Lessons from Dave Chappelle
The entertainment industry is notorious for not paying &#x27;The Artist&#x27; their due. And in many cases, they can get away with owning the artist because the artists are typically approached when they are very young and have not developed acumen for business. In many cases, artists even hired business managers to look out for them, and those persons simply took another share and ensured that The Artist had plenty of sex, drugs and rock &#x27;n roll so they&#x27;d feel they were being successful while everyone else made the money.<p>The primary lever, as I understand it, is that the production company, whether it be movies, music or comedy would tally up all the expenses related to the production and then require that those expenses be paid back, with profit, before The Artist got more than enough to live on. Then, they&#x27;d inflate the expenses in any number of creative ways so that in most cases, their accountants could show that the production was a net loss, even when box office and record sales were excellent.<p>It&#x27;s a highly exploitative &#x27;monster&#x27; and Chapelle is not the only one taking them on. Kanye West has also gotten to work on the record industry [0].<p>I wonder if sports has a similar problem. Young, talented persons enabling huge industries... it seems that it&#x27;s ripe for exploitation as well.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rollingstone.com&#x2F;pro&#x2F;features&#x2F;kanye-west-universal-masters-war-1064225&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rollingstone.com&#x2F;pro&#x2F;features&#x2F;kanye-west-univers...</a>