of lawyers, probably why they take the ones provided to them. And when they get signed they have no way to know if they're gonna be successful or how big they're gonna be so they will most likely always take the advance money and the cars and willingly enslaved themselves for the decade to come. I'm sure there's a way for the labels to make profit without screwing the artists over. It happened to too many artists to say that's just on them. From MJ, Prince, TLC, ... the part where they keep the artist in debt so they can keep recouping from the artist out of pocket expenses, seems like a scam to me. Once those practices become common knowledge and people still signed those 360° deals, then we can say it's on them.

@@lilyluh @lilyluh you undermined your argument by saying the artist doesn't know if they're going to be successful or not. 90% of artist don't make the label any money, that's why you see the big time acts constantly exposed. It's not because they're just so popular they get pushed as much as they do, their income is needed to cover the other 90% who don't make money. Additionally, you sound juvenile saying they'll take the advance and cars. An advance is a loan, so they probably shouldn't go and get custom jewelry, and the cars they can sell, actually. They want to live lavishly, which is part of the problem. And stop saying "enslaved" I'm tired of black people calling everything slavery, I'm assuming your black. Work hard, it's slavery, sign to a sports team, it's slavery. Sign to a label, it's slavery. Slaves could be beaten, legally killed, raped, have their children taken from them, lived in poor conditions, ate the scraps of animals, had to ask permission to leave the property, were the property of another human being. Signing a bad contract doesn't make you a slave, it makes you stupid. As far as the artists you mentioned, idk the full context of their deals, but Mj died with a net worth of $350 mil I believe, TLC is a group and money has to be split up among the group members, that's why Ice Cube left NWA cuz he realized he could make more money as a solo act. The music industry is a shady business, and they'll throw in whatever they can to make more money, but it's not illegal. Something that's a scam is illegal, if an artist reads the terms and conditions and agrees to sign it's not a scam, because the details of the deal were in the contract. A scam is something which is purposefully misleading, and 360 deals exist today because no one buys CDs anymore so the label needs a way to recoup money from an artist. As I stated, its up to the artist to negotiate. If a deal is that bad, then don't sign. A label can offer you anything, but if I can sell ice to an Eskimo I'm not scamming anybody, he knew what he was getting

@@FirstnameLastname-yc2mt 90% seems like a lot of bad artistic and executive decisions on the labels parts, but I will assume that you know what you're talking about and leave it to that. So it is juvenile to recognize that it is human nature to be swayed by huge flow of cash and shining objects, especially when you come from nothing? Now you sound clueless. If you can give me another term that explains best the concept of working your ass of, giving your best, your talent, your skills, only to see someone else reaping the benefits and giving you peanuts for your hard work, I'll be glad to use it from now on. A scam: an illegal OR dishonest SCHEME.

@@FirstnameLastname-yc2mt if after you sold him that ONE ice cream the Eskimo has to keep paying you or providing with the ice and the flavors for your ice creams, you pretty much scammed him

cool but how many artists in any genre getting mainstream shit without label? not so many at all

@Wolfgang Rotz he does have a point though. Your average person won't be able to get a 500k credit line approval from a bank especially if their credit isn't good. Russ is already a multi millionaire so the bank knows he'll be able to pay it back so it's not a big risk for them

I'm a bit skeptical of this... Banks look at your stream of income. If you make 100k a month legally they will give you any massive line of credit. I can't see any bank not giving Jay-Z or Diddy a huge line of credit because they're black. These institutions care about 1 color and that's green. Unfortunately, people who don't make a ton of money believe on that level that they'll let racism stop them from making money. As long as they're able to make money they don't give a shit if you're even a pedophile or a murderer.

Race has nothing to do with your potential success as a independent artist, there are literally tons of examples of successful black independent artist. It's just that some artist take clout over money and would rather sigh than build from scratch. All the excuses made in this video for why artist don't go independent are false. It's really just ignorance of the business and fear of failure. This is literally the best time in music history to do this shit yourself.

@Wolfgang Rotz Wolfgang Rotz Bla bla bla sis boom bah shut you corny ass up race and racism is real and as the other commenter said they would give Russ the money off GP because they know he could pay it back

@@liveking12 name a hyper successful independent black artist?

2021 VISION 🤔

2022 VISION BIG FACTS ....(ANYTHING) THEY WILL KNOCK YOU OFF 🤷‍♂️

Don't play their game, it's rigged anyway! How about performing live? Come check us out.

They didn't have to they make a foolish choice

Tonekqua Jones whos side you on?

@@brown-eyedcheese5440 both and I don't blame her. Everyone in the industry could've finesse but they didnt

Their dumbass fault

There arent any sides its all business

Cool story bro

DAMN....ive seen first hand what they do to thirsty ass women , even male artists! hope yeen get caught up in them mansion parties and being passed around like all the others smh wicked game if yeen got SELF RESPECT & MORALS.....FUCK THE GAME DONT LET THE GAME FUCK YOU -Nelly

What’s up lemme learn from ya then

Always own ya masters, neva give them away for peanut promises

Please tell us more

how you even got a record deal with 73 subscribers bro

@@LeonithOneil cuz he don't lol

@@wazzupmydawgz60 bros most viewed song Has like 2000 views he got no damn deals

U mind sharing what he said 🤔

@@theodorerobert6579 right. Not saying it wasn't possible. The connections I was talking about were movie producers, writers, advertising deals w/ business folk. The thing that broadens the artist music above the music industry. Signing with a major record label, you can become huge internationally in under 3 years. (Depending how hard they work and how talented they are) of course, record labels have its cons. But so do independent artist / labels. An independent artist reach isn't the same as the major record labels. Not to say independent don't have pros either. They get most of the returns. Although, typically, it takes them longer to be noticed worldwide.

@@theodorerobert6579 it's not that easy though

@@theodorerobert6579 aint no way that 60% who listened to your song is gonna pay 1 buck for it. In 2022. Come on

@@theodorerobert6579 when did u bought music of off ur first listen? Even if its 2 cents ppl need to be a fan to go trough the process

@@theodorerobert6579 when did u buy a piece of music for the last time. And if u need four listenings that means that u get a quarter of what u just named, if everybody does it. Artists make money of touring and merch. Selling music doesnt make enough profit Edit:spelling

Almost no artist owns their masters though.

Kanye can buy them they just don’t want to sell them to him, i think Jay z was in the same position

Ok

@@21_God nah Jay-Z bought his years back for like 5 million.

@@ygo900 naw Jay spent the $5 million to buy his out of that last album on Def Jam. He owe them one last album...and because he was still a 'CEO' at that time L.A. Reid basically gave him his master's afterwards. I'm pretty sure we both know Jay master's would be worth more than 5 mill.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WUynLg_K-O8.html it’s finally getting reveal

Isn't there some company that provides that service to artists? Seems like in the woke era there would be.

A lot of rappers are literally just young men coming from nothing so dangling shiny things in front of us works quite often unfortunately

Why they gotta be stupid for?? Its business. Everybody has their own business mind and situation. Its not a 1 size fits all shit bruh. Stop listening to bs from ppl like Russ and them. Cmon now

These rappers know what they're signing,but cry about it later.

Calling artist Stupid it’s extremely naive of you

yup...stupid, broke, greedy parents

fr thats insane

Funny Artist like Young Dolph and NIP HUSSLE who was pushing independence with a strong blue print always seem to get murdered in their own hoods?

What does that mean?

So, it's easy to get a loan if you don't need a loan. Brilliant.

@@selanryn5849 well if you listened to that one dude, that’s how he got it.

@@selanryn5849 if u peep n learn more ironically yea lol

Ain’t with a secured line of credit you only spend your own money you put in?

Exactly but people don't like Ak even when he speaking facts!

Russ teaches every time in his ig and interview it's just industry don't want to show you the rap. Pages tbh

People should just sit down and dedicate a bit of time to research.Because everything is out there,it only has to be looked for.Stories of bad deals,contents of a typical record deal contract,ways in which they can fuck you over.It's a matter of wanting to learn.

Why would you give your competition free game.

I will say artist being in dept is terrible and shouldnt happen. But i dont Necessarily believe the order should make the most money off their music.

If they actually read that piece of paper and listened to almost every artist before them, they wouldn't be getting "robbed"

If producers only sold exclusive licenses, they'd be missing out on $, though. Everyone and their mother wants to make music, and unsurprisingly, a lot of these people are just not good - but they'll still pay for the beats.