thaFormula.com – Sales wise were you satisfied with how “Game Theory” ended up doing for you guys?
Black Thought – You have to be. Like you have to accept that and shit. Happy or not happy, what the fuck does that matter? Like the record came out, it was lauded the way it was lauded and all you can do is keep it moving. I never made a cent from record sales ever. In all of my career since 1987 to 2007, my shit has never been about making a quarter from selling a record because I haven’t. I have never made a record sale royalty ever. Never, ever, ever! So that’s how much of a fuck I give about royalties. I don’t give a fuck. I don’t make albums to sell records. I make albums so I can continue doing shows and getting work and doing what I do to make money. I need to sell a fucking billion records to make a dollar.
thaFormula.com – You never made a dollar off of one record?
Black Thought – Not 50 cents. I never made 20 cents off record sales. I make money from my records being played. I make money from royalties and shit, I make money from publishing and writing my songs, but mechanical record sales royalties, nah that’s a fucking fantasy. Yeah that’s how the industry is.
from theformula.
So that’s coming from a guy that’s 9 albums deep into a successful career. Looks like the current business model (for the artist) is a bit flawed eh? RIAA is for the artists, right??
When you spend two million dollars to make a rap record and can barely sell gold with it, why would you expect to make any record royalties??