Scarface criticizes non-hip-hop individuals who dictate how music is distributed via streaming during an interview with Trick Trick on Shade 45.
During a discussion about streaming, the legendary 53-year-old artist goes on a rant about unknown owners controlling music consumption and profits.
“And I want to be as offensive as I possibly f*ckin’ can when I say this, again,” he began in the clip. “The culture is being so f*ckin’ dumbed down, and manipulated, and controlled by people that don’t look like us. So these muthaf*ckas 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*ckin’, we buy records. We ride this sh*t around in our car. I’m from there.”
He continued: “But somebody can take hip-hop from us and alienate us from it. And then they f*ck us. We can’t sell a 10-dollar record no more; we gotta sell it under a penny stream. You tell me where the di*k is. And how do we duck this di*k. Because we gettin’ f*cked.”
Today’s music is mostly consumed through streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal. Platinum certification is awarded for one million EAUs, equivalent to 1.25-3.75 billion streams, with each stream valued at $0.003-$0.005 on Spotify. Spotify reportedly has 239 million subscribers and 619 million users as of April 2024.
“Ain’t no money in the streams for us,” he explained. “But it’s money in subscription for them. If you pay a subscription for a music streaming platform. And you got 10 million people paying 10 million dollars a month to listen to whatever the f*ck they want to listen to. You’re batting a thousand.”
In the past, the average artist’s CD sold for $15, with a 10% royalty percentage, meaning the band earned $1.50 per CD sold. Master P, Too Short, Yo Gotti, and E-40 are all successful hip-hop moguls who made their fortunes selling CDs out of the trunk.
“You have to take control of your sh*t,” replied Scarface when asked about the solution to ownership. “Take control of your culture. Everybody together. And I don’t mean just rap culture, or R&B culture, or Rock culture. Take control of your music culture, period. Pull that sh*t off them f*ckin’ platforms. And don’t allow them to stream your sh*t for free … You f*cked over a lot of people when you f*cked over the mom and pops. You f*cked them. You f*cked them over. You knocked jobs outta of people. You knocked them people out of jobs, in other words.”
Scarface discusses album releases on Tuesdays in the 1990s and compares them to the abundance of music released on streaming platforms nowadays.
“Ain’t no records being sold no more,” he said. “We could go to a record store on Tuesday and be like, ‘What’s hot now?’ Oh, you know that new DJ Quik just came out… You know Cube coming out, next … N.W.A drop at midnight. But now, it’s just like Erick Sermon said, ‘Rap game bumper to bumper, everybody got sh*t coming out.”
The Houston legend has only released one studio album, Deep Rooted (2015), since the streaming era began in 2010. In 2015, he won the BET I Am Hip Hop award.
Scarface has released seven albums with Geto Boys and 11 solo albums. He has accumulated three gold and three platinum albums, and his catalog includes collaborations with Jay-Z, Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., UGK, and Ludacris.
Scarface was honored alongside Rakim with the inaugural Hip Hop Grandmaster Awards by Nas and The Paid in Full Foundation in 2023. The two legends were granted 500,000 dollars and a health care plan.