EX.732 Repairing an Exploitative Recording Industry
House music pioneer Vince Lawrence and law professor Dr. Olufunmilayo Arewa unpack how record companies have undermined Black musicians—and what we can do to enact change. This past week, Resident Advisor screened and distributed a new, award-winning documentary called Taking Back the Groove. It tells the story of Bronx-born disco legend Richie Weeks, whose song "Rock Your World" with Weeks & Co. climbed to #1 on the dance charts in the 1980s. Like many Black artists throughout American recording history, his talent was strip-mined to enrich corporate record labels. In the movie, Weeks and Still Music label owner Jerome Derradji narrate the story of how they clawed back the rights to Weeks' tracks, as well as the ongoing battle he's had to wage to restore his legacy and ownership over his creative work. This story is, sadly, perennial, especially for artists of colour and otherwise marginalised musicians who continue to be sidelined by major players in the music industry. In this RA Exchange, Vince Lawrence—a Chicago-based house music producer and original founder of Trax Records—speaks with Washington DC-based guest Dr. Funmi Arewa, a graduate of Harvard Law School and UC Berkeley, and a current professor at George Mason University, where she teaches business law in the creative industries. The two engage in a fascinating discussion about the history of the recording industry and the exploitation of marginalised artists that runs through its fabric. How do we make it easier for artists to claim things that are rightfully theirs? What if we could create incentives to create fairness at the core of how record labels function? Listen to their thoughts on these questions in the full episode.