Rap Music is the new american meal ticket. Every since the emerging of rap music in the 70’s, with the Sugar Hill Gang, rap music has been a
staple in the black communities quest for fame and fortune. But, the opposite has been going on since its main stream inception. Black artist have not seen the best of times with the corporations they worked for. Many black artist were given crappy deals which lead to them being broke in the long run. It wasn’t till you had guys like Russel Simmons, Eazy E, J Prince, Suge Knight, Master P, Sean Combs, and others who really sought to own and control the label and the music they were putting out.
Most of the music is distributed by corporations who are ran by white men, and these men have no real connection to the culture. White male executives in hip hop seem to have total ownership, and control of the masters and the music. One music executive Bryan Turner, said of the rap group NWA, “I know white kids in the suburbs, would love to hear the message being spit about the life of black urban youth in america. ” So, with the help of groups like NWA, artist like Easy E, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Master P, and the whole west side squad, Priority Records went on to sale and distribute millions of records which is some of the most prolific music in rap history. Bryan Turner and his team became some of the richest executives in rap music back in the 90’s and early 2000’s before cashing out.
During the early stages of these artist careers some where given bullshit contracts which couldn’t even help keep the lights on. As you seen in the movie Straight Out of Compton, Ice Cube had to go into Bryan Turner’s office with the baseball bat to get he just due due to inaccurate accounting with his royalty checks. But, things like this was the norm in the music industry when dealing with these label executives.
Another major player in the white mans paradise of black music is Jimmy Iovine who was instrumental in helping Death Row records become one of the most highly selling labels in music history let alone rap music. Rick Rubin, Lyor Cohen, Jerry Heller, Bryan Turner and other white music executives have helped to put black music on the map making billions while some artist were living hand to mouth with bad contracts.
Rap music afforded these white executives the opportunity to make an incredible living off black artist while most artist in the music industry lived broke only pretending to be rich, while just gaining fame as a measuring stick for wealth.
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