Gyantunplugged.com is opening up to the idea of attaching guest bloggers to the site. I think we all know how opinionated I can become, so I think offering up a few guest blogger opportunities would keep things fresh and exciting. And since we keep it real around here, Guest blogger K.I.M. aka “Keep It Music” has a few words for artist who insist on suing their record labels over unhappy contracts.
But first check out who K.I.M. is.
Allow me to introduce myself, my name is KIM… K to the I M (in my JayZ voice) lol!
I am a fan of Music, a hip hop baby; I’m probably friends with your favorite rapper, and definitely friends with your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. Some of my friends work at labels, run labels and/or have their own label. I have participated in and/or overheard conversations about this business that would surprise you all. I’ve seen things happen that surprise me still.This will not be a gossip blog per se’. I’m not biased nor will I favor any side artist or label I’m just here to share my opinions. I’m here to talk about MUSIC, everything involved, included and surrounding it. To my industry friends; if you’re my friend you already know I’m REAL and I’m going to speak the TRUTH even if it bodies you, if you are offended, it’s just my opinion and we all have them. If you’re no longer my friend after this then you never were. So let’s have fun, chop it up and Keep It Music.
Seems like every time you turn around someone is suing a record label for royalties, etc. And I know some people want me to address the most recent filing that we heard about right here on Gyantunplugged with Yung Joc suing Block Entertainment and Bad Boy Records ( I got your messages).
While.I’m not going to talk about that situation, and it’s not because Jasiel aka Joc is my friend cus’ if he does something in the future; trust he will make this blog. It’s because he’s not really considered a new artist and from what he told Gyant his beef is more contractual than anything. I don’t really know the particulars but i do know that a lot of times when cases/lawsuits are filed people like to “stack the deck” so to speak similar to the way a district attorney would add charges to an indictment to later drop them.
Anyway…my gripe is with NEW Artists suing record labels and let me explain why. Now I don’t condone anyone taking advantage of someone else, especially when someone is ignorant on the topic but like they say in court, ignorance of the law (or contract in this case) is not a valid defense.
Attention artists the record label is a business designed to make money not a bank!
How the hell can a new artist come back and sue a label for money or whatever when they agreed to the terms of the contract when they signed the deal? If you don’t understand that contract ask questions until you are blue in the face, who cares who gets mad and all that black line stuff, GTFOH they explaining shit to me or I ain’t signing nothing. The music business is like venture capitalists hell I call them vulture capitalists because they know the artists is starving to get on and will do damn near anything, just like a thirsty dude on a bad chick (and I know a few thirsty dudes cus’ many consider me a bad chick, he he he).
If you knew your shit was SOO hot, you shouldn’t have taken that advance money!
Believe in yourself and get yours on the back end. Let’s be real here; more than half of the time these new artists are from financially challenged households (n*ggas is broke), most have little or no formal education (drop-out) and many don’t have skills or a formal trade. So tell me what type of job would they have really been doing?
Now for the artists that say they were getting it in the streets, our “duffle bag boys”, get the f*ck out of here, half the time they’re lying because they know damn well they wasn’t moving any weight. That dope dealer story line is the most over-used, bullshit bio story in hip-hop. Every dude says he’s “the man” in his hood, then when you go to his hood, dude’s a nobody, LMFAO!
Do we really expect these rappers to say, “before I got on I was just a nobody, I mean people knew i could spit but i ain’t really have no shine.” Lol! Picture that shit! So they create the “hood-tales” to create an image they think will sell records (we gonna’ talk about that more later on another day).
So you got these artists, the label creates the hype, puts up the money and makes the artist “famous”. The biggest misconception in this is that “famous” means they got paper…NOT! In most cases new artists don’t make much money (on a side note, $60k is more than they would’ve made anyway, what’s the going rate at Popeye’s?) but on rare occasions they do.
I know a rapper who came out and made over $2 million his first year, then he turned around and sued the label. Are you f*cking kidding me? Dude’s family was stinking! Now he screaming the label made such and such amount off of him and he wants more money. WHAT!!!! If this n*gga worked at Delta could he come back and sue them after they released their quarterly earnings ‘cus they made too much money? GTFOH!!!!!
How many aspiring rappers would sell there 1st album for $2 million cash? You supposed to be a rapper, can’t you write some more shit? Why mess up your situation with the label by talking all this greasy shit and suing them. Sometimes it’s okay to take a loss and considering your ass was broke $2 million ain’t much of a loss is it? If dude was never signed where would he have worked to make $2 million in 1 year, shit he probably wouldn’t have made $2 million in his life! And I ain’t even counting the show money! I ain’t saying no names but it’s not hard to figure out who I’m talking about, after the lawsuit he changed labels, his next CD flopped, he went back, he was dropped and now he’s over.
Moral of this story…..Read the contract and stop bitching…this is a bizzzzznessss man!
K.I.M
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Giving a voice to guest bloggers is a refreshing and welcome addition to GyantUnplugged! Congrats K.I.M. (from 1 of the REALEST “realists” 2 another) *TWO thumbs↑ much luv !!
New Artist are suing these labels they are not keeping their end of the deal. they sign these artist with a promise to release their music to the masses on a major scale promise a certain amount of videos, radio play and basically promising us the world and then when we lose that buzz we have or we don’t record the type of album they trying to shop they throw us on da shelf violating their end of the deal. A Record companies main focus should be feeding the artist and keeping them happy. Instead the goal this day and age is to turn all artist into something that will make money regardless if that is their style of not. I agree with the fact that your saying these artist should read their contracts but lets be real they wouldn’t have a case to take to court if the companies were not just as guilty as these stupid artist for not reading the contract at the end of the day the game has changed for the worst and I just want people to start to realize that good music will return when people aint worried about numbers
DjEfscusive I agree with you to a certain extent, the label’s focus is to turn artists into something that will make money regardless if that’s their style or not BUT, the main focus shouldn’t be feeding the artist and keeping them happy; that’s the job of a Parent, life partner, provider.
Again, this is a business man!!!!! They do make promises to market, release videos, etc and in more cases than not if the artist doesn’t pop they get shelved but my concern was about the money side of it. Usually the artist suing for additional money doesn’t complain about the contract.
Thanks for the comment and maybe we’ll address the other stuff that you’re talking about in a future blog.
First, I’m loving the guest spot, K.I.M.! But about your post, I definitely agree. New Edition may have had the excuse back in the day of getting into a bad contract because they were young, didn’t have the resources to get info, and just saw dollar signs, but this ain’t 1983! Anybody can walk into Barnes & Nobles and get a copy of Record Contracts for Dummies! Besides that, there’s the internet. There is a wealth of info to be found on the world wide web. Not to mention, if you’re a true artist on your grind, then you keep ear to the streets and you hear/read about other artists getting screwed over. That’s your clue to do better when you get on deck.