Joyner Lucas is going through it right now.
After accusing Karen Civil of stealing $60K from him and igniting what can only be described as a war between Civil and artists including Meek Mill, Cam'ron and a woman who claimed Civil used charity to both make profits and promote her career, Lucas took to Twitter to air out his feelings on the music industry and its predatory nature, as well as share a video of the late legend DMX speaking on the same subject.
Shot in a poorly-lit space, Lucas' video shows DMX speaking for nearly three minutes about album contracts, career expectations and how both A&Rs and labels use and exploit artists. Speaking with a wisdom only DMX could, the Exodus rapper went into painstaking detail about the trials and tribulations rappers go through in the modern era.
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Throughout the video Lucas chimes in with his feelings about rappers getting signed after independent come-ups and fleshed out his feelings on the matter in a series of tweets following the DMX video.
"When you come from nothing, these labels know your in a position to take what they give you," Lucas tweeted. "Your blinded by the advance. They easily take advantage of knowing that you cant just go get the support you need elsewhere."
Explaining the situation surrounding his viral single, "I'm Not Racist," Lucas continued.
"I was signed when I released “I’m not racist”, and I didn’t even release it through the label. instead I dropped it on tunecore for under 50$. When it blew up, the label claimed the record within 24 hours. Dont you think it’s fucked up I don’t own my masters to im not racist?"
Finishing by referencing his single "Ramen & OJ" with Lil Baby, Lucas wrote "Fun fact…, Roman and oj was released on distro kid for 20 dollars. And it’s one of my biggest records yet. If This went thru a major label, I would of been getting a 16% royalty which means 16 cent from every dollar if I’m lucky. This is industry standard. Smh," and made sure to thank DMX one more time, tweeting, "RIP @DMX thank you for putting me on game and inspiring me to pursue my own journey independently."
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Lucas never mentioned Civil by name, or alluded to that situation at all in the tweets, but coming just days after his accusations of theft and subsequent fallout spread across the internet by wildfire, it seems like these virtual thoughts are tied in. Whether or not Lucas is ever paid the $60K he believes he was cheated out of is yet to be seen but, based on his statements and Civil's reactions to them, this story is far from finished.
What do you think of the Joyner Lucas/Karen Civil situation? If you haven't heard their whole Clubhouse conversation yet, go listen here and let us know what you think in the comments.