This is about who really controls rap.

Anyone can start a record company. They basically represent an artist and create business for the artist. The “Big Four” refers to the four biggest record companies Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI Group and Warner Music Group. These four are parent companies of a bunch of other recording labels.

Any big change La Face wants to make Sony has to approve it. Universal Music Group is the biggest group because it has the biggest number of record labels within the group. Since February 2006 it was brought and is now owned by a French Media Corporation Vivendi Universal. In April 2006, they dropped the Universal and is known only by Vivendi.

That’s right rap lovers a French man has the final word on the lyrics used in your music. So, even though Shawn Carter makes executive decisions but he doesn’t make the big decisions. Vivendi does the big decision making. Even though Vivendi is not well-known they’ve been around since 1853 as a water company. It wasn’t until the 1990s when the company moved into the entertainment sector, buying entertainment companies.

According to a report from MSNBC in May 2006 Vivendi paid $12 million dollars to settle an alleged charge. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer confirmed that the company was being investigated under charges of bribing radio companies for more airplay of certain artists. The artists allegedly included Nick Lachey, Ashlee Simpson, Lindsay Lohan and Big Tymers. The Attorney General probably decided to check things out when he heard an Ashlee Simpson song being played on three different radio stations at the same time.

Bribery is just one of the problems of one company owning so many record labels. In an August 2005, Time Magazine article “Why You Can’t Ignore Kanye” it was reported that

“Statistics consistently show that 70% of hip-hop is consumed by young white audiences, but a century of anecdotal evidence is similarly irrefutable: white kids think it's cool to be black, which means the other 30% sets the trends and runs the show.”
-TIME MAGAZINE (August 2005)

What does this mean? It means that rap does not always accurately portray African Americans, or any other group of people. The stereotypes will continue to be perpetrated as long as there’s someone who buys into them, and buys the CDs. My question is would rap be so popular if African Americans were not portrayed as being gangsters, drug dealers, drug users, ignorant, and as young mothers with 5 children each with different fathers. No, why would a big corporation like Vivendi take such a big risk. Who knows, a positive African American CD may of come out already and didn’t have the proper backing for anyone to hear it.