The Tragedy of the Music Industry

With the loss of more and more young rappers to drugs, there is serious conflict regarding the drug culture and drug usage in the rap industry. Many regions across the United States struggle with this problem as their rappers perish at a very young age, but one particular area that has recently been heavily affected by this issue is Chicago. Chicago gave birth to one of the most successful and talented rappers of our generation, Juice Wrld, who tragically passed away at just 21 years old. Similar to countless other Chicago rappers who have lost their life to drugs, Juice Wrld lost his life to Percocet pills in December of 2019, and people are looking for someone, or something, to point the accusatory finger at. For example, Vic Mensa, another rapper in the industry, thinks that rappers themselves that cultivate this drug-dependent culture are to blame for the loss of Juice Wrld. For decades, rappers have not shied away from rapping about the drugs that they consume on a daily basis, which has raised a new generation of rappers who think it’s cool to live like their idols. Thus, Mensa thinks that every rapper needs to “to take responsibility for the things that [they] say” because the things that they talk about “influence children.” While I do agree that rappers themselves are in a way indirectly killing each other with the things that they preach, I think Mensa is overlooking the greater evil of the music industry; labels.

There are several major labels that run the music industry and sign young, talented artists out of Chicago but simply treat them as another source of income instead of the developing young kid that they really are, and neglect the fact that these kids need guidance. Smiley depicts this by describing how labels “know that when [the artist] is done, the next SoundCloud or Instagram rapper is behind them,” and thus the labels have no motivation to nurture these young rappers, especially if it seems like the rappers are going down a dark path. Thus, even though Juice Wrld had one of the biggest blow ups of the decade, Interscope, his record label, was constantly looking for rappers that could replace Juice Wrld in case he passed away, instead of just helping him. This is proven by Interscopes newest signee, The Kid Laroi. Weeks after the passing of Juice Wrld, Interscope used his death in order to market The Kid Laroi as the “next Juice Wrld” and Juice Wrld’s “prodigy” as if they had been preparing for the death of Juice Wrld for years. Furthermore, Interscope put Juice Wrld in the position that lead to his overdose.

Juice Wrld was involved in a lot of illegal gang activity but instead of interfering and keeping Juice Wrld safe, the label facilitated this activity. For example, they bought a private plane for him and his friends, however his friends snuck tons of weed, guns, and illegal drugs onto the plane. The illegal items were tipped off to the police and Juice Wrld ended up popping the pills that he had on his body in order to hide them, leading to his overdose. Surely Interscope should have checked the plane before it took off, or at the very least helped Juice get out of the situation that they put him in. I think that this neglect and lack of guidance provided to Juice Wrld was the ultimate cause of his demise, although him growing up listening to his icons rap about sipping codeine certainly didn’t help either. However, maybe I am putting too much blame on the labels themselves. Some suggest that Juice Wrld’s environment and his life before fame may have been much more influential in determining his final destination than his environment after he blew up.

Chicago is one of the most famous cities in the world, however 1 in every 5 Chicago citizens live below the poverty line. Juice Wrld and his family were certainly 1 of those 5 that lived in poverty, and poverty, especially in urban areas, can create a very unhealthy lifestyle very quickly. Thus, as I’ve established the environment that Juice Wrld was thrown into post-fame was very unhealthy, however, as a result of the impoverished state that he grew up in, he was already living a very unhealthy lifestyle. For example, in “How the US prescription drug epidemic is changing hip-hop,” the author explains how Juice Wrld grew up selling drugs so that he could “put food in his cabinet,” and taking drugs “to escape” from his harsh reality. Thus, once he reached superstardom, and was faced with the evils of the music industry, he took drugs to escape from his problems the same way he did growing up because he was already accustomed to using substance abuse as a way out. I think that this is a very important point to consider, however it does not excuse the behaviour of major labels. Labels are well aware of the fact that these Chicago rappers that they find on the internet most likely come from poverty and a culture of drugs. Thus, they should nurture these rappers instead of using them to the point where they feel the need to escape again. Granted, at the end of the day a label is just a business, and the artist is the one who has to sign the final contract. So maybe it is the rappers fault?

Over the last decade, labels have gotten a very bad rep. Zorka Explains how in the music scene they have become widely notorious for essentially screwing over rappers and ruining their careers. However, year after year, Chicago rappers continue to “sign their life away” to these major labels because they see the big check and get carried away. I understand where Zorka is coming from, but I think she is completely failing to put herself in the rapper’s shoes. Imagine growing up in the streets of Chicago with no parents, having to sell drugs for a living to get by, and essentially being raised by the music in your ears and wanting to make it big like the rappers on your playlist. Then, after years of working on your music, a major label comes knocking at your door and tells you that they’re going to make you a superstar, and offer you a million dollar check. Can you really blame them for signing without looking back? Maybe if these rappers didn’t grow up in an environment where money wasn’t worshipped and seen as the only way out then they would be able to make a smarter, long term decision. But 99% percent of the time, that just isn’t this case, and Chicago is no exception. Thus, it may be easy to say “you should have seen that coming” or “you should have known better,” to Juice Wrld, but it is a whole different story when the deal you’ve been waiting for your whole life is right in front of you.

As a whole, I hadn’t considered that where he came from and what sort of environment he was raised in may also have been very influential in creating the path that led to this early death. However, I still hold the idea that Interscope holds great responsibility for the incredibly shocking loss of Juice Wrld. So what can be done about these corrupted, neglectful labels? Are their foreign labels that are operated in a better fashion? Or artists collectively doomed?

If you look hard enough, you can undoubtedly find parallels to Juice Wrld’s relationship with Interscope in foreign countries. In an article written by Zraick, she talks about Kevin Fret, a Latin rap artist who was shot at the age of 24 due to gang violence. Zraick argues that the major responsibility falls onto his label because instead of intervening and eradicating Fret’s ties to gangs, they instead encouraged and monetized the gang activity as a marketing ploy. This essentially leads her to the conclusion that all labels are evil, which may cause you to believe that corrupt labels are a global continuity. Ottenhof expresses a similar sentiment to Zraick that labels should be responsible for the health and safety of its artists, however, he actually pinpoints a label that is taking progessive actions in order to solve this global crisis of mental health in the music industry. Royal Mount Records is an independent music label based in Canada that gives $1,500 to each one of its artists dedicated solely towards mental health and therapists. The money is non-refundable and must be spent on the artist’s mental health, showing that they care and take responsibility for their artists. Thus, Ottenhof offers a more positive view than Zraick on the future of labels in the music industry, believing that if major labels follow the path of Royal Mount Records, then artists around the world will be much more healthy. Personally, I agree with Ottenhof. Music labels are professionals at the music industry, not mental health. Thus I think it is very rational to provide artists with a budget so that they can seek professional help from mental health experts if needed. Furthermore, given that Royal Mount Records is an independent label with minimum funding, there is no reason why major global labels cannot implement similar policies for their artists’ mental health. In fact, I think that American labels should adopt similar policies in order to establish this healthy relationship with its artists as soon as possible. But why would they?

For centuries, major labels have abused and taken advantage of their artists — and it works. There are multiple billion dollar record labels, and several multi million record labels, all of which tend to value their money over their artists. Until something convinces them or forces them to have their artist’s best interests in mind, they will continue these habits. One solution that is hotly debated is government interference. In her article, Chon addresses The California Labor Code 2855 passed in 1987 which limited the maximum length of an artist’s country so that the artist could leave the label if they felt it was a toxic environment. The labor code seemed promising on paper, however these major labels would abuse their power to find loopholes to this code or just flat out break it, and it would go relatively unchecked because these labels were multi billion dollar conglomerates. The act eventually ended up being redacted leading Chow to believe that government interference was not the correct way to fix the relationship between artists and labels. Although I don’t think that we should give up on trying to actively regulate major labels, I think that a music label is a capitalistic enterprise that is essentially coded to make money, and nothing else. Thus, I think the way of the future is for artists to stay independent, and avoid labels entirely.

95% of the top 100 rappers in the industry are signed to a major label. But this does not go to show that being a successful independent artist is an impossible mission. One artist that proved this is Chance The Rapper. Believes that independent rappers simply cannot compete with a major label by themselves. This is because labels can easily get their artists on commercial radio, pay for production costs, and ultimately provide their artists that one cannot do by themselves. However, I think that in this new era where everybody is glued to their phones and the internet is possible, independent rappers stand a chance. One prime example of this is Chance The Rappers, one of the biggest rappers of the decade. Chance never signed to a label because he valued the control over his music and wanted to keep it as soon as possible. All though it certainly took an exceptional amount of work, Chance used powerful platforms such as soundcloud and instagram to push his music in front of as many people as possible via the internet. Slowly but surely he climbed the ranks in the industry and eventually blew up with his debut “Coloring Book” album. Thus, the battle between artists and labels seemed hopeless for the artists, however in this new wave of the internet, I think it is very possible for more successful and independent artists to start popping up.

How do we make it easier for artists to succeed on their own. What specifically would this type of future look like