THE BUDWEISER SUPERFEST AND THE BUSINESS OF BLACK MUSIC BY SHELDON TAYLOR: PT 4 Money and the Power
In 1983, Rick James resided in R&B's rare air. Sales for 1981's Street Song were soaring toward four million. 82's Throwin' Down' was gold. New release Cold Blooded was following suit. James was red-hot and he knew it. Just before hitting the stage at Superfest '83, he demanded an additional $25,000 on top of his scheduled fee. With a packed crowd of 50,000 waiting for Slick Rick to hit the stage, Super Fest tour managers angrily met his terms. Wily maneuvers like these were a far cry from a world so complex that writer Dempsey Travis devoted an entire chapter to it in his book The Autobiography of Black Jazz. That chapter----entitled The Jazz Slave Masters--- described a "plantation system" where Black entertainers were the exclusive property of mobbed-up booking agents and club owners. Travis used slavery's 19th-century euphemism--- the peculiar institution---...
