rappers. They're all so tough until you hear their real name. Yeah.
Well, until you see them at a puffy party, then they're not tough no more. I'm surprised that the rap game is still alive after cuz the masculinity that the rappers are supposed to portray. Oh, there's a lot of people, man, that's just, you know, selling their soul and selling their self short and distracted with the wrong things.
So, you know, it is what it is, man. This industry is a very evil industry. It was hard for me being that young and being in the industry and not knowing where to turn.
And there was a time where I was sipping lean. I was popping pills. I was doing Molly um you know, shrooms, everything.
And it was just an escape for me. I was just young, you know, like everybody in the industry and people in the world. I started valuing the wrong things in this business because there was things dangling in front of me.
If I get this, I'll be happy. If I do this, I'll be happy. Listen, the industry didn't just enter its diddy era out of the blue.
Since the beginning, major labels have been quietly turning young rappers into the most profitable sharecroers in American business, locking them into 360 seals, trading publishing rights after they're useless, and throwing them away as soon as the math stops mathing. The playbook's simple. Find a nobody from the slums.
Bait him with access. Get him to sign a deal he can't understand. Then use humiliation, bad contracts, and manufactured scandals to squeeze him dry.
That's not a theory. That's how this business has operated for decades. Tonight, Terrence Howard and Lil Flip aren't just telling war stories.
They're walking you through the machine that's been breaking young rappers on purpose since long before you knew what a 360 deal was. Before we talk about the FOs and rituals, you need to understand one thing. The entertainment industry was already built on exploitation long before Terren Howard opened his mouth.
And the person who had the galls to expose it was Lil Flip. In the9s, labels signed entire rap rosters to deals that gave away masters, publishing, and likeness rights for almost nothing. The names changed.
the contracts didn't. And people who always ended up with the short end of the stick were the upcoming rappers. There's a lot of people, man, that's just, you know, selling their soul and selling their self short and distracted with the wrong things.
So, you know, it is what it is, man. This industry is a very evil industry. You know what I mean?
Like, it's it's very evil, man. So, you got to really surround yourself with people that think like you are bigger than you. So, it's a nice amount of I ain't going to say nice.
It's a lot of rappers that soul they soul and you know they just they let money dictate everything they do. They value money more than they value humans. I ain't in I ain't participating in no no bull.
If it ain't righteous, I don't want to be a part of it, man. I'm not going to snake my people. And yeah, I ain't going to snake my people.
And yeah, I just I can't sell my people out. And I ain't going to sell myself out. Fame ain't that important, man.
For me to just do anything. It's cool. I'm used to the attention.
Now, this isn't a has been a wannabe. He's a veteran with a 25 years of spotless record under his belt. No one knows the industry better than him, and he is letting you in on the secret.
There aren't a few bad apples. The whole garden is rotten to the core. This system is designed to value profit over people and to reward the ones desperate enough to do anything to appease the gatekeepers.
This is where Terrence comes in cuz he knows what happens after you signing the contract. Surprisingly, the first test for the rappers isn't a courtroom. It's a conversation.
The simple honor of entering the sacred meetings. Howard has been in those rooms and he says the price of staying there has nothing to do with how well you rap. Rappers, they're all so tough until you hear their real name.
Yeah. Well, until you see them at a puffy party, then they're not tough no more. I'm surprised that the rap game is still alive after cuz the masculinity that the rappers are supposed to portray.
Boom. Now, you might misunderstand and think that he is just talking about image, the way young rappers act hardcore, wild, more than what is humanly possible. But if you know anything about Terrence, you know there's more to his interview than surface information.
Fans believe he's saying something darker. That a lot of that performance is covering up what really happens when the cameras turn off. Once they smell the desperation on you, you are no longer in control.
The word on the streets is that you'd agree to things you thought you could walk away from. Terren has a name for it. Breaking the buck.
It may sound extreme at first, but you'll soon realize the music industry wants absolute servitude. What is it with all the man on man action that I'm learning about? I mean, like with the Puffy parties, like the last thing I ever thought that went on there was was gay stuff.
Not that gay stuff was wrong. It's wonderful. I just did not think that's what was Puffy was doing.
Yeah. Well, I didn't think it either. And even when my assistant said that stuff, I still was like joking it off.
And it wasn't until later on that I heard other things from people that worked from him. You know, you you remember that the um back in the times of slavery, they had a thing called breaking the buck that people in the industry are still making young rappers who has come up have fought the worst of circumstances, being disenfranchised, being being discounted, and then they finally like I'mma put it into music. I'mma do it in music.
I'mma, you know, get myself together. and they go and see someone and they tell him, "Okay, yeah, you got to have a deal. " That's the part nobody wants to put in a contract.
Take a young rapper who grew up with nothing, drop him into a mansion full of his heroes, then make the opportunity conditional on doing something he'll never want to admit out loud. Film it. Remember it.
Never talk about it directly, but let him know you could. It's the same cycle over and over again. Because once you catch on, the new generation meltdowns start looking like a call for attention rather than senseless whining.
Before the baby, before all the canceled headlines, there was a southern rapper who had the whole country spinning their shirts like helicopters. Pety Pablo, raise up freak a leak, gold albums, Grammy nomination. Then almost overnight he was gone.
The official story says legal trouble and bad decisions. Terrence Howard says there was something else. The moment Pety stood his ground, the machine turned on him.
They accused him of of fondling or touching someone at a bar. Oh, yeah. At a bar.
And then they accused him of touching some some some dude. Whispers of inappropriate conduct started swirling in the industry. Allegations without any proof, but the damage was instant.
Tell him, "Okay, yeah, you got to have a deal. You know, perform on me and you get your deal. " That was what I heard while I was on Empire about some of the people in the business.
And Pety Pablo, you remember Pety Pablo? I know who that is. Pety Pablo, talented writer, singer, him and Young Buck wrote a song called Ho His Own.
And in that song back in 19 two about about 2011 or 29 or something because he called out all of the hom taking place at those parties and those people he was he was kicked out of the music business. No radio station would play his stuff. So you look for Pety Pablo he's not around anymore.
But that song hold its own they did not care and they went all in on it. Terrence knew Pety's real crime was standing his ground and saying no. Soon his second album stalled.
His promotion cooled off. And that's how the rapper who put North Carolina on the map was snuffed. On paper, it looks like career decline.
In Terren's version, it's a warning shot. This is what happens when you refuse to stay quiet. Terrence knew that Pablo didn't fade.
He was pushed, smeared, sidelined, and black ballalled for exposing the game. And if you think that sounds dramatic, wait until you hear how the same system chewed up a rapper who was born after Pety's biggest hits. A man who went from everywhere to nowhere in a single news cycle.
In a span of just 3 years, the baby went from a superstar to a nobody. The phone went silent and everybody started pretending as if he didn't exist in the first place. What happened was simple.
Rolling loud Miami 2021. A rant on stage, controversial takes, and cancellation. In the end, festivals dropped him.
Brands canceled appointments. Articles came after him demanding accountability. According to the baby, it was a switch that had been flipped.
Not picking up phone calls. I ain't no I ain't no friendly anyway, though. You know what I'm saying?
So that that kind of that ain't had no type of effect on me. Like I barely call. I ain't call I was on when I was on top.
I ain't call before I got on top. Like I don't I ain't really that type. I'm I'mma eat what you eat what you type.
I'm always I'mma eat what I regardless. So, I know that's me. You know what I'm saying?
Like that's just that's how I get down like you know. Um and that's kind of like that that it eventually I adapted and and that just became my approach. You sounds familiar.
Yeah, that is exactly what happened to Patty Pablo, but the difference was they tuned it up for the streaming era. Now, don't get me wrong, his comments were out of line, but he apologized. If Jada Pinket can bounce back from her multiple scandals, then why not him?
It was as if he had served his purpose. From the outside, it's dressed as cancel culture. But the systematic effort to ou someone is just what Terrence was speaking out about.
But not every young artist is broken the same way. Some aren't just punished when they step out of line. They're conditioned from the start, pushed into situations they can't even understand until the damage is already done.
That's where the stories around Usher Justin Bieber and Diddy's parties come in. Now listen, with Pey and the Baby, the industry let them marinate till they got bigger. Maybe because they weren't explosive talents like Justin Bieber.
According to Jag, you are right. Justin entered the system. As soon as he blew up, he was treated like fresh meat in a bunch of hungry vultures.
People look at Usha, they don't see that. They not seeing the victim. They're not seeing that boy that got rushed to the hospital.
They not they not they not they're not seeing what the intentions was in his heart when he took Justin Bieber there. Let's be honest. He took Justin Bieber there.
Did he even try to get to Bieber for a minute and his management was backing him off? But it wasn't until Usher took over management and had guardianship and gave temporary guardianship to the Diddler for 48 hours. Think about that.
He had already been to the hospital, that situation that Jean was talking about, and you still took Bieber there, but you got custody of him first. If he had already tried, they wouldn't let him. Actually, someone made reference to the fact that Diddy trying to get it Bieber the way he was trying to get at Bieber was looking a little predatory.
And then Usher came in and discovered it and managed him and got custody of him and promised to look after him. And then he sent him to the diddlla. Does that sound like a good guy?
It's horrible. It's horrible. Does that sound like a good guy?
Now that we know what Diddy's really like, what kind of [ __ ] do you got to be to take another boy, another talented boy, and put him in your place so it ain't got to be you no more. The pattern she is pointing out is the same system that took down Pey and to Bobby. You might not know this, but Diddy has been trying to get to Justin long before that 48 hour video graced the internet.
Justin got caught because the person who he trusted with his career served him to Diddy on a silver platter to save his own behind. Usher knew exactly what that world looked like because he'd lived through it as a teen. And instead of breaking the cycle, he allegedly handed Justin straight into it.
If you've got any doubts, let me clear them once and for all. Listen to what Usher says about his time at Diddy Flavor Camp. I moved to New York City and I lived with Sean Puffy for a year.
That's the crazy thing. Now, that was LA Reed's idea, right? We're sending you over to something called Puffy Flavor Camp.
There you go. To learn some flavor. That's what it was called.
And you're going to go to Puff Daddy's. He's in the ' 90s. Do you understand what that's like?
Puffy's place was like just filled with chicks and or like non-stop, right? No, not really. I mean, but there Hey, it was curious.
I got a chance to see some things. Yeah, but you were 13. What were you seeing?
I went there to see the lifestyle and I saw it and it was and it was but I don't know if I could indulge and understand what I was even looking at. It was it was pretty wild. It was So, nobody tried to, you know, some woman didn't come along.
I didn't say that. Okay. I say that.
What I did say is that there were very curious things taking placeh and I didn't necessarily understand it. Biggie Smalls was there. Biggie Smalls was there.
Lil Kim, Craig Mack, all these people are hanging around. Yeah, man. Faith Evans, Mary J.
Blah. They didn't know nothing about this [ __ ] I was having a good time. You know what I mean?
Does he have you doing any chores? Are you doing dishes at all? I mean to keep you humble somewhat or are you just like can you stay up till 4 in the morning with them and party?
I mean I could I actually stayed up longer than them and and what and do you have money? What's going on? I mean I had like perm I had like you know like a living Yeah.
It's pretty crazy. 14 years old. You're a dad now.
Would you ever send your kid to puppy camp? Hell no. Now this admission gives us all the insight we need.
That is the sound of a grown man that is still trying to make sense of the price he paid. Whatever did or didn't happen behind closed doors, we know what the outcome looked like in public. Justin has described it himself.
It was hard for me being that young and being in the industry and not knowing where to turn and everyone, you know, telling me they love me and, you know, just turn their back on you in a second. Um, so yeah, it's it's hard because I want her to know that, you know, she can count on me, but at the end of the day, I don't want to never going to force myself to be in relationship with her. It has to be natural, right?
So, I just kind of, you know, let her do her thing, and if she ever needs me, I'm going to be here for her. But um but yeah, just protecting those moments because people take for granted uh encounters and um yeah. So um yeah, I just um I just want to protect her, you know.
I don't want her to to to lose it. I don't want her to, you know, go through anything I went through. I don't wish that upon anybody.
That is a kid who went from church videos to global product in just a few years. And knowing what we know now with the Epstein Files and Diddy Saga, it is anybody's guess what that kid went through at this point. Sadly, it is a neverending cycle that devours youngsters one after another.
Jaden wasn't the only one whose sense of self is fractured by the industry. There's a whole generation of young artists that never got caught in bad contracts or cancel tours, but still unraveled trying to survive the world they weren't allowed to talk about. Jaden didn't grow up fighting to be in the industry.
He was born in it. Before he could even understand, he was forced to follow the script. The people around him knew he was losing his identity one role at a time.
Before he could figure out what his identity really was. Jaden Smith is gay. His first lover was Tyler the Creator.
We all know he got mad when Tyler the Creator cheated on him. He got out there and then Will was like, "N, you're my son, bro. You can't be You can have your feelings, but you can't be out here like that.
" He stopped it, shut it down. Dig it. This is not for people to take lightly.
You know, if you're gonna be homosexual, be homosexual. You gonna be a thug, my It's gonna take a lot more than Tupac. You don't have to believe every word that comes out of Orlando's mouth.
But remember this, we've seen time and again what the industry does to child actors. Jaden's life has been a roller coaster of rumors, scandals, and PR events. But no one really knows what really happened at certain parties and how much of his weirdness is just a kid trying to survive in a world that won't let him say the truth out loud.
And there's only one person that actually had the galls to speak his truth. Not in code words, but in simple English. D isn't just an insider.
He has walked into those meetings, heard the offers, and walked right back out with his head held high. Depending on what part of the industry you're trying to get access to, there's gatekeepers. So, if you're trying to get signed to a major label, there's gatekeepers.
If you're trying to get on certain media platforms to get interviewed, there's gatekeepers. If you're trying to get on the mainstream radio, you heard me, urban radio, there's gatekeepers. Yes.
Yes. Yes. On the totem pole of people with integrity and people with morals, values, and principles, these gatekeepers ain't nobody.
But in this perverted, sick, twisted industry, these gatekeepers do hold access to certain levels. You know, bro, I've had I've had gatekeepers in the music industry who have literally tried to hold a record deal behind their back and let me know like, look, if you if you a part of this homosexual act that I'm trying to take part in, you heard me. Yeah.
Come on. This door open real quick for you. Like I I I got a song where I've talked about that before called the devil's playground.
Like this is real, dog. And the only way that that type of stuff can work on you is if you let them have all the leverage to where you want what's behind that gate that bad. So that's that's a real thing.
Um you also got people who a different type of gatekeeper. the gatekeepers who will say, "Hey, you making too much righteous noise right now. If you just tone that righteousness down a little bit, then we'll allow you into these doors.
But you got to tone that down. You got to become a little more vanilla. " You heard me?
A little more lukewarm, a little more bland, and you'll fit in with us more. So that's the slick gatekeeping. It ain't telling you Yeah.
It ain't telling you to all the way, you know, bend over or or open your mouth or something like that. It ain't that. But it's telling you like dim your light.
And what ends up happening is you got so many people that's like, "Well, that's not that bad. " They not asking me to do nothing super crazy. I just got to dim my light.
That's the scariest kind right there. Cuz a lot of people will be like, "Wait, I just got to turn it from level 10 to level five, man. Bet.
I could do that, bro. " All right. Bet.
Now I get accepted. Cool. Next thing you know, you got a whole industry, brother, that's lukewarm.
Whole industry lukewarm. So that when somebody that's on fire come along, they looking at it like, "Whoa, you crazy. Hold on.
You you shining too bright. Hold on. Hold on.
Chill out, man. You doing you doing the most. You you messing up, man.
Stop, man. " These are the same gatekeepers that came after Ice Cube when he gave the contract of Black America. It's the same playbook, just different people that get kept in line or ousted.
But the system doesn't just test individuals. It manufactures entire careers to push whatever sells best, even if it's poison. Industry plants exist.
Yes. Um the music industry will conspire to save what this artist represents is something that we need more of in America. So, if it's extreme ignorance, if it's watered down uh blackness, if it's uh whiteness that represents uh being able to be cool and be accepted by black people, whatever it is, we want more of that.
So, we will do everything in our power to make this person pop off and be a star to push this agenda or we have a vested interest financially in seeing this artist make it. Cuz not only do we have this artist signed to us, but we manage this artist and we know that this artist is going to create a whole generation of people just like them. Yeah.
They definitely got industry plans. Yes. All all all all of these black artists who ain't even old enough to understand the contract that they about to sign and who are being signed just because they had one thing that went viral that they glorifying a bunch of and a bunch of just negativity and all of a sudden they about to get paid millions of dollars.
Those are industry plants. The industry knows the impact that those artists will have on the rest of their community. they know it and they're just like, "Oh man, we we need that person to make it for sure.
" But if you are representing something positive or something righteous or something intellectual or godly, you absolutely have to do way more work to make the industry say, "All right, we going to let them in. " It's like, "All right, we going to let a JCole in. We going to let a Kendrick Lamar in.
" But we got enough. We got enough of them. You know what I'm saying?
We got enough of them. You realize that J. Cole Cole and Kendrick Lamar are two of the richest rappers walking planet Earth today.
Two of the most successful rappers. Why would the industry not want more JColes and more Kendrick Lamars? Yeah.
They don't even floss or anything, bro. You don't see them with jewelry, none of that, bro. J.
Cole and Kendrick Lamar scare the industry because if they let more of them in, you gonna have a whole generation of people coming up who are black, who are saying, "I ain't even got to flaunt no jewelry. " You heard me? I ain't even got to flaunt fancy cars and I can be intellectual.
I can be woke. I can be a man of God or rap about it or rap about that stuff. And if you got a whole generation of black people that's coming up, that's like, man, there wasn't one J.
Cole and one Kendrick Lamar. There were a ton of them and they were all huge. Now, keep in mind, a ton of people exist who are doing the same type of work that Cole and Kendrick are doing.
And they're doing that work in their own way. I'm one of the people, you know, and there's a bunch of people that are doing that. But for the mainstream music industry, man, they don't want a bunch of that to exist, bro.
So basically, if you're desperate enough, they don't have to blackmail you. They can just turn you into a walking billboard. Pick a kid who came from nothing, is desperate to do anything to achieve success.
And there you have it. It's how industry plants are basically created. If you think it's not that deep, think again, cuz they're not just controlling one artist.
You're shaping what millions of kids think is normal. And if you're wondering why some of the calmst, most respected rappers don't get half the push as the chaos merchants. D1 answers that, too.
These dudes ain't never been to jail. You ain't got to worry about uh we might sign him and he might go to jail and we can't even put no music out. These dudes ain't never been in no shootouts or nothing like that.
Why would the industry not want more of that? Think about it. Think about it.
You right. You right, man. That's the real talk.
Yo, come on, man. You mean to tell me you not a headache and a you still going to make buu bread for us and for yourself and just like everything is all good like like people entertained by you they love you da da da you mean to tell me they wouldn't be like man we need more of that but come on bro come on bro every year they're like yo who is the new street rapper that need to get signed and get pushed out there not in one city but in every major city every year. It's like, man, who is the new street rapper that we could sign that's going to impact the masses in their city and we going to blow them up and they young so they don't realize that they being used right now.
That's because people who use their own brain, make their own decisions and have their own purpose cannot serve the industry that thrives on self-destruction, put it all together, and the pattern isn't complicated anymore. An industry built on bad contracts and power imbalances. Gatekeepers who test what you'll do when nobody's watching.
Artists who get smeared, silenced, or slowly undone when they won't play along. And a pipeline of industry plants ready to replace them the second they fall. The only question left is how many more artists have to get broken before we stop pretending the system is broken and admit it's working exactly the way it was designed.
If you like this video, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss out on any new videos. And until then, fam, keep it real.
