The Hip Hop Industry

Throughout Hip Hop's 25 year history, many ideas, sounds, and business matters have changed. One thing that conyinues to remain the same is the struggle of the artist against his/her music label. In spite of the wide range of characters and styles in the late 1980's, mid 1990's, by the late 1990's hip hop found itself seperating into two areas: mainstream and underground. Most major label artist got their start by independent labels. The late 1990's brought growing financial success of independent labels, distributors, and retailers enabled many underground artists to bypass the major labels altogether.The result of this new industry dynamic is that between major and independent labels. The music industry has always been one of raw, cut throat energy. Although many of today's most popular artist are signed to major labels, they have more control in the development and business decisions of the work they create.