We also had the knowledge of self era with gangstarr,poor righteous teachers,public enemy etc.
We had the era of funny punchlines from rappers like Fu-schnickens,common-when he was common sense,and those cartoon dreads Das Efx[yeah you got me i was a fan].
Now we have the generation of the hustler, the pioneers of this era are: P diddy,Jay-z,Master P etc.It was these rappers who ushered in the generation that wanted what was owed to them
everyone had business cards that said CEO of blank____ records I should know I had one my label was Stratagem Records how ignorant I was[laughing]. While I like to bash rappers these pioneers I must give credit for opening our eyes we were sick of being employees and wanted to be the boss, ceo etc with the birth of:
Rocafella records/Def Jam,Ruff Ryders/Def Jam,Murder Inc/Def Jam,Cash Money/universal
we started to look like bosses even though we were still slaves to the labels we just had better business titles it felt good. One thing those record label names had in common they were all / [slash] something else yes people they were all owned by the four major labels[sonybmg,universal,EMI,warner music] the parent companies aka the real owners of the masters and catalogues as good a business man Jay-z is Def Jam still owns his masters[why you think he's CEO he's working to get them back]as many labels rappers had they dont control the distribution network http://top40.about.com/od/popmusic101/tp/majorlabels.htm
so they were just high paid slaves who owned nothing.With the aid of technological forces like Napster[which was the george washington of the music revolution],
You-tube,& Myspace,the power is back to the people
it's like 1865 all over again this time it's the slaves of the record industry that are being freed.Think about it Cd's are a thing of the past we don't need distrubution we have sno cap and itunes,we don't need MTV,BET or even radio we have the almighty internet where millions of people can hear your music and see your videos.The big 4 record labels are irrelevant and albums are dead the single deal is back remember buying those single lp's with the accapella,instrumental,and bonus track on the B side, those days are back the only thing consumers will now pay for is a concert and the artist is the primary beneficiaty of that revenue. Look at Prince protesting his record label by not making records,changing his name to a symbol and writing slave on his face himself because he said he was a slave to his record label.
They later released him from his contract and he went on to do something brilliant his new album Musicology came with the purhase of his concert tickets and went multi platinum of which all that revenue was his,
[oh yeah soundscan try to stop prince's sale strategy effing haters]
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1488027/20040528/story.jhtml
it's not like artists are gonna miss the 10 cents an album they were getting. I trade stocks and there is no coincidence that the only publicly traded music label is Warner Music real investors don't respect such an unprofitable business
[watch the cnbc warner music interview http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=398235335]
Warner Music is one of the worst performing stocks sorry Kevin Liles like the book though [http://www.amazon.com/Make-Happen-Hip-Hop-Generation-Success/dp/0743497368]So hustlers I'm not knocking your hustle I'm just telling you to change your products you hustling put down the white girl [that Lindsay Lohan] and start slinging ringtones,itunes and global concerts in asia now thats the china white I'm talkin bout LOL."Remember the golden rule people he who has the Gold will rule."
$$$MaxamillionDolla signing off
