Issa Rae has a Beef with the music business: ‘It’s an abusive industry… it needs to start over’

The HBO show “Insecure,” concluded  a five year run Sunday night with a highly anticipated series finale, where Rae, 36, wanted to channel the spirit of some of the classic soundtracks of the 1990s, “when music really, really mattered in movies and television shows.” 

Now she’s leaving behind a classic of her own: For five seasons, “Insecure” has showcased what the series’ music supervisor, Kier Lehman, calls “modern alternative R&B,” long on breathy vocals and vibey production that lend valuable emotional detail to the show’s layered storylines. Artists featured on “Insecure’s” several soundtrack albums — as well as an official Spotify playlist with nearly 200,000 followers — have included established acts such as SZA, Thundercat and Jazzmine Sullivan, who recorded a steamy duet called “Insecure” with Bryson Tiller for Season 2.

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Yet, while the show has also served as a crucial incubator for emerging artists, Rae has also used the show as a springboard to advance a blossoming career in the music industry, Rae announced in late 2019 her distribution agreement with Atlantic records and has since then released several Insecure Soundtrack albums featuring the alternative R&B artists highlighted on her show on her Raedio label. 

With Insecure behind her Rae has made a pivot and is producing a new show about aspiring rappers, and producing new and upcoming artists, basically using her existing career to help launch new music careers. However when asked if she thinks the music biz is “a place where good ideas flourish,” Rae bluntly answered: “Absolutely not. It’s probably the worst industry I’ve ever come across.”

“I thought Hollywood was crazy,” Rae continued in her Q &A with the L.A. Times… “The music industry, it has to start all over again. There are lots of conflicts of interest. Archaic mentalities. Villains and criminals! It’s an addiction industry, and I really feel for artists who need to get into it. … It was something shocking” to discover, she said.

Without being specific and purposely speaking in generalities, Rae indicated her feelings were based on a combination of her own experiences setting up soundtracks and hearing from artists about what they deal with on a regular basis. “I do not want to be too specific, but even with making our own appointments [for soundtracks] with labels or artists, it would be so intricate. And to find out how artists were treated on other labels … When I myself am a creator and know what I want in relation to a relationship with a production company or a producer, I would like to think that we are more artist-friendly than much of other brands and companies out there. I want to renew things.”

Rae also knocked the Grammy’s in the interview, and singled out one record in particular she thought had been unfairly snubbed. “What really bums me out — and this aligns with Hollywood — is the way that music is rewarded. When I think about the Grammy’s and these other systems that are designed to reward artistic creativity and uplift artists, I just feel like, ‘Y’all don’t get it. What are you rewarding?’ This is dumb, but I’ll say it anyway: A song like [Wizkid’s] ‘Essence’  — just absolutely a powerhouse, and yet could not be properly acknowledged by the institution that is supposed to celebrate the best in music — that trips me out. To see Black people and our contributions to music not celebrated in the way they should be — I mean, these aren’t institutions for us.”

Rae had plenty of good words for individual artists in the interview, singling out, naturally, the 2021 successes of Jazmine Sullivan, who recorded a title song for “Insecure” in Season 2 with Bryson Tiller, saying, “She’s just literally pure talent.”  Rae also cited Don Toliver and Cleo Sol as personal musical favorites from this year.

In a separate interview with the newspaper, Rae talked about the HBO Max series she just completed filming, “Rap Sh*t.”  The new series, in which she does not appear on-camera, has the two members of the hip-hop duo City Girls as executive producers.

“It’s set in the indie music world and it’s a completely different world, a very different story of still friendship, but trying to make it an industry that doesn’t see it for you,” Rae told the Times. “So in some ways, there are parallels to my own journey, but the music world is so different and twisted and crazy, as I’m learning myself.”