The moment a newcomer has a HIT, everybody wants to crash the party, take a selfie and CASH IN – the songwriters, music producers, and chart topping artists. It’s an open game for the new player, and naively, they let everyone in, and shortly after, they’re squeezed out. Today, this takes the form of artist collaboration and features.
But collaborating is killing artist individuality.
Here is an example. The Kid LAROI is a breaking artist. His track Without You is a hard-to-come-by radio hit. I love the track. Then Miley Cyrus is added to the remix of LAROI’s “Without You”.
The track is just gathering steam. It’s pre-mature for a feature. I barely know The Kid LAROI. He’s a 17 year old that rose up the music ranks in Australia before moving to Los Angeles. I want more of LAROI, but now Miley Cyrus is singing the opening verse. I like Miley too, but maybe not Miley with LAROI. Now, LAROI and Miley are rooted in my mind. Brand association. It’s a marketing mess. The artist is losing individuality that was sacrificed on the alter of audience reach.
And now LAROI has paired up with Justin Bieber for a track titled Stay. This keeps Bieber on the top shelf while LAROI sits in the stockroom, never given a chance to make a first and lasting impression.
I understand the team wants to reach the largest audience possible, but artists’ need more time to develop a face, a brand, a statement before they start attaching themselves to brands and other artists. I hope Olivia Rodrigo is listening.
There are two ways to climb to the top. You can affiliate yourself with others and be a guest at the kings table, or you can dominate and be the king. Eminem came out as a king. He wasn’t releasing remixes with guest vocals by Britney Spears or Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys, instead he aligned himself with Dr. Dre. His name, his brand, his influences were important to him. He didn’t want that tossed for profit, and nobody cashed off of Eminem.
“I won’t stop even when my hair turns gray (I’m tone deaf)/ ‘Cause they won’t stop until they cancel me,” Em tweeted when dropping the video.
Eminem was blasted by a TikTok Campaign over the 2010 single, “Love the Way You Lie,” that promotes domestic violence according to critics. Marshall Mathers doesn’t sweat backlash. In fact, he welcomes the media mob.
Eminem unexpectedly took the stage at the Academy Awards on Sunday for a performance of “Lose Yourself”. The question is why? Look, the audience was confused as much as I was. The performance wasn’t bad, but if you look at Twitter many were shaking their heads as to why he was there. Some say the performance is reportedly a “do-over” to make up from a missed opportunity when the rapper didn’t perform the song when it was given a nod 17 years ago. To be honest, I think this is a misfire, because the discussion should be about the performance not why-did-he-show-up.
Forbes published the highest paid hip-hop artists. Kanye West was the clear winner earning 150 million.
The rest… Jay Z (81 million), Drake (75 million), Diddy (70 million), Travis Scott (58 million), Eminem (50 million), DJ Khaled (40 million), Kendrick Lamar (38 million), Migos (36 million), Nicki Minaj (29 million), Cardi B (28 million).
Eminem’s publisher Eight Mile Style has filed a lawsuit claiming Spotify has infringed hundreds of song copyrights.
Eminem accuses Spotify of copyright infringement by reproducing the track “Lose Yourself” on its service causing potentially billions of dollars in damages. The suit also targets Spotify claiming it has failed to live up to the Music Modernization Act. The MMA is a federal law past by President Trump which was to improve how music licensing and royalties would be paid to songwriters.
The suit claims that Spotify has no license for Eminem’s songs and has not paid for the songs other a few payments of some sort.
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