Fat Joe doubled down on accusing major labels of running a Ponzi scheme, claiming he still owes money on a 23-year-old album that sold over two million copies.
The Terror Squad rapper recently took to Instagram Live to clarify his remarks about labels at the Wall Street Journal‘s The Future of Everything Festival last year.
“I said major record labels are a Ponzi scheme,” he began. “You realise it’s just like a bank.”
He continued, accusing record labels of plucking talented kids from the projects and giving them an album advance only to take the lion’s share of the profits.
“They make the profits off the records. They charge you whatever they spent on the video. It ain’t like we 50/50 partners, they pay half off the video we pay half of the video,” he added.
“So it’s robbery. All the way through. So that’s why I say it’s a Ponzi scheme,” Fat Joe said.
He went on to claim he sold 2 million copies of his sophomore solo album, J.O.S.E (Jealous Ones Still Envy), yet has not recouped over two decades later.
“When I get my statement from the major label 20 years later, I still owe them money,” Fat Joe stated. “I put out an album independently on Empire and get distribution, my album might sell 250 to 300,000 records, I make millions of dollars off of it. What’s the difference?”
