Late To The Party w/ Dody and Reggie
"2 Regular Guys Having Irregular Conversations"
Late To The Party w/ Dody and Reggie
Chatterbox: Episode 1 - What Is An Industry Plant?
The episode delves into the concept of "industry plants" and discusses its implications, particularly focusing on the artist Dolce's rise to fame. It seeks to distinguish between genuine talent and artificially manufactured success in the music industry while challenging common misconceptions surrounding this contentious term.
• Discussion on the concept of industry plants
• Analyzing Dolce and her trajectory in the industry
• Differentiating between industry support and being an industry plant
• The case of Tommy Richmond as an example of the industry plant label
• Exploration of connections and familial influence in artist success
• The responsibilities of record labels towards their artists
• Final thoughts on authenticity in the music industry
Yo, what's going on? This is one half of Late to the Party and I just got a thought. First off, welcome to a new segment. Maybe you'll get more of me solo and then maybe you'll get some of Dodie solo.
Speaker 1:But this is just something that's been on my mind, and I want to talk about the term industry plant, and I really don't want to. I'm not going to dive too far into it about everybody who's been considering an industry plant versus people who are not industry plants, right. But if you get on twitter or anywhere online, people use the term industry plant so much and it and you'll see it more often used towards people that seem like they blew up overnight, and sometimes those people can be considered an industry plant right. So if you search the term industry plant on Google, right, what pops up first is industry plant is a top derogatory term for a musician who becomes famous through connections, wealth and inheritance rather than their own talent, and that could be somewhat of an industry plan. I understand it, but how I see an industry plant is someone who seems like they have had a rise. That seemed organic, like. It seemed like oh my God, people are really connecting to this song, and then you see, the whole time it's been the industry behind the scenes playing a game.
Speaker 1:The reason I bring this up is due to Dolce. Now, if you haven't heard of Dolce, dolce is signed to TDE. She's a rapper, singer, performer, and it seems like over the past year, she's had a fast rise Right, she's had a fast rise, right. But and Not saying that I've been listening to Dolce ever since, but the first time I heard of Dolce was in 2019, with a song called Spooky Coochie, which, when I first seen it, it popped up on a playlist of I was listening to an artist named Scotty, which I thought Scotty would be popping up a little bit more these days, but the song the song Spooky Coochie is from Dolce and that's the first song I heard from her, and this is a little piece of it. Now, I'm not going to lie and say after I heard that song, I listened to her a lot, but I did put that song in my playlist. If you go to 2020 of my of my Apple streaming, I'm guaranteed she was in the top 20, maybe 30 songs listened to that year, right? Also, you can hear the Nicki Minaj influence. You can hear a little bit of like even that breathing exercise in the background. You can hear that now in her new music, but that's besides the point.
Speaker 1:The point is, it seems to people that she has been an industry plant because TDE has now taken her under the wing and it seemed like a fast rise, right, which doesn't make sense to me. She didn't get signed to TDE until 2020, 2021, I believe TEDE until 2020, 2021, I believe and then she didn't really pop until 2024. Now, if you know TEDE, tede is great for actual development of artists. So she was behind the scenes, learning and still trying to get it together, right, but also trying to get it together, right. But also, I don't understand how people now think she's an industry plant when she last year or the year before, which is 2023, had a a hit with um with uh if I got kodak black, right. So she had a hit with kodak black, which let me.
Speaker 1:Let me look that up real quick, because a lot of people probably didn't even know that that's who they was listening to when they was listening to the song with Kodak Black, right. So here's a little portion of that. Here we go. Now. A lot of people listen to that and not even know that. That's. If he put it down, I'm going to pick it up, can't you see? It's just me. Now a lot of people listen to that and not even know that. That's the Dolce that we are hearing rapping today. That's the same Dolce that was on that song with Kodak Black in 2023.
Speaker 1:So, being an industry plant versus being a person who just have a good back and it should be two different things. I'll give you an example of an industry plant that I believe Tommy Richmond, million dollar baby. You see posts online. You see posts on Instagram, twitter, on TikTok. It was going crazy. It looked like this young man has just organic, like just, oh my God, people are flocking to the song. Now, people was flocking to the song, but there was already a label behind him pushing him right. There was already a label behind the advertisement and the organic quote, unquote organic rise. Now people like the song. That's not to say people don't like the music, but that's an industry plan. Not to not to be confused with a um bobby schmurder, who had a organic blow up and then the label got behind them real quick. That's two Different things. Because his when Hot Nigga dropped, it was popping and then a label got behind them afterwards With Tommy Richmond or with any other industry Plant.
Speaker 1:That Is A total different look at An outcome, on what you see and when you look in that a song blow up, when people behind you that's why I say this definition that say somebody who was, who got fame through their connections, which man? I could go into a whole, nother thing. So if you look at Will Smith's son, jaden, jaden Smith makes good music. He's not an industry plant. His dad just happens to be Will Smith. You get what I'm saying. Like an industry plant is pushed by a label that but make it seem like they're not really behind. Like people get confused. What a label is supposed to push your numbers? A label is supposed to push their artists. That does not make them an industry plant. An industry plant can be somebody without no talent and all of a sudden, jamelo what's that? Liangelo Ball or whatever. Like you can see, you can say that may be an industry plant because that is Def Jam, not gonna I'm, I'm, I'm under the the assumption that Def Jam was already behind a little something like labels just don't pop up the next day. Here's 13 million dollars off of one song. That is something that was already in the making, but they had to push it to see what might work.
Speaker 1:I don't know if y'all remember, but Yo Gotti had a? Um, yo Gotti had a contest years back, years back, uh uh, it was like one of them open, open verse challenges and whoever won the open verse challenge? So what he did was have people post videos on TikTok and on Instagram or whatever. Whoever won the challenge got to be on the verse or got signed to the label and all that stuff. Out of all the people that popped up and won. When you look back into the guy's catalog, he was already in connections and already signed with Yo Gotti. That's an industry plan. That's also good promotion on Yo Gotti's part, because he got the people singing the song and rapping and listening to it, because he's advertising that, he's promoting that song. But he's also playing into the game of like, whoever wins get to be on the song. And then there's somebody that he already rocked with. You know what I'm saying and I don't want to get too far Because I can, once my brain start going, I start going into other things.
Speaker 1:But an industry plant is not what y'all believe it to be. Just because a person has a backing. Just because a person is pushed to the front, that does not make them an industry plant. That just makes them a them an industry plant. That just makes them a. It just makes them a person who, who has a label behind them. Even if you want to look at the numbers of uh, like everybody's saying that kendrick lamar has been pushed more over Drake, your label is supposed to push y'all. If you sign to a label and then your label don't do nothing, you should be looking at your label like, wait a minute, what are you doing? That does not make you an industry plant. Your connections don't make you an industry plant. It can make you an industry plant.
Speaker 1:But that's not just the root of it all. The root of it all to me is somebody who is online faking like they're, they're, they're, they're just grinding and but the whole time the label is behind them. You just not. You know. I'm saying I don't know. I just wanted to get on here because a lot of people have been calling doji an industry plant. But like she's been. If you go back through her, her youtube, and if you go back through the songs that she's already dropped, she's been dropping stuff since like 2018, 2017. She just grinded and all of a sudden that year that y'all heard about her and a lot of people are just mad because she signed a TDE. And then people are mad. For some reason the Nicki Minaj fans are mad at her. But just because she's been grinding and then this rise seems so quick to y'all does not make her an industry plant. I don't know. I just wanted to talk about that real quick.
Speaker 1:An industry plant versus somebody who's just signed to a label those are two different things. You get what I'm saying. Hopefully y'all get what I'm saying. Tommy Richmond is an industry plant. Dolce is not an industry plant and just because Jaden Smith is Will Smith's son wouldn't make him an industry plant. That would just make him an artist of a son. Damani from TI's. If you want to call it an industry plant, cool, but that's a wrong term to be because Damani's not on top of it, although he can rap and he is moving in his own pace. He's not an industry plant just because his dad is TI.
Speaker 1:It might help you know what I'm saying. It might help to call and get that button. Help, you know what I'm saying. It might help to call and get that button pushed. You know what I'm saying. It's like LA Reid was on an interview talking about there's no such thing as getting a button pushed. I mean it is. You know what I'm saying, but you got to have the talent. You just can't push the button on anybody. You got to have the talent to make the button get pushed. You know what I'm saying, but that's just your label pushing you. It's what's supposed to. I just wanted to talk about the industry plan. I could get into other stuff later. All right, if you made it through this 13 minutes of rambling. I appreciate y'all for listening. We'll be back next week, this monday, with another episode of late to the party. This is just something I wanted to put on here, something that was on my mind, and I'll probably talk about it with dodie later. Peace.