Scarface is not happy with the current arrangement between streaming platforms and artists.
During his appearance on Trick Trick’s “The Fly Zone Radio Show” on Sirius XM, the rap icon voiced his opinion on artists losing out financially and how streamers collect almost all the profits from their music.
“It seems like the whole culture is being dumbed down now, and I want to be as offensive as I possibly f**king can when I say this, again… The culture is being so f**king dumbed down and manipulated and controlled by people that don’t look like us,” the rap legend said.
“So these motherf**kers don’t look like me, they’re not creators of this culture, but they want to control it and dictate who come in, how they come out, the stream… We don’t f**king stream, man, we buy records, we ride this shit around in our car,” he continued.
Face also argued that the same group who makes the most money from hip-hop seeks to “alienate” the artists who create the music. He broke down how artists are left with pennies because of the dominance of streaming.
“We can’t sell a $10 record no more, we got to sell an under-a-penny stream, you tell me where the d**k is and how we duck this d**k,” he went on. “We getting f**ked. … Ain’t no money in the streams for us, but it’s money in subscriptions for them.”
One suggestion that the “My Block” rapper offered to combat the issue was for artists to take their music off streaming platforms.
“Pull that sh*t off them f**king platforms, and don’t allow them to stream your sh*t for free,” he said. “You f**ked a whole lot of people when you f**ked over the mom and pops. You f**ked them. You knocked them people out of jobs. Ain’t no records being sold no more.”
As a veteran of more than 30 years in the music industry, Scarface shared that physical album sales could set an artist up for life, unlike music streams.
“If I sell 65 million albums, then I ain’t got to make no more f**king albums,” he said. “If I sell 65 million f**king singles at a dollar, then why am I rapping? I ain’t got to do it no more. … You’re not finna prostitute me. And I wish that they would stop letting them prostitute my f**king people, bruh.”
According to Producer Grind, a song needs 150 million streams to be certified platinum and an album needs 1.5 billion streams to be certified platinum.
On Spotify, each stream is valued at $0.003-$0.005.
