Scarface Believes Hip-Hop Is ‘Dumbed Down’ By ‘People That Don’t Look Like Us’

Rap legend Scarface has been around far too long to accept the outsiders who “dumb down” hip-hop culture and streaming platforms that reap the most profit.

The “My Block” rapper recently appeared on “The Fly Zone Radio Show” with Trick Trick where he unleashed his gripe with the current state of hip-hop that allows “people that don’t look like us” to control the industry.

“It seems like the whole culture is being dumbed down now, and I want to be as offensive as I possibly f*king can when I say this, again… The culture is being so f*king dumbed down and manipulated and controlled by people that don’t look like us,” Scarface said.

“So these motherf*kers don’t look like me, they’re not creators of this culture, but they want to control it and dictate who come in, how they come out, the stream… We don’t f*king stream, man, we buy records, we ride this sh*t around in our car.”

The Houston native directed his rant against the streaming platforms that have altered the amount an artist can make from their music. What used to be dollars has turned into cents, and Scarface isn’t a fan.

“We can’t sell a $10 record no more, we got to sell an under-a-penny stream, you tell me where the dk is and how we *uck this dk,” he continued. “We getting f**ked. … Ain’t no money in the streams for us, but it’s money in subscriptions for them.”

What’s the solution? Scarface is encouraging a boycott of streaming platforms where artists pull their music and force the companies to pay them their worth. He also would like to see the return of record stores and small businesses that were wiped out by streaming.

“Pull that sh*t off them f*king platforms, and don’t allow them to stream your sh*t for free,” he said.

“You f*ked a whole lot of people when you f*ked over the mom and pops. You f*ked them. You knocked them people out of jobs. Ain’t no records being sold no more.”

Times have changed since Scarface’s music debut in 1989. He remembers a time when an artist could set themselves up for life with the release of one album. Now, streaming giants like Spotify are able to pay an artist between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream and receive a 30% revenue split.

“If I sell 65 million albums, then I ain’t got to make no more f*king albums,” he said. “If I sell 65 million f*king singles at a dollar, then why am I rapping? I ain’t got to do it no more. … You’re not finna prostitute me. And I wish that they would stop letting them prostitute my f**king people, bruh.”

Apple Music pays double what Spotify pays with artists receiving an average pay-per-stream rate of $0.01–one cent. With the current rates, a single requires 150 million streams to reach platinum status and an album needs 1.5 billion streams for the same accolade.

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