Bow Wow has called on rappers to unionise. Actually, he said that “hip hop needs a board”, but he then went on to describe something that sounded very much like a trade union.
“Hip hop needs a board”, he wrote on Twitter. “No different than the NBA with the [National Basketball] Players Association. A committee. That can set rules and keep things in control and protect this thing we call hip hop! And have a retirement plan for the OG rappers. I hate seeing my heroes liquored out, no money, just washed”.
The idea of a union for musicians isn’t new, of course. In the UK we have the Musicians’ Union that was first established in 1893, and in the States there’s the American Federation Of Musicians, which began as the National League Of Musicians in 1896.
But is there room for a hip hop specific union too? I think that if there’s one thing we all know about the music industry, it’s that there’s always room for another trade body.
Who would lead such an organisation though? Bow Wow? His tweet didn’t suggest he had any plan to set up such an operation, he was just floating the idea. Maybe Jay-Z could do it. Does he have much on at the moment?