Paid in Full Foundation’s five-year grants have helped hip-hop pioneers buy homes, pay medical bills and complete delayed creative projects, according to a newsletter Andreessen Horowitz published on Nov. 7.
The newsletter, “Hip-Hop Has No Social Security. Paid in Full Is Trying to Change That,” described support for artists whose earnings fell short of their contributions. Its account drew on careers stretching back to 1979 and the foundation’s Oct. 24 awards ceremony in Las Vegas.
The publication said Ben and Felicia Horowitz founded the nonprofit to support those artists through grants with no conditions attached. It named Rakim, Scarface, George Clinton, Roxanne Shanté, Grandmaster Caz, Kool Moe Dee, Grand Puba and Kool G Rap among past recipients.
The newsletter offered individual histories of lost income and financial assistance, without giving grant amounts or measuring recipients’ finances before and after receiving support. Its argument rested on the gap between the artists’ influence and the money they received.
Grandmaster Caz’s experience illustrated that gap in the publication’s account. It said he received neither royalties, payments for use of his work, nor official songwriting credit for lyrics used on the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.”
The newsletter traced those lyrics to a rhyme book Caz lent to Sugarhill Gang member Henry Jackson, known as Big Bank Hank. Jackson had briefly managed Caz and recorded his verses without changing a passage spelling out Caz’s stage name, the publication said.
The newsletter contrasted Caz’s experience with that of Chic musicians Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, whose “Good Times” supplied the recording’s music. Rodgers described securing a settlement that gave Chic publishing rights and royalties after the musicians hired a lawyer.
The publication said Chic had successful records and the resources to hire legal help. It argued that the foundation cannot fully repair the opportunities artists lost, but can provide financial support and recognition that some had waited decades to receive.
The D.O.C.’s history supplied another example. The newsletter said a car crash and the emergency treatment that followed permanently damaged his voice, although he later helped write recordings for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
The D.O.C. said Eazy-E gave him a gold chain in exchange for his publishing rights, the newsletter said. It also described an alleged promise of an ownership stake in Death Row Records that he never received.
The foundation also brings artists together to recognise their predecessors, the publication said. It described Nas paying tribute to honoree Kurtis Blow and Ice Cube honouring the D.O.C., alongside performances by artists whose careers the grants seek to support.
