Jul

16

Cynthia McKinney’s Plan for Hip Hop

Cynthia McKinney
By Cynthia McKinney

On Tuesday June 15th, former Atlanta Congresswoman Cynthia Mckinney gave a historic address to the Hip Hop Community, outlining the types of positions she supports and the direction she would like to see things move as she bids for another term in Congress. Below are her major talking points.

Cynthia McKinney is a strong advocate, mentor and supporter of the Hip-Hop community. Her unique popularity among the members of the Hip-Hop generation and young people across the United States of America has made her a trusted voice on behalf of producers, retailers and consumers of Hip-Hop entertainment. She believes that the Hip-Hop community has the potential to evolve into one of the strongest movements on behalf of social justice and community development. Congresswoman McKinney hosted the first Hip Hop Powershop in 2000 in Atlanta, which featured Afeni Shakur, Kevin Powell, and others as special guests. And in June of 2001 Rep. McKinney was one of only a few members of Congress who participated in Russell Simmons’ first Hip-Hop Summit in New York City. As a congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney fully endorsed Mr. Russell Simmons’ Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) 15-point national agenda which reads:

THE NATIONAL AGENDA

1. We want freedom and the social, political and economic development and empowerment of our families and communities; and for all women, men and children throughout the world.

2. We want equal justice for all without discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, creed or class.

3. We want the total elimination of poverty.

4. We want the highest quality public education equally for all.

5. We want the total elimination of racism and racial profiling, violence, hatred and bigotry.

6. We want universal access and delivery of the highest quality health care for all.

7. We want the total elimination of police brutality and the unjust incarceration of people of color and all others.

8. We want the end and repeal of all repressive legislation, laws, regulations and ordinances such as “three strikes” laws; federal and state mandatory minimum sentencing; trying and sentencing juveniles as adults; sentencing disparities between crack and powdered cocaine used; capitol punishment; the Media Marketing Accountability Act; and hip-hop censorship fines by the FCC.

9. We want reparations to help repair the lingering vestiges, damages and suffering of African Americans as a result of the brutal enslavement of generations of Africans in America.

10. We want the progressive transformation of American society into a Nu America as a result of organizing and mobilizing the energy, activism and resources of the hip-hop community at the grassroots level throughout the United States.

11. We want greater unity, mutual dialogue, program development and a prioritizing of national issues for collective action within the hip-hop community through summits, conferences, workshops, issue task forces and joint projects.

12. We want advocacy of public policies that are in the interests of hip-hop before Congress, state legislatures, municipal governments, the media, and the entertainment industry.

13. We want the recertification and restoration of voting rights for the 10 million persons who have lost their right to vote as a result of a felony conviction. Although these persons have served their time in prison, their voting rights have not been restored in 40 states in the US.

14. We want to tremendously increase public awareness and education on the pandemic of HIV/AIDS.

15. We want a clean environment and an end to communities in which poor and minority reside being deliberately targeted for toxic waste dumps, facilities and other environmental hazards that destroy the health and value of our neighborhoods.

Artist Profiling

Recent reports and growing concerns that Hip-Hop artists are uniquely being targeted by local law enforcement and federal agencies are troubling. The possibility that artists are being profiled as criminals due to their ethnic backgrounds and the genre of music they create and that they may be victims of tactics not seen since the COINTELPRO-era of former FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover is cause for great concern. Cynthia McKinney calls for a multi-level investigation and congressional hearings to arrive at the truth of the matter as well as an honest dialogue between music industry representatives, Hip-Hop artists, community leaders and law enforcement officials.

Artist Compensation

In addition, Congresswoman McKinney supported the Recording Artist Coalition’s (RAC) positions regarding the need to reform the recording industry’s standard contracts which are unjust, unfair, outdated and result in compensation being formulated with dishonest and inappropriate accounting practices. Rep. McKinney supported the RAC’s assessment of the music industry’s recording contract crisis:

* A key issue in many of the United Kingdom restraint of trade cases is the inordinately long term of the standard contract. Most major label agreements require a commitment for six to eight albums, with a term that could conceivably last well over ten years. The United Kingdom and the State of California have tried to address this problem either through court intervention or through the legislature. (No action has been taken elsewhere in the United States.) Courts in the United Kingdom have ruled that as a matter of UK law an excessively long term recording agreement, as well as other types of similar agreements in the music industry, constitutes a restraint of trade. The State of California responded by enacting Labor Code 2855, which prohibits, under certain circumstances, entertainment industry personal service contracts longer than seven years. RAC believes a legislative solution is desirable, and therefore Congress should seriously consider enacting a seven-year federal law similar to the law in California. While the California law is not perfect, Congress should consider it as a guide. Free agency in the music industry will help established artists, new artists, and independent artists. Free agency in the movie industry has been a fantastic success, increasing the economic viability of both studios and actors. In the music business, both the record labels and the recording artists will benefit from a free agency system that places a premium on success and gives artists a new degree of control over their careers. This is why a federal seven-year rule would be good public policy. It guarantees competition and innovation in the music industry.

* The majority of recording artists will never achieve financial success or independence while the very onerous recoupment policy remains a staple of the standard record agreement. As Chairman Hatch has stated in the past, this is the only industry in which, after you pay off the mortgage, the bank still owns the house. This standard recoupment policy is also a very compelling reason why Congress and the Courts should recognize that a recording artist is not an employee or independent contractor of the record company. Congress should undertake a very close examination of this policy.

* When a band signs a record contract with a major label there is almost always a “leaving member” clause. This type of clause mandates that a recording label has the right to retain the services of a leaving member of a band as a solo artist.

* The work for hire provision of the standard record agreement offers another compelling example of a provision that raises anti-competitive concerns as it denies the creator of the work the right, otherwise granted to all other copyright creators in similar circumstances, to exercise termination rights. Essentially, the work for hire provision tries to contractually deny the recording artist their termination right, even though the Copyright Law clearly does not include sound recordings as a qualifying category for work for hire status.

* Recording artists who also write their own music often must waive the full, statutory mechanical royalty rate as a precondition to signing a record contract (the “controlled compositions” clause).

* In almost all record contracts, the standard royalty is drastically reduced for all sorts of inappropriate and arbitrary reasons. For example, a recording artist will receive a reduced royalty if a record is sold in a foreign territory, if the record is sold in a PX or a military base, if the record is released in a “new format or technology,” and if the record is sold through a record club. The major labels cross-license their catalogs to record clubs, such as Columbia House and BMG Direct. The labels take enormous advances that they do not share with recording artists and pay artists based upon a 50% royalty rate. RAC is also concerned that this long-contended practice is extending to the online marketplace. With Mp3.com, for example, each of the major labels took $20 million advances on blanket licenses – advances they have not offered to share with artists. A certain amount of records will be distributed as “free goods” when in many instances the recording agreement provides that the record company may include these records in special merchandising programs. In these instances, the record company would still get paid for these records while the artist would not. Some contracts actually charge a packaging deduction against the recording artist for sales of records via the Internet. In other words, the record company does not create any packaging, but nevertheless charges the recording artist for the non-existent packaging. Sometimes these packaging charges amount to 25% of the standard list price of a record. RAC member Tom Waits sums up the situation very nicely with this prophetic line in his song “Step Right Up”: when it comes to recording contracts, “the big print giveth, and the small print taketh away.” All in all, the practices of the record industry relating to calculation of royalties warrant serious attention.

Independent Retailers

Cynthia McKinney is concerned with the unique interests and concerns of independent music retailers who often find themselves pinched and even lost between the frequently competing objectives of the major corporate chain sellers of music, Internet music websites, and the major record labels. Quite often these businesses operate in distressed rural and urban areas and represent a significant portion of the Hip-Hop music genre’s total sales. She is advocating that the economic interests of these small businesses, be recognized and adequately responded. These Independent, “mom and pop” stores are more than just business enterprises – in some communities, including those within her district, these retail outlets are revered community institutions representing jobs, recreation and development.

Freedom Of Speech and Censorship

Cynthia McKinney also supports the stance of the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) on the issue of protecting freedom of speech. The RIAA has made clear its position of freedom of speech for recording artists: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) takes an uncompromising stand against censorship and for the First Amendment rights of all artists to create freely. From the nation’s capital to state capitals across the country, RIAA works to stop unconstitutional action against the people who make the music of our times–and those who enjoy it.

Cynthia McKinney believes that such a stance defends the First Amendment of the Constitution which reads: Congress shall make no law restricting…or abridging freedom of speech…” . Cynthia McKinney is adamant that the First Amendment rights of recording artists be protected, as they are for other members operating within American society.

This story first appeared at http://www.guerrillafunk.com/thoughts/doc4672.html

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