Racism DOES exist in our Industry
I went to a conference once and went to an event on a hotel roof in downtown LA to meet the president of a big company. I was shocked to see that I was literally the ONLY black person in the entire room of 400 people. In all fairness, there were at least 8 other blacks in the room but they were walking around with trays of hors d’oeuvres and giving me that look like ‘help us get the hell out of here, you must be somebody important.’ I literally felt like I was in a scene from a slave movie. It was disgusting and this company which is a HUGE company in the industry consistently gets LOW marks for diversity but they make a TON of money from Black product. A few years ago I would have revealed who it is but I won’t do it here.
Another example, I called a record label and spoke to the white head of the label who told me … and I quote “I can’t believe you actually have the nerve to call me.” I was shocked but not surprised. This is a label that makes a TON of money of rap product.
There are people on the radio side who play a TON of black music and have a ton of black concerts and events who want NOTHING to do with black people in the industry no matter how many pictures they take cheesing it up with black rappers. This does not apply to all of them but way too many to count.
Racism is always ridiculous but when it’s evident that the perpetrators are only here to make money off the black talent there is not much that can be done especially when the black artists don’t speak up. They are the ones with the true power to change the situation.
