The Ndugu Chancler Interview Set II

The Business of Creativity

Studio musicians were always paid very well to create and make someone else look good. The only time we did receive something for ourselves was when we wrote something, which is the case for the music business, anyway. If you don’t write it, if you don’t produce it, you don’t get paid. If you just play the session, that’s a certain fee. I will say for me, I have been rewarded for most of my work because I was not only the musician but also the businessman, and I always made sure that I got paid. Whatever was due to me, I always made sure that I got it. If there was a royalty due to me, I got it. If there were points due me in any situation, I made sure I got them. There were only a couple of situations where someone beat me, and in order to beat me he had to bankrupt his company. More often than not I got paid.

This is a business. Creativity is creativity. But the business of creativity is the business of creativity. So, you have to always ensure that when you’re creating, you’re going to be rewarded for your creativity. I don’t want to give it away. You know, I never wanted to be one of those musicians who wanted to go down in history as a poor, broke, starving genius. I never wanted to look at it that way. I wanted to be paid for what I did. That’s just common business; it’s music, but it’s business. I always looked at it from the business perspective. I don’t think the industry did me an injustice. I don’t think I got ripped off. I made enough noise to make sure I got compensated.