Are Your Favorite Rappers Really Soooo Paid?

The number one topic that has been and seems as if will be the most prevalent in Hip-Hop music is money!! The question that has really struck my mind as I’m sure for many others is, are these rap artists really living the lifestyles they portray in their music? Are they really making that much money? The answer is maybe, maybe not. The interesting thing about the Rap industry is that there are so many people involved in the success of one artist and that sadly enough the actual artist is the last to be paid.  Typically, a decent artist with a great attorney and proper management can make anywhere from fifty cents to a dollar per album sold. That’s before taxes. Other avenues in which artists can get paid off of are through performance royalties, radio plays and mechanical royalties. Each have very lengthy definitions but I will give you the break down of each.  The performance royalties are pretty much self explanatory; the artist gets paid either a set percentage or a flat fee for their performances and depending on how much of the songs they are performing they actually own the rights for determines how much of the pay they actually keep.  Before I define the other methods, I should make it known that the most profitable way of making money in the rap industry is through owning your own publishing. That means if you create it, you own it and if anyone else wants to use your lyrics or beats then they must pay you, no if’s and’s or but’s about it. Although there are many different variables of ownership, that is the most profitable for artists. Now, to connect it with the performance royalty method, lets say Kanye goes on stage and performs “Through The Wire” he has to pay the original songs owners a portion of what he made for performing that song; they each get a piece of the money for him performing that song. That helps to explain why it is nowadays rap artist’s charge so much for a show, because the majority of producers and artists are sampling way too much. The mechanical royalty is an interesting method of payment because it is government regulated and it dictates that the artist make a certain percentage per song on an album (7 cents/song). That’s why certain labels put a max on how many songs can be put on an album: if the artists were to put more songs on an album that would increase their mechanical royalties due to the amount of tracks that are on an LP.

The other method that I mentioned is through radio plays. The radio stations cut checks to the artists and their record labels for playing their songs on the radio. Therefore a Top 10 song gets a pretty hefty check cut out for it and we the listeners have to listen to the same song be played over and over every ten minutes in rotation. It’s actually quite annoying and possibly the quickest way to make a hot song a wack one.  These are some of the ways that artist’s can get paid for their music, although they are always the last ones to get money from an album they are the face, the talent, the driving force which compels the consumer to go out and purchase their product. This is the reason why these artists are going out and venturing into different business markets such as clothing, fragrance, film and now liquor as well as starting up their own labels and independently releasing their albums. With the technology (iTunes, ringtones…) we have today the market has become more artist friendly due to the many different forums that an artist can release music and promote themselves. There is no longer a need for a middle man anymore in the industry and the musicians are starting to utilize the technology which is made available to them, while record labels are still taking advantage of their artist’s.

Therefore while at the beginning of their career these rappers may not actually be living the lifestyle they rap about, unless they came into the game with money, with time, the right amount of business knowledge and hard work they eventually may in fact find themselves riding in the Bentleys and living in the mansions that used to simply exist only on paper.