A roundtable of revered individuals within the hip-hop community recently joined NPR's Frannie Kelley and A Tribe Called Quest's Ali Shaheed Muhammad in New York to discuss their experiences in 1993, better known as hip-hop's "golden year."
The panel included Faith Newman, Prince Paul, Ralph McDaniels, Mike Dean and Stretch Armstrong. From record collecting to studio time to label deals, they cover a lot of topics as well as misconceptions that occurred in the rap industry during the early '90s. One particular issue that's brought up a number of times is the discrepancy between how much a rapper got paid and how much a record label made off of them. McDaniels, who directed music videos along with hosting his television show Video Music Box, reveals that the budget for Wu-Tang Clan's "C.R.E.A.M." video was only $30,000 despite the fact that the label raked in millions off the record. They also talk about touring and rappers abusing drugs.
There's a lot of insight throughout this hour-long conversation. Listen to the full episode below.
[via NPR]
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