Pablo Escobar was a rapper. A member of the underclass with no upward mobility who decided to take matters into his own hands and not only triumphed, but had the whole world watching and his minions paying fealty.

If you remember, rap replaced hair bands. Not overnight, the initial hits were nearly a decade before. But when MTV saw the rap ratings, they switched videos, guys from the ghetto became millionaires. And the white people who thought they ran this country, controlled people’s hearts and minds, found out they didn’t.

Like Escobar, the newly-minted rap impresarios lived large. They weren’t saving for retirement, they weren’t even planning to get to retirement. Money can’t buy you love, but it can buy you a boat, some sex and a big ‘ol house and a Maybach. Which everybody can view. A college degree sits on the wall, but clothes and babes and parties and jets are for all to see.

Now eventually the rappers got co-opted by the money. That’s what happens with anti-establishment figures, once they have something to protect, they want to. And the public…it’s left out, withering on the vine, kind of like today.

We’ve got a great unwashed underclass with no opportunity. We’ve got a failing middle class that just can’t believe the jobs are gone. And a horrified upper middle class, that believed its Ivy League degrees were a Get Out of Jail Free card, that they could survive on their education, when the truth is we live in the land of money, and unless you’ve got it, you’re screwed.

Oh, you can be a techie.

And what’s most interesting about the techies is like Escobar and rappers they see no rules, and those that are in their way are broken. It’s what happened with Napster, and if you think the music industry won there, you’re probably still buying CDs. Because once the flower of justice blooms, life is never the same.

Fifteen dollar CDs with one overpriced track were too much. People poured through the hole Napster provided. To bitch about Spotify and Apple Music is to misunderstand history, they’re just trying to put a wall around the chaos. The people want all the music for a very low price, and that ain’t gonna change.

And then there are the bankers. Who skim in ways not only the government can’t understand, but neither can most of Wall Street’s workers. As for the hedge funders, they’ve rigged the tax system to their advantage, the government can’t get them, because they’re paying elected officials off. If you think this is any different from how Pablo Escobar reigned, you think bankers don’t snort cocaine.

But they do.

And the leader of the rap cartel was Jay Z. Who escaped the streets with the most money and the best babe and got cash from major corporations to boot. But then he made a mistake, he forgot his roots, he bought Tidal, not realizing that once you’ve left your audience’s side, once you’re no longer doing it for them, you’re screwed.

So Jay Z has been replaced by Donald Trump. Who was born on third base, maybe second, and is far from home, he lies about his success, but he’s a beacon to the underclass…that someone at the top is on their team, someone at the top is telling the truth.

Did you see Trump came down on Karl Rove?

Why does @oreillyfactor and @FoxNews always have Karl Rove on. He spent $430 million and lost ALL races. A dope who said Romney won election

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2015

Who says this stuff? Who speaks the truth?

Once upon a time Pablo Escobar did. And then the rappers.

And now Trump.

Illustrating that he who ties in with the underprivileged ultimately wins. Not only do politicians no longer get it, that the public is fed-up with D.C., but it’s musicians too. Musicians haven’t been in bed with their audience for such a long time. They scalp their own tickets and rake in money from endorsements and keep bitching that’s someone’s screwing THEM without realizing that the system is screwing their audience every damn day, and unless you’re humble and know which side your toast is buttered on, your piece of bread is going to be burned.

Out of fear our whole nation has been running for safety, in a game of musical chairs where most are left out. Not realizing there will be a price to pay.

We’re looking for leaders.

Don’t like today’s music? Just wait a while, the slate’s gonna be wiped clean. Just like the gays killed corporate rock with disco and the rappers killed hair bands, something is gonna come along and knock vapid pop off its perch. Could take years, but it’s coming.

As for politicians and the rich… Let this be the great awakening, you can’t leave the rest of us this far behind for this long. Rules, schmules. Laws, schlaws. Did laws stop the internet? Where the revolutionaries spread their gospel? Hell, even Muslim terrorists employ the internet for propaganda today. There’s less control than ever before. And what side you’re on counts. In Colombia, they shot the rich, those who got in their way. Because the truth is nobody is protected. How it goes down in America..? We’ll see.

But one thing we know is what’s happening today ain’t gonna last.

Never does.

The oligarchs and their sycophants, everybody worshipping cash and believing they’re immune, they’ve got another thing coming. Because human nature trumps money. And those who help their brother ultimately succeed.

Fight abortion and unions and taxes and then find out…

The public isn’t with you. Isn’t that the essence of Trump? Read Paul Krugman’s piece today for insight

“Trump Is Right On Economics”

Everything you thought you knew was wrong. And the control the media thinks it has is nonexistent.

This is when people fight for their rights. When their backs are up against the wall and they see no options.

That’s how we got Pablo Escobar.

And that’s how we got rap.

What’s next?

“The Crowding-Out Effect of Gargantuan Movies”

This has already happened in music, it’s just that nobody wants to admit it.

A few superstar acts are making all the dough. The rest are blaming the internet and Spotify for decimating their financial careers.

But the truth is most people don’t care.

Most people are lonely, disconnected, they want to belong, and therefore they partake of what’s popular in order to have a basis of conversation.

In the information economy it’s simple to ferret out what is a quality product. It happens in phones, it happens in social networks… Facebook succeeded not because of advertising, but because unlike MySpace it just worked, and therefore people gravitated to it and spread the word about it.

And that’s the ultimate success, word of mouth. Which is why you can have a huge advertising campaign that results in a dud. Kinda like last year’s Tom Petty release, definitely like this year’s Keith Richards release. Incredible PR efforts with no one talking about the underlying product… And there’s new product every week, so why should we spend time digging deeper on the mediocre?

That’s right, unless you’re going to put out incredible music, you’re playing to your fans only, your audience isn’t going to grow. Chances are, it’s going to shrink, because people are constantly exposed to great new stuff, and they’d rather listen to that.

This is what the internet has wrought. With all information at our fingertips, it turns out we all want the same thing. You may think you’re immune, but you too are using Google, Amazon, iPhone or Android. As for the faltering Twitter, it doesn’t even have a competitor! That’s right, the techies are smarter than the media companies, they know success lies not in reinventing the wheel, but in coming up with a whole new product.

So the tail is wagging the dog. And it hasn’t been this way since the dawn of advertising. The consumer rules. You can make people aware, but with everything available instantly, with quality assessments easily accessible, and the ability to communicate with the world at your fingertips, it turns out the public is in control. And he who does not accede to this dictum is destined for death.

Kind of like the marginal cable TV channels. Kept alive by system payments. They never had large audiences, but now the systems themselves are in transition, because of cord-cutting. That’s right, the public doesn’t want to pay. And the truth is cable systems will end up fine, they’re just switching to being internet providers. Even Jim Dolan, New York City’s most hated man, knows this, Cablevision upgraded its internet to compete with FiOS. But artists cannot see that the game has changed.

The truth is we want very few movies. First they came for the indies, now they’re coming for the studio pictures.

That’s right, indie pics are failing at the box office and studios have ratcheted down their production. The Sundance whizzes have whiffed. It’s about “Jurassic Park” and…

“Straight Outta Compton.”

Feel good about the latter. Its success was unpredicted, at least at this large scale. Turns out the public adopted the N.W.A. story and spread the word.

And, just to make sure you’re paying attention, just to confound you further, in an overly-noisy environment only that which is highly promoted/advertised has a chance! Virality is dead. There’s just too much information. You need a head start. Major labels and studios are kings. But, most of what they purvey will flop too. Which is why studios and labels are putting out ever less product, and are fearful of taking a chance on something risky.

And next comes TV. There are 400 scripted shows. There won’t be in the future.

But TV is expensive compared to music. But just because the barrier to entry is so low in music, that doesn’t mean you will gain attention. It’s easier than ever to play, it’s harder than ever to get noticed.

This is not the way it was supposed to be. The internet was supposed to level the playing field, let the cream rise to the top. Allow everybody to begin from the same starting line and let the best man win.

Well, the starting lines are now staggered. Unless you have a head start, you’re almost definitely going to fail. And when we reach the finish line… We’ll find only a few men and women standing.

You can’t tour because no one wants to see you, not because expenses are so high.

You’re broke not because streaming services don’t pay well, but because no one wants to listen to you.

You can’t get ahead because you’re not in bed with the usual suspect powers, with all their connections, not because your music isn’t good enough. You need the A level manager, agent and label to push you.

You may be mad that everybody knows Bieber and Gomez, Perry and Swift, and not you. But the former are playing the game most people are paying attention to, everybody knows their name and not yours. And they’re the beneficiaries of committees of the best people creating and pounding their product. Which you pooh-pooh, but the joke is on you.

You can play to your niche, there’s nothing wrong with that.

But if you’re gonna bitch…

Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’

Already changed, in fact. To bitch about pop, to rail against music by committee, to agitate against streaming payments, is a fruitless effort made by those not clued in. Wanna make change? First be a success. Wanna be a success? Create something as good as Max Martin does. Max not only made Taylor Swift an international pop phenomenon, he did the same for the Weeknd.

There are fewer new stars than ever before.

But that does not mean they will all sound the same forevermore.

Innovation works. We’re looking for the new and different. “Straight Outta Compton” proves this.

But no review said “Compton” sucked. “Compton” had to vault a high bar. And once it did, its fans got the rest of America to go too.

We’re in the midst of a great consolidation. You can either obey the new rules or get left behind.

It’s your choice.

“E-Book Sales Fall After New Amazon Contracts”

Beware of your dream coming true.

For years we’ve heard that music is undervalued, that people must pay more. But maybe the consumer doesn’t want to. That seems to be the case with e-books.

When Amazon launched the Kindle no e-book was over ten bucks. A business burgeoned. Early adopters were ecstatic. But the old guard said they loved paper and the writers and publishers were wary of giving Amazon too much power.

So, after agitating in the press, Amazon gave them some of what they wanted, including the right to set prices.

And then they fell.

Now don’t tell me paper is where it’s at. If you read the story on backpacks in the “New York Times” you’ll see that college students no longer carry books, their courses are online. This is the trend, and to deny the trend is death.

“Backpack Makers Rethink a Student Staple”

So CDs are never coming back and track sales are decreasing, -5% for Universal in the last quarter, and streaming adoption is slow.

Why is it slow?

Because tracks are free on YouTube and Apple Music is nearly indecipherable and maybe $9.99 a month is just too much.

Forget about the fans, they’ll pay no matter what. But to really succeed you have to get the casual users, the looky-loos. And the larger the barrier, the less they’re interested.

Music has completely changed. Used to be tracks were parceled out on the radio with the hope that people would go to the store and buy singles. Now, the track is available instantly online and those who care check it out in droves. Which is how Justin Bieber broke the Spotify record this week. This is a good thing. Monetization comes last in today’s marketplace. First comes attention, you want people to check something out, and if it sticks…it’s forevermore. Hell, Major Lazer’s “Lean On” is still one of Spotify’s top tracks. As is One Direction’s “Drag Me Down,” which held the streaming record before Bieber.

So why is everybody agitating against the new model? Universal Music reported that streaming revenue grew significantly, by 34%, it overcame the decline in physical and downloads, it helped the company’s bottom line. But we’ve got the unwashed uneducated and the marginal protesting that they just can’t win in the new world.

Welcome to the twenty first century. That’s what I hate about America. No one can move backward, no one can lose. It’s like we’re dying to become Europe, where jobs are protected. Only they aren’t. Industry lays people off in droves and no matter what the musicians say their revenues are not returning, unless they’re stars or adjust their model.

We need to get more people paying for streaming.

And first we must expose them to it.

It’s hard to get someone to pay $9.99 a month if they don’t know what it is, how to use it. And most people still don’t. And Apple Music is a bad beginning. I still can’t figure it out completely. And if I can’t, what about the wannabe?

So freemium must exist. And family plans are a good thing. As is Spotify’s reduced student price.

The key is to get people hooked and then raise the price.

Not enough people were hooked on e-books. They’re only 24% of the market at Hachette. Writers and publishers will be healthiest when the physical book dies. I know you’re screaming, but I’m right. Physical stores and physical books and physical distribution are an antiquated model that wastes money. And the public knows this, which is why it’s balking at paying the same price for an e-book as it does for a hardcover, which is oftentimes the case these days.

Which means the value of an album is no longer ten or fifteen dollars. People think that’s a rip-off.

But they’ll blindly play the same damn track over and over again for decades, putting cash in the pockets of providers under the new model.

This is what I love about the internet, this is what I love about modern life. The old gatekeepers, the people who had control and thought they still did do not. Turns out the public is in control, the public decides what is of value and what it wants to pay for something. And your only hope is to get ahead of people and corral them into a new system. Trying to take away the goodies they already have, that’s death.

So, once again, the enemy is not Google or Amazon or Spotify or Apple. Rather, the enemy is you. You refuse to take a risk. You continue to hold on to the old model, as it dies, dies, dies. I guarantee you the people who won in the past won’t necessarily win in the future. But if you don’t think people are already winning in today’s world you don’t know Bieber, who would have been a nonstarter without YouTube, you don’t know the Weeknd, who started out giving his music away for free, you don’t know Diplo, who’s used the internet to spread the word on tracks so infectious that he’s getting rich.

There’s plenty of money to go around.

Please don’t hold back the tide of progress.

Take chances.

Laud streaming.

Keep freemium.

Agitate for Apple to simplify its user interface.

Luxuriate in the new golden age.

Or be left behind.

P.S. If you’re frustrated that the above WSJ article is behind a paywall you’re testimony to the fact that sometimes the price is too high. The WSJ has decided to leave readers behind, which I believe is a mistake. One thing we know for sure, leaving listeners behind is a huge blunder, obscurity is your enemy in today’s world, and it’s so easy to achieve.

What can I tell you, I didn’t start buying every Kinks album until their hits were done. I owned the “Greatest Hits,” but with limited cash it wasn’t until I was a senior in high school that I purchased “Arthur,” I loved hearing “Victoria.”

And then I bought every one thereafter, including “Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One” from the cut-out bin. An incredible LP, completely forgotten to the sands of time.

Kind of like “Preservation Act 2.”

That’s right, when rock became bombastic, when corporate rock was rearing its ugly head, Ray Davies retreated into musical theatre, with concept albums telling stories you had to listen to to understand, and even then it wasn’t always so easy. And “Preservation Act 1” was a hitless dud, but its follow-up, “Preservation Act 2,” is pure genius. With a story containing English references that will have you running to your dictionary, suddenly “Preservation Act 1” made sense!

Not that the story was completely realistic. But there were bad guys and good guys and right smack dab in the middle of side one of “Preservation Act 2” is a song so accurate, it still rings true today, it’s the best expression of the money culture we’ve been living in for decades.

Show me a man who says he can live without bread
And I’ll show you a man who’s a liar and in debt

Yes, it’s always the poor claiming they can live without money. The rich, not so much. It’s as if the underclass rationalizes its position, since it’s got no direction home to the pot of gold controlled by the richies.

There’s no man alive who can’t be purchased or enticed
There’s no man alive who wouldn’t sell for a price

Everything’s for sale. It’s just a matter of the number.

Want that house on the corner? The owner might not be eager to sell, but if you ratchet up the price he starts thinking…with the money he can now buy TWO houses…it’s YOURS!

And this is why today’s stars do privates for corporations and despicable people, they can’t say no to the price. Oftentimes they’ve spent it before the date’s even played. You can pay your alimony and child support and…

Money talks and we’re the living proof
There ain’t no limit to what money can do
Money talks, money talks

It’s why we revere the icons. It’s why the unsuccessful have contempt for those in the black. Would they hate the popsters so much if they were broke? OF COURSE NOT!

Money can’t breathe and money can’t see
But when I pull out a fiver people listen to me

Try it. My dad taught me this lesson. You’ve got to grease the skids. The maitre d’, the mechanic, the police… That’s right, the guy who shuttles my mother around parks right in front of the theatre by dropping a fiver whenever he’s told to move on by a blue coat, he says…”I think you dropped something…” Problem solved.

Money can’t run and money can’t walk
But when I write out a check I swear to God I hear money talk

Ah, what doors cash opens.

Money talks and baby when you’ve been bought
You pay attention every time money talks
Money talks, money talks

A few years later Bob Dylan sang  that we “gotta serve somebody.” Ain’t that the truth. We all have a boss, and it all comes down to cash. You’re being paid it, you want it, you can’t say no. Stuff you’d never do in a million years, choices you abhor, you go down the path when someone is lording money over your head.

Money talks and there’s no doubt about it
Money talks and we can’t live without it

Try it. I did. You can’t function. All you can think about is cash. How you’re gonna get it, how you’re gonna evade the bills. You’re just one disaster away from crapping out. If you think you can live without money, you’ve never tried it.

What’s the point of living unless you’ve got money
I just couldn’t function without money
Money talks, money talks
Money talks, money talks

Wait a minute. Ray Davies is an artist. He’s supposed to be above money, he’s supposed to be doing it for the love. But in “Money Talks” he’s exposing all the hypocrisy. Joni Mitchell might play if you’re a friend of hers, otherwise she needs cold hard cash. The sooner you learn this, the sooner you’re on the road to success.

Show me an upright respected man
And I’ll have him licking my boots when I put money in his hand

Behind every great fortune lies a great crime. If you wanna be rich you’ve got to throw your morals out the window. It’s what’s happening in D.C. right now, with the politicians groveling at the feet of the billionaires. Just try getting rid of the puny hedge fund tax rate…can’t be done when they donate, when they schlepp you around in their private jets.

It rots your heart, it gets to your soul
Before you know where you are you’re a slave to the green gold

That idealist who sat next to you at college… He or she is now wearing a multi-thousand dollar suit and working around the clock for nothing other than money, they’ve barely got time to spend it. They’re slaves to the cash.

Money talks and we’re the living proof

And there you have it.

There ain’t no limit to what money can do

Want change? Start with a big bank account.

Money talks you out of your self-respect

Would you really be friends with that jerk if he weren’t rich and throwing you perks? Being a court jester for people whose values you hate?

The more you crave it the cheaper you get

Cheap isn’t only about refusing to leave a tip, about hoarding cash, it’s a whole attitude, and if you’re cheap you can never get ahead in this world, you’re stuck where you are. Loosen the purse strings if you want progress. But you’ll end up a slave to the green gold, because the truth is we’re all just rats in the same cage.

Money buys you time and people listen

Would anybody be paying attention to Donald Trump if he were broke?

Money can buy a smile and make life worth living

Look at the nerdy hedge funders with the babealicious wives, who get smiles from everybody on the payroll. That’s the power of money. And we can criticize it all day long, but it’s better than living without it.

If you’re ugly money can improve you

Talk to the plastic surgeons. It’s amazing what cash can buy you.

I just couldn’t face the world without mazuma

The sooner you learn this lesson, the better off you are.

I’ve learned when someone says money doesn’t matter they need to be ignored, they don’t understand how the game is played, even worse, they don’t understand people. Sure, some people will stand up to money now and again, but that’s just until those with cash find their weak point, or these same people go broke.

The truth is money talks. Maybe silently. Maybe impliedly. But it’s more vocal and more important than most of the drivel you hear every day, that you see on reality TV and even hear on the news.

Hell, there’s not an anchor who won’t jump ship for a check.

And networks protect their advertisers.

And if people let go HBO heads roll.

Money makes the world go-round.

And you probably won’t learn this at school.

And too often you’ll hear that money is dirty.

But if you want power, if you want to get ahead…follow the dollar.

Eventually Ray Davies did. Clive Davis got him to give up the album-length concepts, and go back to cutting individual songs. Clive did this by paying him. And the end result was success, suddenly the Kinks were playing arenas.

So even Ray Davies is a slave to the green gold. But in this one song he points out the truth of society better than anybody else.

That’s the job of an artist.

To pursue truth.

But only if someone is paying you.

Only if you’re getting rich.

Money talks, money talks

Rhinofy-Money Talks