How a Digital Rapper’s Flubbed Roll-Out Is Everything That’s Wrong With the Music Business (Guest Column)
variety.comIndustry Blackout At some point, every person who works in the music industry has to grapple with the fact that its not-all-that-distant past is rooted in racism and financial exploitation.
Capitol Records is no exception. The 80 year-old label’s legacy of Black artists includes Nat King Cole, Tina Turner and George Clinton, but its roster has featured few others throughout its history, right up to the present.
In 2022, the label rolled out FN Meka, a digital rapper so offensive in pulling from the worst stereotypes of how appropriators view our culture, that it single-handedly set back the clock on equality.
The controversy was initially called out by Black music executives and notable figures in the hip-hop community and led our advocacy group, Industry Blackout, to issue a statement addressing the matter directly to Capitol Records.
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