Last night, I was inspired to share some thoughts on the music industry, the mentality of blaming Bad Boy and Diddy for everything that happens to their current and former artists and the responsibility that artists have in general. I did this on the @badboyblog Twitter account. I received a lot of positive feedback and @TrueSplurge suggested that I post the stream as a blog entry here on the site. After @empirequeen asked for more details on what I posted, I decided to do so.

I recognize this isn't for everyone: it's basically a stream of my Twitter messages which are short and limited by 140 characters. So, please feel free to skip this post. But, if you'd like to hear my thoughts on these topics, please read on.

If you do choose to comment, please read my thoughts first and consider what you know as first hand knowledge and what you heard from someone else. As always, our User Guidelines apply to all comments. Here's the stream:

Unless it comes out of an artist's mouth that @badboyrecords owes them money, I don't want to hear any speculation saying so

People fall off in the music industry every second of every day. That's the norm.

What's not the norm is being around for even a year. That's extraordinary, that's not normal.

People act like once you sign a deal with @badboyrecords, they are responsible for your life forever.

Wrong. They are responsible for the first check. You're responsible for everything else. That's it. Stop the victim mentality.

It's not a @badboyrecords thing, it's an industry thing, it's a business thing. Most people don't get it.

Signing a record deal does not = hitting the lottery. Signing a record deal is like getting a loan to buy a house.

No employer is responsible for your life. Do something stupid, you pay. No one is going to stand behind you for stupidness.

Signing a record deal doesn't mean to quit your day job, either. You have to keep the same hustle.

Always makes me laugh when some1 says something like "Sara Stokes stabbed her husband... where's @iamdiddy?" Are you serious?

Signing a record deal doesn't = CEO holds your hand in personal (or even professional) matters. It = here's a small check, now go work more.

.@iamdiddy is a celeb himself, so he has to deal w/ garbage that other CEOs don't because they are seen as *only* business men

Don't be fooled. Many people are profiting off of slamming @iamdiddy/@badboyrecords. They're making good money.

There's money in nonsense gossip. If I wrote nonsense gossip @badboyblog, I'd probably have 5x more traffic and money.

"Where did [artist] go?" Where do you think? On with their life. Music isn't a long term profession for most.

Look at every artist that debuted this year. In 5 years, 95% of them will be unheard of. It's the reality of the industry.

And it's not a bad thing. Consumers decide w/ money. It doesn't fall on label promo, either, it's about individual artists

But that's the first excuse you always hear when someone doesn't sell. The promo was bad. EVERYONE's promo was bad?

Now, more than ever, it's on the individual artist, not the label, to sell records hand over fist.

I may not be a singer, but I am a published author and the book industry is the same way.

You think the music industry is bad? There is NO money for promo for 98% of book authors.

I've just hustled to get my book out there and have sold thousands of copies because of that hustle.

And I didn't have to lie, embellish, write gossip or bring down another man to do it, either.

But, like I say, there's a lot of money in doing those things. Sometimes the people saying they have nothing have a bit more than that.

The "paperwork gangster" stuff is such a laugh, too. Only in hip-hop would reading your contract be taken as a bad thing

Everyone should aspire to be a "paperwork gangster." Everyone should read what they promise to other people.

I laugh when someone says an artist got a bad deal, too. It's so backwards. The deal is only bad because the artist did well.

What about the deals when the artist doesn't do well? Does anyone says "well, the label got a bad deal?" Heh. Two way street.

Artists will ALWAYS sign the best deal they have on the table at the time. Can't go back once you actually do well.

Honor your deal and then sign a new one when it's done. If it's a long deal, it's a long deal. That's what it took for you to break in.

Signing acts to a label is like investing in the stock market. If the stock does well, I profit. If it tanks, I lose.

I can't go back to the company I invested it and say "hey, your stock is down 80%, I want my money back." They'd laugh me out of the room.

The same is true for artists. Most don't do well. Some do. In the end, you hope it balances out.

Publishing is an investment. You take a check because the pub. company things long term, they'll make it (and more) back.

If you don't write hits, pub. company can't come back & say "take your publishing back, it's worth crap." It's already sold

Example: No one "stole" anything from The Lox. They sold stock in themselves to Bad Boy. The stock went up; they got mad.

Would their stock have gone up if they didn't sign with @badboyrecords (or someone else)? Most likely no.

But, if their stock had gone down & Bad Boy took a loss, no one would have been on The Lox to give the money back. Backwards

It's almost like if u sign w/ a label, u have a built in excuse if u don't do well. Save us all & release ur music on ur own

The summary point of everything I've been saying is that artists share equal responsibility with labels for their success.

If you as an artist do not do well, you as an artist share primary responsibility for that.

And as a fan, blogger, etc. don't say things you don't know to be true. Focus on what you know to be true.

I make a note of the sites that post garbage info and I make a point to avoid linking to them, in any context.

Blogging doesn't = gossip. Gossip writers blogging = gossip blogs. Get it straight. There is no such thing as "the blogs."

There are plenty of responsible writers blogging. It's a medium, not a style.

Just like there are gossip print publications and legitimate print publications. The medium doesn't = a style.

So, yeah... some industry thoughts tonight, some blogging thoughts, some @badboyrecords biz thoughts. If you missed it, it's in my stream.