I transcribed some key parts of the conference call I participated in with Grammy award winner Rhymefest about the Performance Rights Act (HR 848). As a program director and radio DJ for a major college radio station, I feel lucky to be enlightened about this issue, especially considering the Cathy Hughes generated propaganda that’s being played on the radio. Just today I heard one of her infomercials on a hip hop station in Atlanta. Something to keep in mind before reading and learning more about HR 848 is that the only countries other than the USA that don’t compensate artists for songs played on the radio are Iran, North Korea, and China. Here’s Rhymefest, in his own words:

On chosing to publicly support HR 848:

“Once I got a clear understanding of what the Performance Rights Act was, I was definitely sure that it was not what it is being touted to be by people on the radio station who have that pulpit to just say anything, and the community believes it because that’s where we get a lot of our information from. My issue is that when you think of a Rhymefest, or Talib Kweli, or Mos Def, or Common, we don’t get played on Radio One. We don’t get played on Clear Channel. They play Soulja Boy and  ”Birthday Sex” and all that stuff. We get played overseas. We get played in Australia. We get played in Europe. I just got done doing a tour in Israel with Mark Ronson. I visited the Palestinian territories and all of this, and they knew who Rhymefest was. Why? Because the radio stations play our music. Well, the European artists and the artists that are from other countries, they get paid for performing those songs; when those songs are played on the radio those artists get compensated. We don’t get compensated because our laws don’t reciprocate for their artists. So my issue is not with black radio — and it’s so interesting that [some say] “they’re going to kill black radio!” [...] This is not a black issue, it’s a universal fairness issue.”

Rhymefest breaks the Performance Righs Act down, Seinfeld-style:

“I like to liken [the Performance Rights Act] to when you see Seinfeld. Someone writes the words that [Jerry] Seinfeld would act on his sitcoms. But then, Seinfeld would act them out and NBC would pay the writer and NBC would pay [Jerry] Seinfeld for performing it. Then NBC sells ads, gets sponsorships, stuff like that. That’s how they make money. Well the radio station is equivalent to that NBC, that ABC, that network. When they play Aretha Franklin ["Respect] on the radio, Otis Reddin gets paid because he wrote it, but Aretha Franklin gets nothing. As many times as you’ve heard “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.” she never got paid one cent. But yet the radio stations, who make $16 billion a year turn around and use that song to get ads and sponsors and promote concerts where artists, many times come through and perform for free, for promotion, but the radio station charges for tickets. Now the radio station is making hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and never has to compensate the artists for the music they use to make the money. That’s what this bill is about.”

On Al Sharpton and Cathy Hughes hypocrisy:

“Al Sharpton came down to Detroit and he spit his hot sixteen bars. When you listen to the reasons that they’re saying, you don’t even have to listen deep to realize it’s mis-information. He says, on one hand, ‘these big record labels want to kill black radio because we got Barack Obama elected and they only want Rush Limbaugh to be able talk.’ What sense does that make with the issue? And once he spit his hot sixteen bars, he gathered himself and left. And the people went crazy, ‘they hate Barack Obama and that’s why they want to kill our radio!’ [...] I said, “calm down. Beware black people when your leaders rile you up and then leave the room and leave you here. Beware black people when your leaders rile you up like Cathy Hughes and don’t even show up.” And this was important to her? In that room was John Conyers, Al Sharpton, George Clinton, all these artists, the whole town of Detroit [and] she didn’t even show up. But [Kathy Hughes] will pay Al Sharpton a couple grand to come out and rile people up and then leave because his time is so short. Also, Al Sharpton didn’t even support Barack Obama when he was running. Cathy Hughes is a Republican. What does this got to do with Barack Obama!? No one really wants to talk about the issue. And when you ask why, it’s because one executive said, ‘if we have to pay artists a penny, that’s too much.’ Another radio executive said, ‘I would rather slit my throat than to pay an artist for using their music on the radio.’ And when you have inflamatory language like that — here you got Cathy Hughes who’s about 71 years old saying that John Conyers is so old he can’t even hear music because he’s 83. Listen to that type of language, that language of division. That’s the same thing David Banner was saying about Al Sharpton, and now you’re going to use this language against Representative John Conyers who’s done nothing since he’s been elected except help black business? I believe they’re doing it to protect the little bit of pocket change that’s in their pocket. They don’t want to give it out. But then you got Cathy Hughes son who’s running Radio One who just gave himself a ten million dollar bonus. Ten million dollars!”

Learn more about this issue at musicFIRST.

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