Recently, one of the biggest up and coming female rappers (Megan Thee Stallion) was rising the charts and suddenly just disappeared. While most were wondering what happened, yesterday she released a live video stream explaining what has happened and it's complicated. It seems that one of the labels that she is signed to is refusing to release any of her new music. And while this whole situation has to be frustrating to the artist, this does bring up a really good topic for any artist that is currently independent.
When signing a new contract, there are a lot of expectations of what's to come and then there's a reality of all the fine print. Some of the positives with signing to a label are that you take some of the work off of you. You have more marketing opportunities that you don't have to negotiate all by yourself. But when signing anything legally binding you must ALWAYS get the proper legal channels involved so that you can understand what you are signing.
Too often does an artist just sign a label deal and once they start to reach their full potential and start to have music educated people in their camp, that's when the greed comes and things can get sticky.
It's important to understand that although it may not be fair when you sign a bad contract, it's still business and you should have read the contract. It later just turns into a learning lesson. Be careful.
But hey if you didn't get to see the video by now, check it out below and tell me what you think.