What They'll Never Tell You About the Music Business

by Peter M Thall

  Laws, priorities, rules, regulations, technology, and perceptions change so fast that to indicate one state of facts existing at the time this book is composed is most likely to not resemble the same state of facts existing at the time of publication—or for that matter for several years thereafter. The Flo & Eddie claim described above is one example. Another involves streaming. Streaming services are becoming so widespread in the second decade of the 21st century that standards and customs are still being worked out in the marketplace. As of 2015, most streaming services paid about 10% of their total revenue for the reproduction and distribution of musical compositions. Apple, in its wisdom, and in part to put itself on the map—being a bit of a latecomer in the field—pays one-third more. These disparities are bound to reach an acceptable level over time. The parties need not conspire illegally with each other for rates to coalesce to an essentially identical number. The market will lock in a standard. A download cost of $0.99 was established only by Apple several years ago, but when other companies entered the field, at first every competitive service also chose $0.99 to consumers. Then competition pricing began to appear with $1.29 becoming the expected price for a new release or a hit sound recording for download purposes. These things are not forced on the public; they establish themselves.

  The parallel between this “discovery” of rights that had never before been acknowledged parallels what I discussed earlier in this book regarding whether the three-year statute of limitations on federal copyright infringement renews itself on a continuous basis and that the statutory provision does not refer only to the initial three years of the claimed infringement. Two enormously surprising decisions that, if affirmed on appeal, will mark the most profound changes in the law of copyright in decades.

  18 • URBAN MUSIC

  The Beat Goes On

  The Music Business is a cruel and shallow money trench.

  A long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.

  —ATTRIBUTED TO HUNTER S. THOMPSON

  Beating on a beat box—making a snare and a kick drum—that people can rap to. What else do you want? What else do you need? On street corners—starting as DJs—promoting others’ music and then making their own. Rhythm is the beginning and rhythm is the end. Provided it’s new. And has never been heard before! Can you believe that DMX went platinum (1 million sold) bootleg before it hit the music stores. Why? Because it was so different from everything that came before. This is the currency of hip-hop! Make them hungry. Establish the buzz. The fans are no slouches. They know what they want; they know what they hear; and they know what they see!

  ROOTS

  First, a little history. In 1984, Harry Belafonte produced a small film, Beat Street, which featured urban ghetto kids break dancing, painting graffiti on walls, rapping, and generally developing a musical style that was light-years from what had gone before. Fast cuts by the camera, head spins, windmills, even some pop lockin’. What was this music? Surely, its origins and references (rhythm and blues) were well established and even mainstream by the time this seminal film was released. And maybe that was the reason for the explosion into a new dimension. But hip-hop really started much earlier.

  A wonderful website www.​B-Boys.​com traces the evolution of hip-hop from Kool Herc, in 1973, so-called father of hip-hop. Born in Jamaica in 1955, he introduced to New York the raw rhythms and structures that we know today as hip-hop and laid the foundation for the Break-Boys. After Kool Herc came Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in 1979; Kurtis Blow, Afrika Bambaata, George Clinton (and his funky contribution), Ice-T, and Michael Jackson’s legendary moonwalk during the early 1980s; Salt-N-Pepa and Run-D.M.C., N.W.A.’s gangsta’ rap, and Tribe Called Quest, followed by Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., Missy Elliot, and Lauryn Hill in the 1990s. An array of adventurous and talented groundbreaking artists, including Eminem, 50 Cent, and Kanye West, bring us to the 21st century, and the explosion of hip-hop and rap’s influence, which extends beyond the world of music. Hip-hop is a genre of music, to be sure, but it also represents a culture that defines urban life as much as urban life defines it.

  THE MILIEU

  At first glance, the world of hip-hop seems to be very different and to operate by different rules than the pop music world. Seemingly, one would need a cultural historian, a psychiatrist, and a translator to make sense of it. But the essential characteristics of the music business—minus a few idiosyncrasies—are no less applicable to the world of hip-hop than to other kinds of music. The same concerns facing the pop artist and songwriter—the same copyright laws, the same laws of contract, the same federal and state income taxes, and the same international treaties—are faced by hip-hop artists, although often these artists do not realize that the models applicable to the pop music business apply just as much to hip-hop. (Reportedly, Cheryl James of Salt-N-Pepa was surprised at the consequences of contracts that she and her partner signed. “We never even thought of a lawyer,” she stated when testifying against her record company.)

  That said, it must also be acknowledged that the musical vocabulary of hip-hop—and R&B and rap—is different from that of traditional pop songwriting. Whereas the rest of the popular music world divides songs into music and lyrics, and customarily collaborators will be credited as having written “words and music,” in the hip-hop world, songs are divided into three parts: the track, the melody, and the words. And true to the traditions of Tin Pan Alley in the 1950s, everyone involved in producing a hip-hop song tries to get his or her name into the authorship list—whether they are true contributors or not. This is not only because there is a lot of money in music publishing and writers automatically own part of the copyrights of their creations. Being one of the writers has something to do with pride of authorship as well; the entire team of people who participate in creating a musical work in the hip-hop area see themselves as cocontributors and being named as an author is merely a manifestation of this phenomenon. Even the musician who creates an incidental keyboard part over the background track will claim to be an author. In truth, in the world of hip-hop, in contrast to the rest of the musical scene, the keyboard contribution alone can make or break a song; it can be the single defining contribution that justifies the creator’s rise to the level of author. Thus, with a hip-hop song, it is likely that from five to ten names will find their way into the authorship list, often including writers whose works were recorded and released years earlier but whose music has been sampled.

  This is a world of emergency lawyers, late-night calls, tinkering and manipulating with sounds that can date a song as being old-fashioned or mark it as the latest thing simply on the basis of a “sample.” Hip-hop represents the nanosecond when a member of a disadvantaged community explodes into mainstream society. And, as with any immigration or emigration from one economic or social community to another, this migration carries with it all of the attendant dangers that such moves engender.

  The music of hip-hop, because of its very reason for being, is on the cutting edge of the culture. It is a fast-moving art form that changes almost daily. If a record is not catching on in the clubs or at the radio stations within two weeks, many record companies will simply kill the record and release something new, no matter what the financial consequences.

  The artists bringing you this music change almost as rapidly. From Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. (both of whom were killed—possibly by their compatriots), to Lil’ Kim and Busta Rhymes, who, mere weeks after their stars had begun to climb, were referred to by insiders as the “rap elders” as Nelly’s debut album passed theirs by in an extremely brief period. The speed by which these transfers of status occur is mind boggling.

  Beyond their charismatic live appearances—on- as well as offstage—hip-hop musicians are very well schooled in the rhythms, riffs, and songs of the ’50s and ’60s. The phenomenon is mostly black, but, as we saw with Elvis, The Beatles, and the Rolling Stones, music that or
iginates in the black community does not stay there for long. At this writing, Eminem, of course, is still the breakthrough white artist who has emerged to express the hip-hop ethos.

  URBAN MUSIC: THE PRODUCER’S COSMOS

  The current trend toward producer-driven music makes the producers of this music as important as, or even more important than, the artist. This oddity creates a lot of different priorities, methods of payment, and abuses.

  On the positive side, the team effort of the production company, writers, producer, sidemen, and artist constitutes a real creative effort. The contribution of the production company is much more visible here than in the pop world. The logistics alone of creating tracks and adding melody, raps, ad-libs, and instrumentation—often seeking the input of musicians, producers, or rappers with a reputation—is mind-boggling.

  On the negative side, particularly in the touring area, there has emerged quite a lot of violence and a not-so-new phenomenon in the live performing world—the unscrupulous promoter. With a few exceptions (noted below), hip-hop touring has been a bust, with the unfortunate result that new young hip-hop artists do not have access to the traditional avenues to long-term success.

  The urban music market is so huge that the record companies have begun to invest massive amounts of money to claim their fair share of the charts in this area. The producers, alone or through surrogates, create tracks by the dozen, called “beats.” They often incorporate samples. The artist essentially shops for a beat that he or she likes and adds his or her own rap to it. This is an electronic world and very little music is produced acoustically. The artist is the only real, live, contributor to the sound.

  DIFFERENT STROKES FOR HIP-HOP FOLKS

  “Guerilla” Marketing

  From the beginning, hip-hop and rap have used unconventional ways to reach their target markets. For example, record companies or producers often hire groups of kids—known as “street teams,” to sticker as much of the city as they can afford to. They will paper the side of a van and drive around; they will go into the clubs at night and hand out flyers; they will “snipe” any blank space available on the side of a construction site. You have all seen them. The artist’s representative builds this kind of promotion into the recording and distribution agreements. Who should be in charge of the process of establishing street teams? The artist, producer, or manager—certainly not the record company. Why not? It is not that the record company is not capable of doing so, although mainstream record companies are not likely to be as effective as someone who is part of the community. It is, rather, the resistance of eventual record buyers to the image of corporate America doing the promotion. In addition, some of the things street teams are asked to do are illegal, but the underage kids who are paid a few dollars to snipe the city are not as likely to be arrested. And these kids are the ones who congregate in the areas where the promotions will be most useful.

  Among the production companies known for their use of guerilla marketing teams to establish artists’ popularity and credibility perhaps the most celebrated was Notorious B.I.G.’s Undeas, which gave New York City’s Junior M.A.F.I.A. (Masters at Finding Attitudes) almost instant notoriety.

  Bootlegs

  Bootlegs. The anathema of the music (and film) business. But wait. Can bootlegs help build a artist’s career (and the attendant profits of the artist’s record company)? Sure. Some record keepers note that hip-hop sales are higher in white America than in black America. But what they fail to note is the fact that in black America—particularly in the communities of New York, Los Angeles, and Florida—there is a preponderance of bootlegs over ordinary commercial copies of records. The Midwest has no bootlegs, so the only way to acquire this music is to buy it. So the SoundScan numbers that show that the majority of buyers of rap music in Wisconsin are white are misleading. The truth is that blacks in Wisconsin are as, or more, likely to possess hip-hop records than the white population. They just acquire them differently. Rapper “Cheech” reports, “They say White America is picking up our rap? It’s not true. Everyone’s picking up our rap.”

  White Label

  What is a “white label” recording? Just another means of promotion. Preferably, the recording is a lousy copy, with no artwork, but it’s fresh, and it’s hot! A producer of white label recordings is happy to sell a few hundred copies and go home. Maybe he’ll give them to the club or radio DJs, who then bootleg them if they’re half good. White label recordings (actually mixtapes) contain more than one track. They are akin to compilation records, but the songs tend to blend into each other. Something new is actually being created and duplicated in a wholesale way without anyone’s authority or any documentation establishing ownership. Illegal? Sure. But so what. In fact, even the artists’ record companies have been known to turn a blind eye toward white label recordings and actually encourage them because they reach a market that the record companies could only dream to reach.

  The Rap

  If anything distinguishes hip-hop, it is the rap, the sometimes mesmerizing poetic, lyrical monologue we have all heard. There are many varieties of rap. For example, in freestyle rap, the artist raps spontaneously, without prepared lyrics. Freestyle rap, which is common on the streets, is also an exciting characteristic of the MC battles between and among rappers. People always want to know if a rapper can freestyle. Not all rappers can. Freestyle lyrics are not listened to and absorbed in the same way that the traditional hip-hop lyric is. The message of the traditional hip-hop lyric is more important than the beat, and the rapper who communicates best is the rapper who will succeed in the commercial world.

  In the world of hip-hop, the power of an artist’s rap—the words and the rhymes—determine whether the artist succeeds or fails. Artists in the R&B genre do not have the rap to fall back on, and their music, more than hip-hop music, tends to achieve immediacy and relevance via image and style. Of course, looks and style are also an essential element of hip-hop, but a compelling rap can transcend a less-than-powerful image.

  Ironically, the more successful the rapper, the more likely he or she is to slip into the mainstream and move away from themes born and nurtured in the inner cities, concentrating instead on a quest for money and success. Such a shift in focus, no less than overexposure, can damage a rapper’s image. Rappers who become celebrities risk being branded as sellouts.

  Production Costs

  One of the major practical differences between hip-hop music and other forms is the cost of recording. Budgets for one hip-hop track can exceed $100,000; the cost of an album-length CD can run over $1 million. Included among these costs are the costs associated with sampling. In fact, sampling costs are where recording budgets often go off the track. It is difficult to estimate what those costs will ultimately turn out to be, and the contract is usually signed after the samples are already in place, when it is too late to make a change in the track. Since the records are producer driven, the producers or production companies can retain as much as one-half of the gross royalties paid by the record company plus a flat fee per track of as much as $100,000.

  Royalty Points

  Royalty points in hip-hop contracts are also higher than those in hard-fought, highly publicized rock and roll deals. Further, the control over the points and the artist is often in the hands of the producer. The record company neither speaks the language of the artist, nor is it particularly trusted by the artist. Indeed, the artist often does not even meet record company personnel: the producer or manager or independent label assumes total negotiating responsibility and forms the only connection between the hip-hop artist or group and the record company. This one-step-removed line of communication, in which the artist or group is not a part, makes the connection between the artist and the record company, already tenuous at best in the pop field, even further detached. It completes the alienation that naturally results when people do not physically relate to one other. Ironically, this alienation parallels the detachment that motivated the artist in the first place to ex
press him- or herself through the hip-hop genre.

  Sound and Lyrics

  Hip-hop producers, like rock producers, often establish a distinctive “sound.” Since the beginning of rock and roll (or at least since Phil Spector and his “wall of sound”), individual producers have had their own sound. To capture and to replicate this is the key to continuity and continued success. If Jermaine Dupri’s sound guarantees sales and attention, why not stay with it?

  Much of the hip-hop lyrical focus is shocking. Many who hear hip-hop lyrics for the first time come away with the impression that the only purpose of the words is to shock, and that therefore the music is not art. For those who think that a piece of music (or a painting, or any other creative work) with shock value is somehow not art, I submit a story about the internationally renowned Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971). Stravinsky was asked what he thought of a work by the American composer John Cage (1912–92), which contained six minutes of silence. (Cage’s work was at the time considered avant-garde). Stravinsky said that he looked forward to Cage’s next work, which he hoped would be even longer!

  RAP AS PROTEST

  Rap as protest—protest against violence, unemployment, lack of opportunity—is alive and well even as it incorporates other styles featuring more melodic lines. It is also often “anti-”—antiwoman, antiestablishment, antitradition, and sometimes anti-Semitic. The advocacy represented by the rapper’s points of view is repeated over and over again in different ways and finds an ear not only in the black population, but in the white, suburban, well-to-do population as well. The ultimate consequences of this commingling of cultures cannot be all that bad. The protesters of the ’60s, while never fully realizing their dreams, made their point and the consciousness of our entire society has changed as a result. What societal changes are in store for us in view of the protests of the new century are obviously speculative, but changes there will be, and some of them will certainly be the result of the consciousness raising effected by the widespread communication of the hip-hop generation’s messages to the world at large. One rapper, when asked why there was so much violence at hip-hop shows, referred to the fact that the things that make the youths in the audience angry at their situation in society are the very things that are pounded at them by the rappers. Since hip-hop constitutes an expression of what the audience itself is living, and since the subject matter is not saccharine material like that of the pop (read: bubble gum) world, the audience is naturally engaged and, sometimes, aroused to the point at which violence regrettably can and often does erupt.