Yea man. There's a few people in here who knows what the business really is. And a shytload more who are talking out their ass, based on tv and "the club"
The club is not the charts. The club is not radio spins. The tv is not a deed to a house. A vlog is not a title to a lambo. All the bragging these dudes do, I've only ever seen one person EVER show a title or deed. That was bow wow on his lambo
Dudes getting sued left and right for not returning renting jewelry. Dudes getting jacked and the robbers can't even sell the chains cause the diamonds are fake
But the masses aren't on the Internet having these convos. shyt they barely one world star. Talk to the masses and they don't know shyt when you actually have a hip hop convo. They don't who is signed to who. Who's cool with who. And have a bunch of made up stories of "oh you didn't know jay and busta was cousins" type of nonsense
But to answer your question. Yes. 5 cents a record. I'll break it down. There's a famous saying. Do you want to be famous or do you want to be rich??
Artist A is nice as fukk. He rap for a nikka who knows jayz. Jayz wants to sign him. Well this dude has no sales, no fans, no shows, no leverage. So jay is gonna be like you basically sign with me or bye bye. Nobody knows you. Nobody cares
You'll sign for the 5 cents. He might offer you 200k for all your publishing. And advance you 200k. Then take 50% of everything else you make (360).
You think you balling. You on tv with jay. You making high priced videos. You got money for DOWN PAYMENTS on cars and houses. You taking care of your boys. You opening for jay at stadiums. You got a million dollar budget
But you forgot you not getting shyt when you sell if you sell. You gotta pay back that million dollar budget. You gotta pay back that 200k advance. You getting half your show money gone. And if you flop, welcome to the shelf... You don't make your own hit again, you'll never get another release.
But hey. You're famous. You're the young guns. You were on and everyone knew you. Next thing you back in philly with little to no money and nobody cares cause you ain't making no hits
Artist b is like a currency. You might have had another deal before so you kinda known. Or you just grinded on your own. You charted once, very low. You sold 20k albums on your own. You do shows and can get 3000 people to show up. You have 4 labels who want to sign you
Well now you can start making demands. Hey if def jam won't give you a non refundable advance, then Sony will. If Sony won't let you keep your publishing, then Atlantic will. You can negotiate. You have power. You can get a dollar a record. You can get a release date written in the contract.
A j cole didn't have a buzz. He probably got screwed on rap. But he produces. Producers gonna always make more. For one he doesn't have to pay other producers. And he gets writing credit and publishing AND producing pay and publishing. So he gets paid twice off all his records