Why can’t any group, crew, or family stay together in the industry?
Author: Drills
The Week of Dec. 31st, 2018

It is always big news. It is always multiple stories. The bottom line is 2 reasons…MONEY and EGO. To touch all readers, I’ll stick with the most successful groups or crews for examples. Puff(Diddy) had the Lox, 112, Black Rob, Mase, Faith, Carl Thomas,a legendary production crew, and a slew of young talent. The Roc-a-fella family consisted of a great power team at the management level(Biggs, Jay, Dame) along with Jay-Z, Beanie, Camron, Bleek, and also had a crew of young talent as artists. G-Unit has its 3 original members but for those who were familiar with the underground crew….G-Unit was an army. Even on the mainstream level, losing Game and Young Buck was horrible business-wise which added the reach to the South and West Coast respectively. This applies to the crew….50 is good. All seemed to be on top of the world with no end in sight. All ended abruptly with only seemingly small/ fixable issues to point to.
This business creates monsters. Everybody has the same I’ll do anything to succeed attitude at the start but when success comes it all changes. It’s a me or you have to go attitude. If its me or you….it’s always you. Instead of sticking together and making quality music, the focus is not ever going back to the lifestyle they lived before the success. This stance goes for any crew in any business really from the board room to the streets. I really believe in the team aspect of a business.  If you have a team that is all striving for a better life, you stay grinding until you all achieve it. Of course, the head of the company makes the most money but when the people on the lower rungs of the ladder (in this case artists) are getting short changed to pay for “big homeys” 3rd home or 6th car…something is really wrong. At least groom the crew to be big homeys themselves. And yes, I’m aware not all are cut out for it but they don’t get thrown to the wayside. They remain part of the team and their tenure makes them an important part of the movement. I think we get this wrong in the industry especially in Hip Hop.
In closing, money will come and ego has no place in a team. It doesn’t work in sports, entertainment, wall street, or the streets. With all the history of money and ego destroying teams, I’m confused about how often this happens. My goal is to change that. I’ll keep my team tight. Hopefully, 10 to 20 people will keep their teams tight from reading this and convince 10 to 20 other people to do the same. Hey, its a start.

Food for thought…..you do the dishes!