Irv Gotti And Suge Knight Planned To Unionize Artists

thernbroom

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:wow: just imagined if it went ahead

In the early 2000s, it was rumored that Irv, along with Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight and Rap-A-Lot CEO James Prince, was looking to start a black-owned record distribution company. Gotti, however, revealed that the now-aborted plan was much bigger.

“It wasn’t a distribution; it was a union. In the music business, the artists, we have no union. There’s no health care, it’s nothing like that. It should be done,” Gotti said, crediting Suge with devising the plan.

“It was all his plan, and it was a hell of a plan,” Irv said of the union that would include all artists of every genre. “He was like, ‘OK, say you got a million-dollar budget. We’re gonna make the record label make it a million and one.’ Now, this will all get recouped back to the artist, but that hundred thousand will go for the union.”

Under the plan, record labels would front the union dues to artists by including the extra money in their recording budgets. The artist would then have to pay the label back the recoupable costs, just as they would with any advance when their album is sold. In theory, the deal would provide artists with necessary health care and retirement plan options. “Now you can take your kids to [the doctor] — because we have no insurance, no dental, no nothing,” he said. “It’ll go towards an annuity, it’ll go towards a retirement fund, so now when you’re a rapper and you aren’t making so many records no more, maybe you got a million dollars that built up when you were hot.”


Irv told Sway that he, Suge and Prince even went as far as to meet with the same labor organizers who helped set up the player’s union for Major League Baseball, but shortly after, things went awry. “Baseball, football, all the other forms of entertainment have a union, they have representatives, they have pensions, they have all this other stuff. So he was talking everything right, it was right,” Gotti said. “The Feds came in shortly after we were talking.”

In January 2003, Irv’s Murder Inc. New York offices were raided by federal instigators, and the producer and his brother Chris were later charged with money laundering and faced up to 20 years in prison. The Gotti brothers beat the charges in 2005 , but despite Irv’s claims, there was no documented link to his case and his plans to unionize the music industry.
 

youngmeezy

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I think the main problem with Gotti was that he brought way too much attention to himself so when people caught wind that he was trying to fukk up their lane the CEO's used their government connects to take them down.
 

dre

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it's a good idea in theory of course but i'm not sure i'd want someone like Suge or J Prince involved

*random MC picks up phone at 3AM*

Suge: "this Suge...the dues went up for you...i need 100K in a week or you out..."

MC: "why just me?"

Suge: "because. and just know, if you out you considered an enemy."

*hangs up*
 

Still Benefited

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Do rappers really need a union or just to spend they money more wisely? I mean if you hot for real you should be making a good amount of money where you will be straight when you retire shouldn't you unless you living beyond your means?you hand a rapper a million at they retirement and a lot of em will run through that shyt too:mjlol:....and quite frankly a lot of these nikkas don't deserve no million at retirement:laff:...they need a committee of your peers that decides how much money you deserve at the time of your retirement if they was gon do that.
 

MegaTronBomb!

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Suge would've strong armed rappers for 50k in "union dues" a year...or suckered them into giving up their masters/publishing instead...and when it came time to cash out on the union benefits after they were done rapping... he'd hit them with :ufdup: " well, since you didn't pay any money in.. i can't do anything for you, but here are your masters back:smugfavre: "


Those poor sound engineers and producers tho :to:
 

nieman

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They don't need a union. Also, a union and benefits and retirement plan are NOT the same thing. What good what a union serve if the artists have no power anyway, at least not the low profile artists?
 
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it's a good idea in theory of course but i'm not sure i'd want someone like Suge or J Prince involved

*random MC picks up phone at 3AM*

Suge: "this Suge...the dues went up for you...i need 100K in a week or you out..."

MC: "why just me?"

Suge: "because. and just know, if you out you considered an enemy."

*hangs up*

lmao. i can picture suge saying some shyt like that too
 

Taadow

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Iono about the union...but the distribution would've been (and still could be) HUGE.
 

zerozero

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brehs. If Irv Gotti, Suge Knight and J Prince come to you with a business proposal

weUCL.gif
 
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