Cash Money Millionaires
Forbes has just published the list of top ten music money-makers for 2007. I excitedly surveyed the list to see how many African-American rappers made the list. After all, throughout the 20th century, Black popular music – and most recently, rap music – affected and gave birth to various manifestations of pop culture around the world. In the United States, it has been reported that rap music (and here I deliberately refrain from using the term “hip-hop”) is consumed largely by urban youth and young white males. Utilizing this power and popularity, television advertisements for a wide range of products use rap music liberally to attract consumers. The image and message of a lot of rappers and their music revolves around money and all the things money can buy. Watch “Cribs” or any of the usual music videos and you may be convinced that rap is the way to financial glory.
The controversial messages in commercial rap have been debated so much that the debate may now be redundant. What is interesting though is that those who justify the misogyny and the explicit lyrics say that they are “keeping it real.” The recording companies seem to encourage this model of performance obviously because they feel that this is what their audience wants, this is what the audience buys. “It’s all about the benjamins, baby!”
So I was shocked when I looked at Forbes’ top ten list and found no black artists. Most of the money the top money-makers earned came from concerts. Police, Hannah Montana, Celine Dion, Rascal Flatts, Justin Timberlake, Kenny Chesney, and Josh Groban all raked in the dough from both music sales and concerts. Rap artists held concerts too. Where were their fans; where were all the young people of varying ethnicities who buy the music? Don’t they flock to the rap concerts as they do to the CDs and the downloads? I’m not expecting the thoughtful MCs with deep and provocative messages to make the Forbes list (that is basis for another blog posting), but I thought I’d find the more commercially conducive rappers breaking into the top ten. I was wrong.
That sounds strange to me too, however one factor, I imagine, could be the price of concert tickets. While you have to fly to Vegas and pay an arm and a leg to see Celine, rappers are in almost every city nearly every weekend for as cheap as $15 a ticket. On the other hand, there are artists like Beyonce who have high ticket prices, so, I guess that puts us back at square one. Beats me.
As romantic and idealistic a notion of having a Negro artist included in the top-ten music money makers is, the fact of the matter is, Negroes only account for 13% of the United States of America, whereas, our European-American counterparts, comprise approximately 72% of the country, so volume will always trump perception and what the media may attempt to proliferate as truth.
When residing in an insular urban environment such as Chicago, New York or Los Angeles, the typical perception becomes one of a distorted arrogance which is a microcosm of the United States at large. The idea that “if act, think or live a certain way, surely everyone in the country (and world) must act, think and live this exact same way!” However, life in the country and world at-large is anything but that way.
With approximately 306 million Americans, and more than 220 million of them being European-American, it would take a tremendously substantial amount of them to contribute to the economic wealth of any one Negro artist in order to give any one of them a shot of breaking into the lucrative world of music making as a European-American artist.
It’s easy to confuse this Forbes list, with one of its others which chronicles and calculates the overall wealth and value of artists and entertainers in general. You may be asking where music artists like 50 Cent and Jay-Z are, but it’s essential that we take into account that much of their wealth and many other Negro entertainers is obtained through a diverse portfolio of investments and enterprises.
50 was well vested into the recently successful company Vitamin Water, and as a result of it being bought out by another company, he received approximately $400 million.
In the case of Sean Carter, his former position as C.E.O. of Def Jam, lucrative advertising deal with Hewlett Packard, co-founding role of the highly prevalent Roc-a-Wear clothing line, and minority ownership in the New Jersey–soon to be Brooklyn in large part to his doing–Nets, have all propelled and contributed him to procuring a wealth in excess of $300 million.
Ultimately, it is almost guaranteed that no Negro music artist–especially within the genre of commercial rap–will ever penetrate the top ten list of music makers, simply because it’s too controversial of a genre, which proliferates negative images that contrary to what the media, Congress, and mother’s across the country would like you to believe, it has not saturated the country and never will.
Thus, it’s essential that when young Negroes and Americans alike are watching and reading about their favorite commercial artists, and how wealthy they’ve become, they acquire the whole story, and find out exactly how entrepreneurial those individuals were, and what else is factoring into their wealth, so that all of those young minds can begin to aspire and seek to emulate those behaviors as well.
I think that when considering this we have to look into other countries besides America. Many of these “mega stars” have not only held tours that sell out stadiums across the country night after night, but they do it all over again in Europe. These sell out tours like Hannah Montana have attracted YOUNG (consumer reports suggest teen spending will exceed $172 billion in 2008) audiences across the nation and have taken their parents checkbooks by storm. You have to think that these stars make the majority of their money off of concerts and a plethora of other investments and deals… not records. Thus, will the majority of their nation let their children go to rap concerts without adult supervision? Will they take their child?
Personally for me, being a fan of being entertained, as much as I like some of the rap (not hip hop) music, I’m not going to pay any money to see some man run up and down the stage with 37 of his homeboys (2/3 of which he probably doesn’t even know the names of). People like Justin Timberlake, Celine Dion, heck even Hannah Montana put on performances. Performances that are liked and accepted by a more diverse crowd than at a lil wayne concert. We also must take into account that the majority of the more popular concert are age appropiate for everyone. I mean, do we really want to risk sending our 14 year old daughter to an Akon concert to get dry humped on stage, or would we rather our son get pulled on to Janet Jackson’s rotating dominatrix (sp) table? I beleive what it comes down to here is versatility. Justin Timberlake can pull in any race. Soulja boy can pull in my 13 year old cousin who owns entirely too much baby phat and could recite all the words to laffy taffy but couldn’t remember the preamble.
Well, it is very obvious that rappers are “playing it up on tv,” I mean its the culture of the rap game…like it or not people are listening and they ARE making money but they definetely ARE NOT making it like it appears on tv. Its all about an “image,” you’ll hear any of them say it.
Moving to a slightly unrelated topic: I feel the so called “image” engrained in black culture in general is ridiculous! Whenever you have blacks pulling a 2008 into the hood, priorities are jacked. When you have all the latest designer clothes but you can’t figure out how to the pay the rent then someting is seriously going wrong in the community. I find that many blacks mentality is that even if I have absolutely nothing I have to make it look like it on the outside, so as long as people can see my fresh new kicks it doesn’t matter that I might not have a home to go back to. Hence, the way our so called rappers act…they want to “look” like they have it all going on when really they have just a little cash on the side that can’t even stand up to the big dogs in the game…but you have to keep that image right?
Oh yeah, another reason they aint making any money is cause aint nobody buying those cds. Every single one of my friends, including me, either burns cds or just puts them on the IPOD. Those white artists have a loyal fan base that aint too cheap to go buy the CD..DVD..clothes..jewelry..and lunchboxes lol.
Excuse me and my informal vernacular. I view a blog as a chance for me to rant informally.
I agree with LaNita about entertainment value. Many rappers get on stage and rap, which is great for what it’s worth, and it definitely has entertainment value. But those artists who made the top ten list don’t just put on a concert; they put on a show. Lights, dancing, acting, I mean a whole theatrical shabang, kind of like elementary broadway…
Also, I think that the audience makes a difference. Rap is largely listened to by “urban youth and young white males,” right? Youg people who have other things to spend money on than concerts. People who maybe don’t even have the money to go to a concert. Hannah Montana, on the other hand is listened to largely by young girls. And let’s face it, if your dad had to choose between his teenaged son’s rap concert tickets, or hannah montana tickets for his Baby girl, who would he choose? Which also touches on the fact that parents have a preconcieved negative connotation on rap music, and maybe don’t want their kids listening to it or going to the concerts, while Hannah Montana is more “wholesome” (for now, anyway.)
I find that to be pretty shocking! I do agree with Tamyra that tickets can be cheap. I went years ago, to see Wu Tang Clan and the tickets were only 20.00. I expected them to me more, because I thought they were a popular group, with a large fan base. So I thought 20.00 was on the lower side (not that I’m complaining). I am not sure how much Beyonce’s tickets are but I would guess they are more. She Has costumes, dancers, and light shows, which would up the price. I’m still shocked that not one black person was on the list. I think everyone will be confused and surprised by this blog.
as far as the concert-goers (or lack there of) for these rap stars in america, i can only speak from experience. i attended a rap concert about two years ago for a birthday present; it was young jeezy, lil wayne and TI. my friend and i didnt mind being part of the VERY small (probably less than 10%) caucasion population at this event, but after the event i felt even smaller. i grew up in a very diverse area of my home city and am not ignorant in communicating with different cultures of any kind, but there was no love at the aragon ballroom that night. we were treated very poorly by the staff and by other fans of these performers (who all showed up almost three hours late). i felt pretty pissed off about the whole thing, and very ripped off. even though i am a white female, i still paid for the CD’s and supported these artists, but was not welcomed at the concert by any means. this is why i will not attend another rap concert. although it seems stereotypical of me, i probaly wont waste my time or money figuring out which rap concerts will or wont be the same way.