In part three of Minister Louis Farrakhan’s interview with Sway Calloway, he spoke on record executives’ alleged deal with private jail owners, radio stations fueling beef between artists, and more.
During his conversation, Farrakhan referred to record labels as “Satanic” on several occasions. He also spoke on an alleged meeting between private jail owners and record executives, which was said to have been held in order to control the type of rap music being released.
Too $hort, who spoke with HipHopDX in a past interview about Jive Records not allowing him to release positive music, was also discussed during the interview.
“These private owners of jails met with the record executives,” Minister Louis Farrakhan said. “These are real Satanic people, brother. You can’t go to them with a decent rap and intelligent rap. They’ll tell you quick ‘Oh, that won’t sell’…Too $hort, he wanted to make a clean rap. And the man told him—He was a Jewish fella—Said ‘That won’t sell, but I tell you what. You make a rap that’s as dirty and low-down as you can make it. And if you do that, the next time we’ll let you do this one that you wanna make.’ Even the radio stations are complicit…I’m on the radio. I’m playing King Louie’s beef and somebody is pushing Lil Herb’s beef. So, as these beefs are played over the radio then each of them have followers. Then the fight starts in the streets, in the clubs.”
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Farrakhan later compared record deals in which artists are given advances and financial assistance for their recordings and advertising/marketing, commonly known as 360 deals, to sharecropping.
“Now, they put up the money for the recording,” he said. “For the advertising of your album. And they have their people in radio to play your music. Now the advance that they give you—One of the first things you wanna do is get some bling-bling, so you can look like the other rappers who are very successful. The owner of the record company has a Jewish brother that’s in the jewelry business. So, he makes you a nice little bling-bling. And you can buy a little car and ride in the neighborhood like a king. And then when it comes time to settle. ‘How did I do? Well, I did pretty good, but they say I didn’t bring in enough money on the album. So, I owe them money.’ That’s the same thing your great-grandmother did on the plantation.”
