[RUSSEL] Hip-Hop has lost a number of it’s youngest voices, from Lil Peep in 2017 to
Xxxtentacion and Mac Miller in 2018 Juice WRLD in 2019 and most recently Pop Smoke in 2020.
Many of these acts talked about their mental health issues in their music.
And a lot of people are talking about whether record labels should foot the bill for musicians’
emotional health.
Denzel Curry: Labels should pretty much give mental health a real serious look because
look at how many people died because they have mental health issues.
[RUSSEL] Genius News sat down with Florida’s Denzel
Curry to find out why he believes labels should make artists’ mental health a priority.
Denzel Curry: They don’t provide like therapists or, you know, somebody to talk to or a way
to get through it.
We talk about stuff we writing about, but nobody’s really paying attention because,
you know, at the end of the day it’s about money.
[RUSSEL] And he’s far from the only rapper noting
the lack of support from the labels that rely on them as artists.
Wale: Artists generate so much revenue and I think that might be the least they can do...
analyzing what the artist is going through because a lot of us are open books.
[RUSSEL] Denzel told us how therapy helped him through
one of the most difficult times in his career.
Denzel Curry: “Clout Cobain” and the majority of ‘Taboo’… around that time I was really
going through a lot with my life, you know, things I couldn’t deal with myself.
Denzel Curry: I tried to the best of my abilities to, you
know, put it on record.
And even then, that still didn’t help cause I really wasn’t giving time to really sit
down with myself…
Then, I had a nervous breakdown.
I had to go to therapy.
Therapy helped a lot…
Writing helps, music does help, but is it enough?
It’s not enough…
That’s why you go to therapy, for an escape.
[RUSSEL] And Dr. Inger Burnett-Zeigler, a clinical psychologist at Northwestern University, agrees.
DR. ZEIGLER: There is some substantial research that demonstrates that creatives are more
likely to suffer from depression and bipolar disorder.
[RUSSEL] A 2019 study by digital music distribution
platform Record Union found that an astounding 73% of independent musicians suffer from symptoms
of mental illness.
Another 2019 survey by ASCAP found that music creators are 31% more likely than the general
population to say that their health and wellness have a major impact on their careers.
Denzel Curry: We be going through a lot of stuff, especially artists like myself.
We have months on the road without seeing our families, without seeing our friends.
And we gotta worry about the pressures of the next album, we gotta worry if we’re
gonna recoup our money back in time, we gotta worry if people are gonna like our stuff or
not.
And then we have more stuff at home on top of that.
[RUSSEL] But despite needing these kinds of resources,
musicians generally work as independent contractors for record labels – meaning they don’t
get the health insurance of full-time employees.
And starting out, most artists aren’t making enough money to pay for it themselves.
MENNO: Everyone who works at the label 9-5, goes into their office, they have healthcare.
But the hundreds of artists that they have out on the road touring, who are out there
earning the money that pay all these people’s salaries, don’t have health benefits.
And I find that kind of backwards.
[RUSSEL] That’s Menno Versteeg, founder of Toronto’s
Royal Mountain Records.
His label has made mental health a priority.
Home to indie rock acts like Mac DeMarco and U.S. Girls, Royal Mountain gives every artist
on its roster a yearly stipend of $1,500 to pay for mental health-related expenses.
MENNO: You know, I’ve had multiple friends die from either addiction or suicide, depression
on the road.
I’m just a person who saw a problem because I lived it for 20 years and wanted to try
and help that problem.
[RUSSEL] Menno Versteeg founded Royal Mountain Records
in 2009 and made headlines when he started the mental wellness program in 2019.
He says his artists typically use the money towards resources like therapy or addiction
counseling.
There was one artist that came to me and said, “You helped me save my life.”
And it just… makes me think.
[RUSSEL] Canadians do get free healthcare, although
it doesn’t cover mental health.
That means the money is coming out of Menno’s bottom line.
Still, he chooses to finance his artists’ well-being because he feels it’s the right
thing to do.
The goal was like, treat every band the way I would want to be treated.
That was kind of the mantra.
[RUSSEL] Royal Mountain is one of, if not the, first
music labels in the industry helping artists tackle mental health in this way, making Menno’s
model a first of its kind.
In the rap world, there’s still some stigma around therapy and mental wellness.
But those in the game addressing the topic are making a difference.
DR.
ZEIGLER: A lot of folks in the black community don't trust mental health providers.
I think, you know, Charlamagne speaking out is really important.
When people speak up and out about these issues, it makes more and more people comfortable.
[RUSSEL] In December 2019, the performance rights organization
ASCAP launched a health and wellness program called TuneUp that provides support groups
as well as wellness services and events for its members.
While TuneUp is a great first step, there is a lot more work that needs to be done.
And we’ll have to wait and see if more music labels will invest in similar programs and
business models that nurture mental health.
MENNO: I think it needs to be normalized, it needs to be a cost of doing business.
We use music as an escape but putting the pressure on us to keep producing that stuff that we initially
thought to help us escape, we feel trapped.
I’m Russel Abad with Genius News bringing you the meaning and the knowledge behind the
music.