I will admit to being a little disappointed in the truce that 50_CENT and GAME have brokered amongst themselves. I wanted to see some bloodshed, particularly, GAME’s death, since my favorite rock band from Brooklyn was called GAME until that rapper and his big bucks at SONY shut them down. The band is now called GAME REBELLION and I think it’s appropriate since that is what they are doing. They are singlehandedly changing the direction of the rap game, but I digress…
I had it all planned out. I was culling numbers from database websites on how many people were killed during the four days that 50’s latest album sold a reported 1.5 million copies. I was going to compare those numbers to the amount of people killed on the same four days a month prior, then a year prior. It was going to be one of the great new indictments of modern U.S. rap music. Now my weblog piece is ruined by this peace in the rap community.
50_CENT donated $150,000 dollars to the HARLEM BOYS CHOIR which amounts to approx. one penny from each unit sale of his CD/DVD. If you understand the economics of the music industry then you can appreciate how big each penny really is to the artist’s ‘take home’ monies. After SONY takes 75 percent of the sales from off the top, then INTERSCOPE comes in to smash FIFTY for twenty percent. The remaining 5 percent has to see AFTERMATH, then SHADY RECORDS before FIFTY can feed his family of administrators, lawyers, publicists, stylists and bodyguards.
The real issue that my eyes have been opened to is how modern U.S. rap music directly, and indirectly, feeds the prison industrial complex. We are witnessing a generation of youth that seriously believe that illicit activity can generate a sufficient number of funds to provide a lifestyle on par with a celebrity. It is a theme repeated ad naseum by the rap music and it’s co-defendant, video imagery. A corporate entity like VIACOM which owns MTV and holds shares in Indiana-based, EMMIS BROADCASTING would probably also be invested in the privatization of correctional facilities. Correctional facilities are a burgeoning source of labor(State Property = slavery). I am not sure which corporation owns CONDE NAST publications, but I was told that they use the Cayuga County Detention Facility(upstate New York) as their customer service center for subscription processing.
At what point will we wait for to assume control of our music and our community?
I think instead of making records rappers with beef should have pay per-view events. That way they could make money and actually handle their beef. I remember people used to have some beef and they would handle it lyrically now it they just rap about how much more money they have and what they’ll do to them in real life….then they just keep making records.
stop the madness with these bitch ass rappers. 50 cent is two inches from kissing that nigga in the mouthpiece with his tongue. That shit is not gangster.
See if Viacom owns stock in CXW (Corrections Corporations of America).
so we’re saying that were or were not in love before they broke up?
we don’t applaud reconciliation in this game (no pun intended), however, i’d like to see more artists shine with less beefs. I prefer rap battles over beefs.