Wendy Day’s name might not be familiar to the general public, but within the industry, she’s built a name for herself by negotiating the terms of record deals for artists like Master P, Eminem, Cash Money, and most recently, David Banner. In the music industry, shady deals and unethical business practices are common, but Wendy has made it her duty to protect the interests of talented artists who are being taken advantage of. Unfortunately, at times she’s been the one taken advantage of. Over the past twelve years, Wendy has learned a thing or two about fame and fortune and the way it changes people.
fund it myself, so financially I’m now in a position where I can afford to do more. And as with any business, the more money you have, the more things you can afford to do.
When you say you’ve been “involved” with a record deal, what exactly does that entail? It’s different in each situation. With [Master] P’s deal, for example, I was involved because one of the guys in his camp didn’t trust the people that were doing the deal for him. It turned out that they were trustworthy, but because they had a very close relationship with Priority, they were worried that there may have been a conflict of interest.
Rap Coalition is sort of like a labor union? Yeah, exactly. We have a health care and dental plan. When an artist is in an unfair contract, they can step to us and we’ll help break their contract. We’re very supportive of artists and their needs.
Do you ever help choose which artists a label will sign, like, do you play an A&R role at all? Not at all. In most situations [the artist] is in a position where they’ve got some leverage, but they haven’t decided to sign yet. I’m kind of a matchmaker. I try to pair the artist with the label that’s best suited for them, because every label is different. Elektra, for example, had the best radio relationships, when they were at their height. It really depends on what the label and the artist needs, I try to find a match that fits so they can both move forward. If you look at all the deals I’ve done, they’ve all gone onto gold or platinum status. That’s more important to me than someone just having a record deal. Have you ever declined to do a deal because you didn’t think it would turn out gold or platinum? I refused to do the deal with B.G. at Koch because I didn’t think that was the best place for him. I gave him my opinion and told him what to look out for, because I didn’t believe he should do that deal. I didn’t believe that Koch could take him platinum, and as it turned out, they couldn’t. Someone [like B.G.] who was double platinum doesn’t turn around and only sell 200,000 units. That’s just unacceptable. But I have to give them credit because they did better with his CD than I thought they would. I didn’t think they could break 100,000, but they broke 200,000. So I have to give them credit for being less whack then I thought they would be. Is there any artist that you think could go platinum on Koch? I think B.G. is a platinum artist, but on Koch, no. Koch is not set up to make their artists platinum. Koch is setup to advance a certain amount of money and make a decent return on their investment. And once they reach the level where they feel they have done enough, they move onto the next project. And they make no secret about that. It’s not a bad thing, that’s just their business philosophy. The problem is when an artist signs to a label and thinks their business philosophy should be different. Of course it’s not going to change; it’s corporate structure. When you started out, how did you get the connections with these record labels to understand how they operate? Keeping my eyes open and asking a lot of artists what their deals entailed, learning who was good at what. Twelve years of grinding, going to music conferences, one-on-one meetings with the labels and artists. It’s a building process. Every year I meet more and more people as I build my repertoire. When did you start the Rap Coalition? In March of 1992. It’s twelve years old. It’s still non-profit. It’s more powerful now than it has ever been, and the company just grows and grows. I
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OZONE MAGAZINE JUNE 2004
“After I did [Cash Money’s] deal, I had to sue them to get [my percentage]. I had worked for them free of charge for nine months, and it took me three years to get paid. I got evicted and lost everything that I owned. The sheriff came and put all my shit on the street. It was really ugly.”
What are the most common clauses you’ve found in “unfair” contracts? Labels advance a large amount of money and don’t pay the artist their percentage on the back-end, because they feel they are doing a lot for the project. Most contracts that I deal with, the artist has some control over what percent of their earnings is sent where. Since they’re really paying for it, they should have a right to say where the money goes. Most of the unfair contracts that I see are a split between power of creative control and split of income. What do you warn artists to look for? Areas where the label can “recoup.” What that means is, money they are allowed to put out on the artists’ benefit and take back on the backend. For example, independent radio promotion. That’s where I fight a lot, because the record label feels that no matter how much money they send, they’re gonna recoup it anyway. And very often, they will send money for three or four artists that are signed to the label, and recoup the lump of money from each. So they’re kinda paying themselves four times, taking from each artists’ budget. That’s something an artist needs to be aware of; they have to make sure that they’re only invoiced for their project when it comes to radio promotion. As a consultant, have you ever advised an artist not to sign a record deal? Most often I advise not to sign. The ratio is ten to one. So you think in some situations, it’s better to stay independent? In a lot of situations, yes. It really depends on their goals. There are a lot of artists out there who don’t care about ownership and control. A lot just want fame. And any major deal can give you fame, without the money, as long as they work you properly. It’s just a matter of finding out what the artist needs and desires, outlining the options, and letting them make an informed decision. It’s not like Sony is going to sit down with them and say, “With us, you’ll get fame and no money.” There needs to be some sort of mediator, a balance that defines what each deal involves. Have you ever advised an artist not to sign a contract and the record label renegotiated a better deal? There have been a lot of those situations. But in order to renegotiate, you have to have a certain level of success to begin with. If they really want an artist, they’ll give them a decent contract.