In an era where musicians and other artists are acting as cord-cutters and eliminating the presence of the middle man as much as possible in terms of their work and how it's distributed, one hip-hop magnate has come out in defense of the traditional, record label-centric path.
The-Dream talked about the advantages of going with a label during a recent appearance on Sway In The Morining, the flagship program on the Sirius XM radio channel Shade 45. "Don't become no independent artist and be on SoundCloud and y'all not making no paper just to say you independent," he told Sway during the interview. Strong words that go against the grain, but if you look at his history in the music business, it's not hard to understand why The-Dream would believe this.
Since 2007, the man has released five studio albums of his own, as well as written chart-toppers for the likes of Justin Bieber, Rihanna and many more. He also owns all the masters to his solo recordings, which is huge. However, in the year 2017, the anti-independent train of thought, especially in light of what Chance the Rapper did with Coloring Book, might be outdated.
Check out the interview below.