Kendrick Lamar Deserves More Money From His Label, Says Suge Knight
Kendrick Lamar and Game aren’t getting a fair deal from their record label, says former Death Row CEO Suge Knight.
Months after he criticized Lamar’s small paychecks, Knight decided to address the controversy that erupted around these comments. In his opinion, Lamar ends up giving his bosses too much money from album sales and tour revenue. Suge firmly believes that the acclaimed rapper is getting “f***ed.”
During his chat with BET, the former rap mogul said that he never intended to insult Kendrick Lamar or Game while chatting with Arsenio Hall. Instead of taking issue with them, he was more concerned about the way these guys are getting treated by the music industry. Knight also took a moment to break down how Lamar is unfairly represented by his label.
“Not only do these companies get the royalties and the publishing, if [the artist] do a show and $100,000 come in, the manager gets 20 percent, now it’s $80,000. Kendrick gets half, the record company gets half, which is ridiculous,” Knight explained.
He added, “If you can’t live off your tour money how can you survive by being a slave [to the record contract]. Prince was able to survive being a slave because he was able to tour. If Prince had a deal like these new guys, where the record company gets half of your tour money, Prince would’ve been f***ed.”
Of course, Kendrick Lamar’s bosses feel that Suge Knight should keep his opinions to himself. Baller Status points out that Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Anthony Tiffith (aka Top Dawg) believes that Knight has everything wrong.
Check out the tweet he issued earlier this week. As you can tell, Tiffith wasn’t impressed with Suge’s assessment of his business.
TELL SUGE I SAID IF HE KAN SHOW ME 1 CHECK WE PAID 2 INTERSCOPE OFF OF R TOUING..ILL SELL HIM TDE 4 $1, NOBODY GETS SHIT OFF OUR TOURS. #TOP
— dangeroo kipawaa TDE (@dangerookipawaa) April 16, 2014
If you skipped the former Death Row CEO’s appearance on Arsenio earlier this year, then you missed out on his critique of Kendrick Lamar’s deal with Top Dawg. Knight declared that the rapper had one of the worst record deals in the entire music industry.
He explained:
“And when you look at it, it’s not so much the production company fault, but what people don’t realize is that if you’re on Universal, it’s the ship. Then Interscope get they cut, then Aftermath get they cut, then G-Unit get they cut. Then the guy who really has Game signed, it was another production company, then it came to Game. The reality is there’s more slavery now than ever.”
Do you agree that Kendrick Lamar is getting “f***ed” by his record label?
[Image via BET]
