Lil Wayne releases New Album

Coming this week Lil Wayne will be dropping his newest album entitled I am Not a Human Being II. It’s been a little while since Lil Wayne dropped his last album The Carter IV in 2011. Since then he has been on countless features, with heavyweights like Drake, Keyshia Cole, French Montana, Rick Ross and more. With his last album he easily sold 964,000, so music enthusiasts are waiting to see if Lil Wayne has what it takes to top the current king of the charts, Justin Timberlake. 

One advantage Timberlake had over Lil Wayne was the lack of competitive releases dropped at the same time as The 20/20 Experience. This week Lil Wayne’s album is scheduled to drop on the same day as One Republic, Alan Jackson, and the Strokes.

Some of Lil Wayne’s features on this new album include Nicki Minaj, Drake, Future, Soulja Boy and more.

Wayne has been in the Hip hop game since the late 90’s, releasing 11 Albums and fitting in countless hit songs and mixtapes in between. Lil Wayne's recently told the world that he plans to retire after his following album The Carter V.

I don’t feel he can retire from the game just yet though, let’s take Jay-Z for example. Jay-Z was supposed to retire in the late 2000’s with The Black Album and more than 5 years later he is still making hit music, albums, and he is scheduled to tour later on in the year with Justin Timberlake. My point is, when a person finds something they are passionate about, it’ll be hard for them to stop. So I think we we’ll be able to catch Lil Wayne making more music after The Carter V.

However, I must say in these last two albums I would love to hear some different content come from Lil Wayne. I really enjoyed the Lil Wayne that dropped The Carter III, which was a good quality album. Great collaborations, musicianship, and memorable songs. 

In order to find out about this latest album, go and purchase it now I Am Not a Human Being II.

The 20/20 Experience

Yes, Justin Timberlake is back with his third studio album the 20/20 experience. JT has taken a seven-year break since his last album Future/Sex Love Sounds was released in 2006. Since then he has spent time on the big screen and of course working on his new project.

Timberlake’s label RCA Records was expecting him to sell 500,000 to 600,000 units. As of this week, the pop sensation reached over 900,000 units. Only 19 albums in history have sold more than 900,000 in their debut week, and Justin Timberlake is involved in 3 of those 19. He reached this goal with N Sync’s No strings Attached, and the groups Celebrity album.

His albums success has to do with his great following, along with his unique marketing tactics. Timberlake had a full week on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” promoting his album, along with performing at the Grammy’s. This promotion didn’t just happen though; JT began negotiating with Fallon as far as a year before the album dropped.

The 20/20 experience was also streamed 7.73 million times via Spotify during its first week.

Spotify had a lot to do with me going out to purchase the album. Spotify’s unique platform allows you ear the entire album without download, which gave me a chance to check the album out before purchasing it.

Justin Timberlake brought the music industry a groovy project. We can hear a taste of R&B, Pop, Soul, and Hip-hop all in one. That’s guaranteed when you are working with legendary producer Timbaland.

Everyone has heard “Suit & Tie”, but if I can recommend two of my favorite songs from the album it would have to be “Strawberry Bubblegum” and “Tunnel Vision”. If you are familiar with old classics, a lot them give the lyrics a rest and let the band groove for a while. I feel that same concept, in these two songs and a few others.

Don’t let me have all of the fun though, go out and PURCHASE Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience.

Music Artists Seeking Royalties

Recently, I had the opportunity of listening to a few podcasts on Entertainment law via iTunes U. If you’ve never tuned in, it’s a great resource to staying abreast on legal updates within the Entertainment industry.

In particular, I tuned in to Episode 36 of the Entertainment Law Update podcast by Gordon P. Firemark, esquire. This episode made me aware of a recently settled lawsuit with Universal Music Group and Eminem’s Producers. The case has been going on since 2007 where the court ruled that Eminem's digital songs should be treated as a sale rather than a license. Then in 2010 they returned to court with the outcome that digital music should be treated as a license, where the artist will receive 50% in royalties. The settlement terms aren’t available for the public eye, but this case is certainly progress for many other artists who are still seeking justice for their digital sales. This mainly includes artists who have signed a contract before 2003, such as The Temptations, Kenny Rogers, and Rick James.

My business plan is a music venue and restaurant, so of course this case stands relevant to my particular field of interest. For example, in my venue I plan to host karaoke nights that encourage customers to come out and take a stab at performing some of their favorite artists songs. The Temptations, Eminem, and Rick James are definitely some artists whose popular music can be found in a karaoke machine. The artists 50% will come from me paying a license fee through a performance rights organization like BMI, SESAC, or ASCAP, but it’s always good to know the artists are being paid correctly.

In Episode 38 of the Entertainment Law Update podcast, I found a similar case where Ray Charles’ children are fighting for the rights to their father’s songs. In 1978, Congress amended the Copyright Act for artists who signed away their song rights before they became stars, allowing them to possibly gain back those rights. The artist, or in this case the family would simply have to wait 35 years from the publication date, then follow a strict procedure. Charles’ 12 children crossed the first barrier of this process allowing them to reclaim copyrights on almost 60 of their father’s songs.

Like the UMG case, the outcome can be applied to my business plan in terms of the performance rights organization I plan to purchase my license from. Seeing that this case is fairly new, I want to make sure that my performance rights organization is distributing proper royalties to Charles’ family if his music is played in my venue. Throughout the rest of the year we can expect to see more artists go through similar disputes, hopefully their final ruling will come out just as good.

The 40/40 clubs Liabilities and Lawsuits

In my last post, I took time to pay homage to some of the Hip Hop industry’s entrepreneurs and product spokespersons. Of these artists, Jay-z has definitely set himself apart as a Hip-hop mogul and entrepreneur. Though, with any grain of success also comes a hurdle of problems and disputes, let’s take Jay-z’s 40/40 club as an example. Although he has made millions with his chain of venues, he has also gone through his share of lawsuits with the venue.

The 40/40 club is a franchise of lounges, clubs and sports bars owned by Desiree Gonzalez, Juan Perez, and Jay-z. Their first club opened in 2003 in New York, since then they’ve expanded to Las Vegas, and they implanted one in the New York Nets newly built Barclays Center.

In 2007 the 40/40 club faced a Federal lawsuit with BMI for “unauthorized public performance of musical compositions. A representative from BMI attended the club and heard a plethora of songs from their catalog illegally played, some of which included Michael Jackson, Kanye West, and R. Kelly.

In 2009 Jay-z’s 40/40 club was sued for publicized assault against its customers. In most cases assault serves as the threat, where as battery will be the action that took place in carrying out the threat. In this case, video evidence was archived of the 40/40 club’s security guards belligerently beating down two customers. Shortly after, up to 12 of the venues security guards were fired for disorderly conduct, the remainders of the lawsuits findings were kept silent.

In my opinion, the venue probably wanted to keep things as quiet as possible in order to maintain their positive public image.

In 2011 the tables turned and Jay-z filed a lawsuit against MLB player David Ortiz, over the 40/40 club’s trademark. Apparently, David Ortiz who visited Jay-z’s club on a number of occasions then went to open his infringing “Forty/Forty club” in the Dominican Republic. Jay-z and his team had plans of suing Ortiz for trading on the clubs name and value, which caused “marketplace confusion and damage”. However, a day before the proceedings began, the two parties settled the dispute in principle. They settled for $5 million, and David Ortiz would have to change the name of his club, pull down his www.fortyforty.net website, and cease all promotional activities.

There is much to be learned in all of these examples. For future venue owners, it would be wise to make sure you have the proper licensing to any and every song played in your venue. Secondly, hold responsibility for your security and staff to avoid assault and battery charges. Lastly, always protect your franchise through trademarks; you never know who may be trying to make a fortune on your brand.

Hip-Hop Artists Making Moves

Hip-Hop originally started with graffiti, break dancing, the disc jockey, and rap. Like most African American founded music, it became a way for blacks to be heard on a huge scale. On this journey of being heard nationally, Hip-Hop artists have become much more than emcees. Hip-Hop has given birth to a slue of business-oriented entrepreneurs and spokespersons, and today I’d like to highlight some of these iconic artists.

In my opinion, Run DMC was one of the first in Hip-Hop lineage to successfully endorse a consumer brand. The group was famous for having great skills on the microphone, and wearing the name brand Adidas in the process. At the time, Adidas was a brand that was associated with the drug dealers, and Run DMC was passionate about changing that stereotype. In fact, Adidas sweat suits and sneakers became a uniform for the group, and they passed the trend on to their fans. Without any thoughts of compensation, the group then came out with a song called “My Adidas”, which made it hard for the corporate company to ignore the group. Run DMC ended up getting a million dollar endorsement deal, paving the way for many more Hip-Hop artists to come.

Two decades later, we see Hip-Hop artist Rick Ross joining forces with famous sneaker brand Reebok, for a hefty endorsement deal. In the past, Reebok has collaborated with Jay-Z, Swizz Beatz and 50 cent just to name a few.

This is certainly a trend in the Hip-hop culture, and the music business in general. As digital music continues to be popular, hard copy albums are becoming a thing of the past. Artists can no longer rely on album sales and touring as a main source of income. It is important for artists to get involved in endorsement deals and business ventures that will promote them as an artist, and create more avenues of income.

Below are a few more Hip-hop artists and their various business ventures.

Sean “Diddy” Combs

• Sean John clothing line
•  Enyce clothing line
•  “Justin’s” up scale restaurant
• CEO of Bad Boy Records
• Pepsi, ProActiv, and Ciroc endorsements
• Blue Flame Marketing Firm

Sean “Jay-Z” Carter

•  Co-Founder of Roc-A-Fella Records
•  Stake holder for the Brooklyn Nets
• Bacardi endorsement
•  Owner of the 40/40 club
• Rocawear Clothing line
• Active Rap career