Temporary Blogging

In 1955, the song “Tutti Frutti” burst onto the scene and Richard Wayne Penniman, better known as Little Richard, had made history. Within a week and a half after its debut it sold 300,000 copies. Penniman grew up in poverty and hoped his music would help his family and himself achieve financial success, much like many Black musicians then and now. But according to the New York Times, when “Tutti Frutti” had sold 500,000 copies, Penniman only made $25,000 from the song. He made half a cent off of each record sold, an abysmally small amount for a song that is considered to be the birth of rock and roll, and defined the sound of the genre moving forward. His story serves as a cautionary tale to aspiring Black musicians: the music industry does not care about you, it cares about the money you can generate.

Tonya Butler has had over 30 years of experience in the music industry as an entertainment attorney, record label executive, and college administrator. In an interview with Vice, she stated:

“Anybody can get a bad deal—but because of the inequities in education, and the economic disparity that exists, Black artists and Brown artists are more susceptible to getting a bad deal. “They often come from low-income circumstances, and they lack the necessary education and resources to find out more. I liken it to COVID: Everybody can get it, but Black and brown people are affected more intensely than others because of systemic inequities.”

The exploitation of Black musicians compared to their white counterparts is a part of the racist systems that have been put in place to keep Black people unpaid and overworked for their labor. This goes back to the dawn of slavery, and carries into the wage disparities between Black and white people. According to Pew Research Center, in terms of median hourly earnings, Black men on average earn $14 an hour compared to white men’s $21 an hour. Black households earned an average income of $51,394 while white households earned $75,132. That is a nearly $25,000 difference between them. 

The practice of scamming and undervaluing Black artists and Black people as a whole is not a new practice in the United States of America especially. The music industry has learned how to take advantage of Black musicians very easily with promises of elevated socioeconomic statuses and legal jargon difficult to parse through without a lawyer of their own (which can also be incredibly expensive). The mass exploitation of Black artists is shameful, and it is even more shameful when other artists join in on the grift, such as Pharrell Wiliams locking other artists into exploitative contracts. Legislation changes will not be enough, it will take societal changes to stop the systematic exploitation of Black people. The most we can do is educate rising artists about the exploitation that will affect them, but sometimes, the only option is exploitation.