Transcription
This is a conversation with me and Tori. He told me, "A you could record this." Um, so I don't want y'all to think, "Why do I have a [ __ ] phone?" Cuz I, me and him, we're just, we're on FaceTime. Truth to be told. I don't want y'all to think that I'm [ __ ] you know what I mean? And I was 69 and then pause. Oh, pause. Actually, pause. I mean, you get you get what I mean, right? All right. Okay. Here it is. Check this out. This [ __ ] academics popping. Oh my gosh.
Okay. Okay. So, let me break down what he's saying. He's going through the stages of a record deal and and a rapper getting on. So, he says, "All right, let's pretend I'm the rapper, right? And he's the the music executive and and I got this song. Now, I got a meeting and they're going to offer me a deal." So, that's what you're hearing cuz I I missed a few seconds because I had to start the program to record. This [ __ ] academics popping. Oh my gosh. He's the [ __ ] app. You got to get signed. You're gonna get signed one day. Boom. You're 18 years old, right? You You made a little viral video. The world's feeling you. Uh uh. You get to the label.
Oh, I guess what I was saying is that it's a audio recording. There isn't a video. There isn't a video, just audio. Anyway, just to summize, he says, "You get popping, you get the label." Listen, right? They say, "Yo, look, bro. We're going to do everything for you. We're going to do this, that, the third." You know what I'm saying? We want we we we're going to give you a good publishing split. D First of all, you done heard the rumors. Now you're like, "I don't even want to damn. I heard about these label [ __ ] bro. I got to make sure my publishing is right. my publishing. Publishing. So, you're thinking about your [ __ ] publishing, my [ __ ] And you're like, "Yes, [ __ ] [ __ ] I'm going to make sure and [laughter] I got and I got my publishing. I'm good. You know what I'm saying? I make sure on the records like all my creative control." They're like, "Yeah, you can have your creative control, bro. As a matter of fact, yo, we going we going to fund it. We going to do everything you need, my [ __ ] And we going to put this much into marketing." You know what? [ __ ] that, my [ __ ] Let's give you a big advance, my [ __ ] Cuz you're popping.
Oh, you're popping. Your whole block knows you're popping. While we've been doing while we've been doing the whole the negotiation, your video has went from three million to 19 million because some [ __ ] on TikTok just just posted it the other day and now now it's just like let's just give you a big ass. You're popping, [ __ ] Here's $5 million. $5 million, my [ __ ] And we want we want a standard deal. If you look at any other labels, this is what I'm saying. We want a standard deal. If you look at any other labels, if if if if you uh if you if you look at any other contracts or any labels that your that your friends might be signed to or any rappers that you like might be signed to, they're signed to four to fiveear um albums. You know what I'm saying? Four albums, five five albums. They say, "You know what? We'll give you three." They make it sound good. They say three plus one. Three with the option of one. That means like at the end if you want an option, it's always four. Whatever that option is, that's what it is. Like the option is an extra year, whatever, [ __ ] So boom, you sign now. You say, "All right, bet. This sounds good, [ __ ] This is sounding good. This is getting great, [ __ ] Creative control.
You got the best deal. You got the best deal possible. Money in my pocket. Money on my neck. This is about to be great, my [ __ ] I'm going to the block with this and all my [ __ ] is lit." [laughter] You sign the deal. You're like, "Yo, all right. Bet." Boom. You're the big [ __ ] now, right? They say, "Yo, you got $100,000, my nigga." Right? You get $100,000 for your video because we know this song is crazy. 100,000, my [ __ ] And you like, "All right, bet." You know what I'm saying? I got I got five million, [ __ ] It is what it is, [ __ ] You know what I'm saying? Well, first let's really just break this 5 million down for you for a second, okay? You have [laughter] No, you have like you have 1 million or two million maybe for your for your advance for your pocket.
That's just for you to have in your pocket. Like you know that's the advance that thank you for signing like you know what I'm saying? Like that's what you should do just so you have it. We have the other three million so we can market you because you're so big, brother. Like how come we if we need a big marketing budget to market you? Your your song is gonna be big. I mean you want a big marketing budget right? Yeah, I want a big marketing budget. All right, cool. That's perfect. All right, bet. So, boom. [clears throat] So, now my [ __ ] this is what I need you to do. I need you to go to the hood. I need you to be as cultural as you can be. I need you to do all the dances. I need you to make it look as great as you can. I need you to look like a star out there. So, all we need you to do. Boom. All right, bet. You shooting the video now. Boom. You ah video comes out to a little bit extra cuz it always comes out to a little bit extra. [ __ ] it. Right. Let's just still say you spend $100,000 on a video. You stay flat at $100,000. The song goes out. The world's going crazy now. You got the big push behind it. Oh, you in your hood. You're a man. You're [ __ ] doing a dance. Everyone The world's doing a dance, my [ __ ] D. Everyone's going crazy, my [ __ ] Now you seeing like wild streams. You seeing like 100 million streams. You seeing all kinds of crazy [ __ ] right? You don't know at this point that these streams make this money. You don't know, my [ __ ] because no one's telling you this. No one's telling you like these royalty checks and all that [ __ ] They're known to come once in the blue or supposedly, but like they're known to come quarterly, but like whoever really gets the checks, whatever, you know what?
Let me also explain to y'all, which this is why I keep saying we need music education. A million streams on Spotify pays out between five and 6,000. If you never known, now you know. You could eas like that's what Spotify pays out, right? Um I he was given more info earlier, but he's like just imagine. So imagine you do a you drop an album, you do a 100 million streams for your album, right? What does that equate in money just off Spotify? Let's say this is on Spotify, right? six about five to 6,000. Let's call it 5,000. Easy math per million. Okay. So, that's the math that you also he's b what Tori was saying to me like many artists don't even understand how much their label is making off of them. They they just look at the streams and be like, "Okay, my streams is up." But they're not even thinking that. Do you know what it actually means when you just got aundred million streams? You feel me? like really quickly time is is 5,000 times 800. You get me? That's what money the label is getting. And I guess he's continuing to break it down what the artist is going to get. Listen, you're in a situation now and now you have you have uh they spent a certain amount of money on your video. They spent 300,000 at marketing for for radio. They spent mad money in TV supposedly. They spent mad money. They spent Let's say they spent a million in marketing, right? Right now, let's say your record made back $10 million, right?
In your eyes, you're like, "Yo, so so I'm slowing down a little bit for y'all, right?" So he says, "Y signed a 5 million deal pretty well, you get a 5 million advance supposedly, whatever, but they said they're holding three for your marketing budget and they're giving you 2 million in your pocket." Okay, so that's the deal. He's now saying your album is going crazy. You just say you find out how much you made. You made $10 million with your album. They gave you five. Even though you only got two in your pocket, but they gave you five. You made 10. And then now he explains the finesse. [snorts]
[ __ ] I just I made $10 million off the streams that I'm seeing. And it's like, yo, I deserve to be compensated and I furthermore, I should have paid back my advance now because, you know, I got signed for five million. I made $10 million. I pay my [ __ ] back. [clears throat] No, brother. We made $10 million. [cough] We made $10 million, my [ __ ] You made You made 1.8, right? And furthermore, we just spent a million in marketing. So, let's take that down to eight. Okay, let me explain what he's saying. So, in the music business, most artists sign what's known as a royalty rate deal. And standard, a new artist might get 8%. But usually, even up to the likes of Drake, it's going to be from 5 to 20%. At the very top, you got mad leverage. I'm h you're getting 20% of a dollar. Okay. So, every time the label makes a dollar, they send you 20 cents. They keep the rest standard. You're not seeing 20 cents. You're seeing maybe five, maybe 10. Okay. So, I'm doing his math. We use just 18%. That's the That was the Let's say that was the royalty rate y'all agreed on in negotiations. So that's why he says, "Yeah, that $10 million." No, no, no. So So you're looking at LIKE, "OH [ __ ] WE MADE 10." They're like, "No, [ __ ] We made 10. You make 18% of what we make." So So you made 1.8 million. So I'm just kind of like, you know, ad liib and that you guys understand this combo, right? uh $100,000 for the video. Let's take that back down to seven. All right. Um now, now he's he's going off of he he's he's putting expenses on top of the little money that you made out of your out of your little piece. Right? So, I'll go back a couple seconds.
And furthermore, we just spent a million in marketing. So, let's take that down to eight. Right? uh $100,000 for the video. Let's take that back down to seven. All right. Um basically also like you know the miscellaneous [ __ ] whatever. Distribution fees, all that [ __ ] Get that out of the [ __ ] [ __ ] that they put on there. Let's take it down to 500. You got $500,000 now, right? And now you're like, damn, bro.
You confused. I got $500,000. So from that 10 million that your album just made, you got 500,000. [laughter] By the way, I think if you ask me, remember when they published this whole report? YO, LITTLE UZI FIRST SONG MADE THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY. I THINK THAT'S WHEN UZI started beef with this label. You know why? He probably looked up and be like, wait, my son made that and I only got this immediately. Beef beef, BRO. THAT'S WHY IN any really in any job, you can't really tell [ __ ] what you're making off them and what you're paying them cuz [ __ ] is going to realize like what the [ __ ] From that moment on after Exo Tour Life, [ __ ] was never the same with Uzi and them [ __ ] That's facts. I think that's the article that did it. He probably looked up and said, "My my song did what?" And then he look at what he got like I got that from. So think about the math that Tori is doing FOR [ __ ] $10 MILLION. And you think, "Yo, we recouped. You get 500,000. I'm going continue for myself." So you're like, "All right, at least I got 500,000. They gave me 500,000 off this record. Oh my gosh." Like, I made money, my [ __ ] In order for you to to to to to get that 5 million recoupment, you would then have to take the money first of all, the money that you actually just got paid for yourself, that's for your well-being, that's for your rapper lifestyle, for your car, for your chain, and all the all the [ __ ] You now have to take that money and you would have to take that money and somehow give it to them to recoup, right? Swiping thing. If you don't pay that money, all right, it just begins to be it is what it is. Now you're just floating. You don't have another song. Now, this is where it starts to get to the place you're like, "Yo, oh my my my next song is not as big. They don't have the same budgets for you anymore because now it's like, well, we told you that we had 3 million, but we have 3 million over a span of this amount of time of your album is what, five years? So, we have a span to spend this money, my [ __ ]
So, now it's like it's now on you to to to to make it and to and to figure it out, right? Meanwhile, your record is still making a certain amount of money every single day. Your record is still the first record is still accumulating sales every single day. They're still getting paid off those sales and you're only getting 18%. Now, listen, 18% is if you're popping Let's take [ __ ] back now. You weren't super popular when you first signed, brother. So, you didn't get 18%. You got 5%. So, these margins that I'm talking to you about, let's deplete those. Let's deplete those back down lower. Let's deplete because you got to be Drake, a Lil Baby, or Tory Lanes or one of these [ __ ] to have 18%.
Yo, but everybody be talking that 50-50 [ __ ] now. They'll be like, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, we got a 50-50 split. We're partnership. We're partner. We're partners. We're not We're not You know what I mean? Like Like it's not a regular record deal. We're partners. We're in a partnership.
That sounds good. But the royalty split still doesn't allow the partners to eat off of the royalty. Like remember the royalty will always be low. That's what the royalty deal is for. The royalty deal is to keep the artist in debt. It's to keep the artist remember whatever. Think about how much generational wealth black people should have for their children off of all the music that we made. If all that money was going to an artist because, you know, uh they were just they had all their paperwork, right? Their family would be rich. Jodicy, all those I'm sure Josie has a cousin right now that's not rich. His family should be rich, [ __ ] [ __ ] loaded. Not just Jicy, [ __ ] his whole family should be loaded because of how many times that record has been played. But back in the times, there wasn't Spotify. There wasn't any of these things. Spotify has now DSPs have now created a lane where you can put music out and for the amount of time that it's listened to, money comes back to you. But because the game knows this, the game realized, oh [ __ ] if artists know this, we're [ __ ] If artists ever ever delete the royalty deal, we're [ __ ] in the way that we really make money, my [ __ ]
You get what I'm saying? Unless you're really doing like a real deal with integrity and you know, you guys find a way for work. So, you got to think about it, bro. If you come through and you're hot and you're this young [ __ ] who's booming, you're not leaving with no [ __ ] money. You're leaving in debt. You're leaving more in debt. You're leaving more in debt, dog. And all they're doing is just draining you until the three years that you're hot.
Yeah. No, that's look it looks like a I'm wondering. So, I mean, yeah, but like I'm So, you learn the game and and you clearly you you figure out what the finesse is, but it's ridiculous. But everybody's getting finessed. So, so like yo, you see how you I know I'll mute it. Um I think I walked away. I had to get ready for everyday show, so I kind of walked away from um there was like a mic. Um but yeah, I you know I I would love for Torch to even just come on come on stream and we could kick it kind of like to me that's more interesting. Like that conversation with Tori breaking that down is way more interesting to me than any like I want I want that podcast. Whatever that is, I want it as a podcast. I want that as a podcast. I want the Tories, the Russes just [ __ ] giving music education because like the finesses and all of the [ __ ] that is the facade of rap a lot of times it like people don't get it. You know what I mean? And and like we're fans, but there's people like me. I'm a super fan and and I kind of want to know the truth behind all the smoking mirrors. So again, I don't know. Like I don't know if those type of conversations like some of y'all might be like, "Bro, we don't care. We just want to see what chain [ __ ] Quo Quo got or like what watch." If if that's your thing, it's cool. Like that's no problem either. But um like to me that's just that's the height of like if I was a manager like these are things you need to know, right? If I was someone like even now like say you just work a regular job, right? But who knows? Say you got disposable income. Say you got like, I don't know, 200,000 sitting in a bank that you're not you don't have in stock, so you don't want to put in real real estate. And I know 200,000 is a lot of money. I know. But still, let's just say like you want to try your hand. You know, your homie, he he's in a hood. He wants to like rap and and you're like, damn, I put I put some money behind you or whatever. Like, let me figure out this label [ __ ] And like having information and education about the industry actually definitely like it it makes you more armed in figuring out how to navigate but also what the [ __ ] you're getting into. Right. Okay.
Um somebody says, "Yeah, but you could only have so many of those conversation." That's what King Pesos is saying. No. No. I think that's where you're wrong. Like again, now there's many conversations about just a deal, right? But bro, let's let's really evaluate everything. Let's talk about how really playlisting works. Let's It's like I guess it's more like a master class and everything. You know what I mean? It's I guess it be like a masterclass type podcast. There's mad [ __ ] to be talked about. We should be really analyzing like like I've had really good discussions with marketing people with people that work at labels where bro they're like they're planting songs on Tik Tok to take off like Tik Tok is the easiest viral you could use that you could use Tik Tok and go viral like this. It's almost to a science. You know Instagram or Twitter like something blows up because you don't know why who saw it or which big account may retweet it. It's a bunch of different factors that kind of go into it. But on Tik Tok, it's almost certain if they want to get a song popping on. I think these are things that like yo, you know, giving people that information sometimes will make you look at music very different. It doesn't only have to stop there. Why the [ __ ] is like, you know, like just even how the charts work, how why is Rockstar Why is why is Rockstar going to be number one for pretty much the next three to four weeks is going to have a box-like run? Why is that the case? Let's actually break those things down. Let's let's look at how these records are worked at radio. How does do records get on MTV? [ __ ] you pay for it. You feel me? How do you pay for it? You pay these [ __ ] like these these couple of companies and whatever. Okay. How do labels kind of try to juice up an artist? Yeah. Bunch of labels, they buy fake followers, fake like I think these are just conversations which all these artists they learn over time or they know. But like again this music business is always about the game is to be sold not told. So, like, you know, me, I'm a fan. I just want to know the information. I'm glad like I've learned a lot of it now. You know, I've put out records my damn self and, you know, blah blah blah. Like, [ __ ] suit to Stephen Victor who's putting out Pop Smoke record uh Pop Smokes um you know, album. UM LIKE I HAD I HAD TO, you know, after just talking to him like, you know, talking about him, you know, Drake dissing him and [ __ ] like that, right? Like I had to go to him to get a record of my clear. He manages a producer that that has the the Selena record I did like it was produced by Cash Money AP. Um I needed to get the joint cleared, you know what I mean? I got it cleared for with Stephen Victor, you know? So like all of those things and how, you know, I I think fans like we just like the [ __ ] and I do love the [ __ ] too. I just feel like, yo, if you're going to spend this much time around hip-hop, analyzing it, have this much of an opinion on it, let's learn how [ __ ] works, but also if older artists actually claim they want to change [ __ ] And by the way, the convo me to went on where he said, "Yo, I wish some of the bigger artists would start saying, "No, I'm not signing back to that [ __ ] ass royalty rate deal." like, yo, we going to have to have a new type of deal, a new structure because because anything that has percentages like that, that's just not some [ __ ] He he said some dope [ __ ] to me. He was like, yo, they beat it in your head like, "Oh, no, just worry about the pub. Worry about the pub. Worry about the pub." While they take all your royalties, like the royalties is what you get is what you see in sales. So, when you see a rapper's album do so and so first week, that's sales. And at least 80% is going to the label and they're chilling. You know what I mean? Like they're basically barely giving you [ __ ] and they only give you [ __ ] after they take up all the expenses of your share. You know what I mean? So again, it's uh I think music education in trying to further this, you know, um music business and educate artists and not to do the same [ __ ] You got to educa uh you got to do a little bit of music education. It's the same thing with me in media, bro. I could come and just like [ __ ] not give you exactly. I laid out the [ __ ] blueprint. I mean, some I think some of you guys who have media companies or your bloggers yourself, you guys have followed and salute to all of y'all that I'm cool with. Like, y'all usually say, "Yo, act, I ain't going to lie, [ __ ] You paved the way, [ __ ] You kind of showed [ __ ] how how to do it, how it was done. you open, you showed like, okay, this is how I'm and yeah, I'm I want to do that for y'all because as we change media, you're not gonna change media at a rapid pace by me hoarding information and not telling you how I got to this point or how [ __ ] works or whatever, whatever. And you know hopefully at a point like you know like I would love to [ __ ] I'm learning as well in dealing with you know whether it's contracts or you know um you know like just content [ __ ] you know like either uh getting whatever position as or role could be a TV show could be a radio spot how other [ __ ] um works um how to get brand deals like you know I' I just like information. I've just always benefited off having a lot of information.