Call Made For A Music Artists’ Union

Unionizing might work in a lot of professions, but the rap game would be a very interesting place to see the practice utilized, to say the least.

Rapper Big K.R.I.T. apparently feels that the hip hop industry desperately needs a union. Problems like unfair contract deals from labels that are designed to keep the rappers hanging are very common. Maybe the rapper is onto something, and he recently expressed his concern over the issue.

K.R.I.T. sat down with Ebro Darden on Apple Music 1 as he talked about his new album, Digital Roses Don’t Die. The rapper said that a support system for rappers where they can collaborate and succeed is desperately needed.

We were talking about a union before we got on this show. And I was like, ‘Musicians have a union, most people have a union, why artists don’t have a union? I see mad artists they go through the process. They either have a hit record or they don’t. They get signed, they get dropped.

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The rapper added that not having a support system leads to all sorts of problems in a rapper’s life. Getting into drugs, being dropped down to the streets, while getting no help with it are all avoidable according to the rapper, if there was a union to help out.

They break down, they get on drugs, they go to the streets. But there’s no collective to call and be like, ‘Hey, man. I need to go to rehab. Hey, man. I need help with these bills. I acquired too much. What’s a good lawyer I can go to? What is the deal I signed?’

K.R.I.T. said that a union can work as a wisdom bank for newcomers in the scene. He said that new rappers in the scene could learn from the veterans so that they don’t fall into the same traps that the ones before did.

I think we’re at a point now with all this information we have, and you got artists that I know made millions of dollars off of their deals, which I didn’t, but even they don’t want to be where they’re signed to so who do you talk to? How many people do you put together? How much money do you pay a month to unlock that information with OGs and we all can connect?

The rapper also talked about his latest album. Even though he just got through with releasing it, he’s already back on the grind as he consistently works on a new collaborative effort alongside Wiz Khalifa, Smoke DZA and Girl Talk, with title Full Court Press.

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