AML artists, Lauryn’s open letter to the public at large is pretty straight forward. Focused on the business of music, many of the points she raises, I have discussed here on AML. For those who operate record labels or any business you know it is not easy. For entrepreneurs in the USA, while you may not have the infrastructural challenges an entrepreneur in Africa may have, you know Uncle Sam taxes the heck out of you it makes you wonder why you even bother. Many artists do not understand and are not exposed to this aspect of running a business, until they own their labels. On the flip side, large record labels have historically milked artists for all they can get, leaving them empty and penniless.
This tension is, to me, expressed well in Hill’s open letter. However, there is a question on how artists are also managing their monies. From the Mary J Blige to Lauryn Hill et al., while the labels may take the bigger cut, for the monies artists make (which is not some chicken change), where is the accountability for how hat money has been managed/used? Should labels have financial professionals on the label roster to help artists manage their monies better? These are some tough questions both sides have to think about, all of which are provoked by Hill’s Open letter to the public. Read on.
-Uduak
“It has been reported that I signed a new record deal, and that I did this to pay taxes. Yes, I have recently entered into an agreement with Sony Worldwide Entertainment, to launch a new label, on which my new music will be released. And yes, I am working on new music.
I’ve remained silent, after an extensive healing process. This has been a 10+ year battle, for a long time played out behind closed doors, but now in front of the public eye. This is an old conflict between art and commerce… free minds, and minds that are perhaps overly tethered to structure. This is about inequity, and the resulting disenfranchisement caused by it. I’ve been fighting for existential and economic freedom, which means the freedom to create and live without someone threatening, controlling, and/or manipulating the art and the artist, by tying the purse strings.
It took years for me to get out of the ‘parasitic’ dynamic of my youth, and into a deal that better reflects my true contribution as an artist, and (purportedly) gives me the control necessary to create a paradigm suitable for my needs. I have been working towards this for a long time, not just because of my current legal situation, but because I am an artist, I love to create, and I need the proper platform to do so.
The nature of my new business venture, as well as the dollar amount reported, was inaccurate, only a portion of the overall deal. Keep in mind, my past recordings have sold over 50,000,000 units worldwide, earning the label a tremendous amount of money (a fraction of which actually came to me).
Only a completely complicated set of traps, manipulations, and inequitable business arrangements could put someone who has accomplished the things that I have, financially in need of anything. I am one artist who finds value in openly discussing the dynamics within this industry that force artists to compromise or distort themselves and what they do, rather than allowing them to make the music that people need. There are volumes that could (and will) be said.
MLH”