"There is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child's God-given potential."

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Sunday, January 9, 2011

So You Think Rappers Have Money

Who are the biggest names in Hip Hop? Jay-Z, Kanye West, T.I., Lil Wayne, Eminem, and Snoop Dogg to name six out of maybe ten or twelve at the most. Now all of them represent what percentage of the entire Hip Hop community? Let us say, 2%. The top money makers in Hip Hop represent 2% of the population but roughly 90% of the income that the comes into the Hip Hop community, leaving all the other independent artists and major label artists whose buzzed died the day they released their first single comprising the other 10%. These numbers tell us that you have a 2% chance of becoming a success as a Hip Hop artist and a 98% of failing; failing being in the sense of “breaking even” because you have to give the label back the money that is put into your album. You have a better opportunity of completing a four year degree and obtaining an executive assistant position than becoming a rapper. So why are so many in the Black community compelled to become a rapper? If we look at music from a macro level, there are rappers and singers WORLDWIDE, and out of all those billions of musicians, only 2% actually are signed and 1% become a prolonged success. These numbers represent all non-collegiate positions that require the utmost, perfect skill instead of intellect to succeed. So looking at these odds from a logical standpoint, what would be the reason that a person in the Black community, a community within one of the most devastating deficits in the educational bracket, not want to aspire for a college education and garner an upper management position? The executive and upper management positions are the label executives, owners, lawyers, marketing directors, and business consultants that hire, manage, and delegate not only the artist but the entire label. The rapper is just the marionette, bounded to a contract constructed by guess who? The upper management and executives, who may I remind you have the college education. So therefore guess how the contract is going to be constructed? In the favor of those who can understand it. And those people are? You are catching on, the upper management and executives. If you listen to many of the musicians who have managed to withstand the test of time in the industry, what has been their major fault why their album success does not match their financial success? The way they did their business. And why is that? The lack of education. These artists, from Lil Wayne to G-Unit, have been raped of their reaping because they did not know how to decode “ambiguous language” in a contract, or even better know the tectonics of business in general. I know everyone has heard this phrase from one of your favorite artists: “The industry is crazy. The industry is twisted. The industry is out to get you.” Now analyze this: How come it is only people in the Hip Hop community saying these things and guess what color they all are? Not white… The industry, game, jungle, whatever you want to call it is not out to get anyone. These buffoons just do not know the meaning of “business” since they have been “in the streets” all their lives, and now that someone is getting the bigger end of the stick they want to call it crazy, twisted, or against them. It is none of that, and not even close. It all comes down to the lack of education. If Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, T.I., or any other idiot in the Hip Hop community took a Business 1, Economics 1, Accounting 1 & 2, and Business Law class, then these fools would know the rules of the game. But they did not, and because they are ignorant to the basics, they blame the label executives who have the education and know how to wheedle those underlings who know nothing about nothing, and legally.
So many Hip Hop artists are exploited, and not by the label. They exploit themselves and their people every time they open their mouths and put out an album. What is the word to describe their fellow male companions? Nigger. What is the word to describe their Black women? Bitch. What is the motivation behind everything that they do yet only 2% actually has a decent amount for a Hip Hop artist (because the money Hip Hop artists make is nothing compared to Pop stars and Country music stars)? Money. All that rappers speak about are money, killing niggers, and fucking bitches. Now ask yourself this: “Who told them do this?” No one! No one told these rappers talk about their people in the lowest form possible; they just decided to do it themselves. They want to hate their people. They want the White race and the Asians to believe that all Black people are dregs. They want their people to be suppressed by society and looked at as animals. I mean how can you confute that? It is touted in their videos, their songs, and throughout BET and MTV2 like a cavalcade. There is no convincing evidence to prove that rappers want the best for their people. None! So let us say some rappers have foundations that give back to the community. So! They still go back and make an album that calls a Black woman a bitch, a Black man a nigger, and ballyhoos that all that was in the name of Benjamin Franklin, A WHITE MAN.
And then you have the college graduates. The label executives standing back and doing what? Two things: one watching all of this going on and rooting the rapper on because guess what? These rappers are Black and the label executives are White. And if the label executive is Black then their owner is White. So a Black rapper talking about killing some NIGGERS is not harming the White race a bit. Which leads me to two: the label executives allow this buffoonery to commence because guess what? They are reaping a hell of a lot of money out of all of this. Too much to tell the ignorant rapper to stop denigrating his race and talk about something more uplifting, like getting a college education. But then you have the rapper, like Jay-Z, Nas, Lil Wayne, or T.I., who knows what they say about their people is debauching and DO IT ANYWAY. Yet in a song they will tell the youth do not go down the same path they went. WOW! Leading by example.
But what befools the Black community the most is that when a rapper takes on a business venture, or is endorsed by a company, they believe that the rapper concocted that business deal. WHAT!? How more idiotic can you be believing someone who does not even know who is the obligator and obligatee in a contract is, can contrive and close a deal with a multi billion dollar company? When a rapper dwells into a strategic alliance with an affiliation, nine times out of ten the person that brought forth that endeavor was a representative of the proposing company, a business consultant, or the manager of the artist. And always after an artist has ventured into a business deal the people developing and executing the day to day operations of that plan are lawyers, accountants, marketing executives, and production managers, all college degree required positions. Many in the Black community believe that the artists are making things happen and jumping into these business deals solely off the grace of their knowledge. Yeah right. No one in their right mind, especially with a college degree, would have anything to do with these people if they could not make a profit OFF OF THEM. And no way do these people possess even the modicum of knowledge of how to operate a successful business. There is always someone with a college degree delegating the “do’s and don’ts” of business behind an artist. This facade that 50 Cent created or solely invested in Vitamin Water (which manufacturer is really Energy Brands founded by J. Darius Bikoff who actually owns it) on his own intellect is ludicrous. The belief that Sean Combs, Shawn Carter, and other rappers have established these businesses just by their lonesome and is solely operating them is buffoonish. There is an entire production team with degree on top of degree making their business operate smoothly and it is them who make you believe that the artist is running the show. The artist is just the spokesperson. Without the people with degrees they are nothing.
And last what drives so many in the Black community to look up to the rapper anyway? They are a deplorable person putting more harm unto their community than the slave masters who whipped the slaves for reading. The Black youth should aspire to be the business graduate who SIGNED the rapper, or the attorney who CONSTRUCTED the contract that the rapper is bound to, or the marketing executive who is EXECUTING the rapper’s campaign so you know who the rapper actually is? Or how bout the radio station owners who CHOOSE which artists and songs that they will play on the radio? See who all these people are that tell the rapper what to do. No college education, no authority. And the Black youth want to be just like him.
http://www.nypostixzz1ARmjmjrd
This link lets you know college graduates and not Jay-Z is behind his business ventures.
Jay-Z stake in Aqueduct slots deal draws scrutiny

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