Fighting the Power: Chuck D of Public Enemy Sues Universal Music for $100 Million

San Francisco, Calif.: Veteran hip-hop musician and lecturer Chuck D of Public Enemy has announced a class-action lawsuit against Universal Music Group. The core of the lawsuit (filed in a California federal court) accuses UMG of using shady accounting practices to deliberately withhold royalties that would otherwise be owed to recording artists whose work falls under the Universal umbrella (UMG has several labels and brand imprints in its vast catalog, including Island/Def Jam, Interscope, Geffen and more.) In particular, the allegations contend that digitally-based sales (including full songs and albums as well as ringtones for cellular phones) have been categorized in the same manner as physical CDs, using an outmoded model to calculate royalties due.

So far, news of the lawsuit has elicited no response from hip-hop’s current premier artists. But Jay Z, Ludacris, Kanye West, Eminem, Rick Ross, Lil’ Wayne, Drake, T.I., Snoop, Game, and the rest should all take notice. So much of the hip-hop swagger channels the spirit of legendary hellraiser Stagger Lee, an African-American folk legend whose story was turned into a song that has spawned any number of cover versions. Hip-hop is a unique movement in American pop because, perhaps unlike the early punk-rock era, hip-hop performers have tended to present an anti-establishment demeanor (and the content of most records tends to be far from rated G) while also enjoying the spoils of mainstream stardom, i.e., endorsement deals, film and television roles, and even political fundraising. Self-described former gangbangers, drug-peddlers, “killers” and pimps now share space with A-list Hollywood celebrities, captains of industry and the like in high-end nightclubs, five-star restaurants and invitation-only boutiques.

This author wonders how many rappers who swear that they are gangsters, hustlers, rebels, etc., will be willing to publicly support (hip-hop translation: co-sign) this class action lawsuit, and actually work on something substantive to change how the recording industry treats its artists. Often, hip-hop performers who achieve some level of commercial success tend to go with the flow of their imbalanced contracts, complaining to the press occaisonally, but never really doing anything about it. If the interviews that they participate in (and the Tweets they send) are to be believed, hip-hop’s elite invest more in their vehicles, jewelry, and other material indulgences than any kind of infrastructure to ensure legacy wealth for their children.

This author is willing to speculate that these rappers’ attorneys have their own kids’ and grandkids’ college funds sewn up, but the rappers themselves can’t say the same. Too many will write this lawsuit off as “player hating” either because they don’t have the intellectual capacity to understand it or the moral courage to follow through with it.

Chuck D (born Carlton Ridenhour) is no stranger to lawsuits. In the 1990s, he sued the McKenzie River Corporation, then-makers of St. Ides brand malt liquor, for the unauthorized use of his voice in a radio spot. He also sued Arista Records over the use of his sampled voice on the Notorious B.I.G. song “Ten Crack Commandments.” The latter lawsuit was fraught with controversy, as Christopher Wallace (a.k.a. Biggie) had recently been slain in a Los Angeles shooting. His estate ended up being named as a party in the suit, leading some in the hip-hop community of artists and fans to simply look at it as a cash-grab.

In period interviews of the time, Public Enemy frontman asserted that the main point of the Arista lawsuit was to highlight that the fortunes of the record-company executives typically dwarfed that of the artists in their stable, and that the themes contained in the records had little if any impact on the executives’ daily lives, while they almost certainly did with the rappers and their inner-city fans.

To take things to another (likely controversial) level, this author also feels compelled to point out that the top bosses of the music industry, by and large do not have to live with the “street codes” that many rappers profess to live by (and, in some cases, go to jail by.) People like Jimmy Iovine (Interscope/Universal), Clive Davis (Arista/J/BMG), L.A. Reid (formerly of Island/Def jam, now at Sony), Barry Weiss (Jive/Sony), Howard Stringer (Sony), Charles Allen (EMI), Roger Faxon (EMI), Edgar Bronfman Jr. (Warner) and Stephen Cooper (Warner) are all comfortably cashing checks, living in gated communities and penthouses, directly or indirectly profiting off the tales of street mayhem and, to coin a word– deathsploitation– that some rappers and their fans feel that they have to adhere to in order to stay relevant.


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