Chatterbox: Episode 1 - What Is An Industry Plant?

The episode delves into the concept of "industry plants" and discusses its implications, particularly focusing on the artist Dolce's rise to fame. It seeks to distinguish between genuine talent and artificially manufactured success in the music industry while challenging common misconceptions surrounding this contentious term.

• Discussion on the concept of industry plants 
• Analyzing Dolce and her trajectory in the industry 
• Differentiating between industry support and being an industry plant 
• The case of Tommy Richmond as an example of the industry plant label 
• Exploration of connections and familial influence in artist success 
• The responsibilities of record labels towards their artists 
• Final thoughts on authenticity in the music industry

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yo, what's going on?
This is one half of Late to theParty and I just got a thought.
First off, welcome to a newsegment.
Maybe you'll get more of mesolo and then maybe you'll get
some of Dodie solo.
But this is just somethingthat's been on my mind, and I

(00:22):
want to talk about the termindustry plant, and I really
don't want to.
I'm not going to dive too farinto it about everybody who's
been considering an industryplant versus people who are not
industry plants, right.
But if you get on twitter oranywhere online, people use the
term industry plant so much andit and you'll see it more often

(00:46):
used towards people that seemlike they blew up overnight, and
sometimes those people can beconsidered an industry plant
right.
So if you search the termindustry plant on Google, right,
what pops up first is industryplant is a top derogatory term
for a musician who becomesfamous through connections,

(01:10):
wealth and inheritance ratherthan their own talent, and that
could be somewhat of an industryplan.
I understand it, but how I seean industry plant is someone who
seems like they have had a rise.
That seemed organic, like.

(01:30):
It seemed like oh my God,people are really connecting to
this song, and then you see, thewhole time it's been the
industry behind the scenesplaying a game.
The reason I bring this up isdue to Dolce.
Now, if you haven't heard ofDolce, dolce is signed to TDE.

(01:53):
She's a rapper, singer,performer, and it seems like
over the past year, she's had afast rise Right, she's had a
fast rise, right.
But and Not saying that I'vebeen listening to Dolce ever
since, but the first time Iheard of Dolce was in 2019, with

(02:16):
a song called Spooky Coochie,which, when I first seen it, it
popped up on a playlist of I waslistening to an artist named
Scotty, which I thought Scottywould be popping up a little bit
more these days, but the songthe song Spooky Coochie is from
Dolce and that's the first songI heard from her, and this is a

(03:10):
little piece of it.
Now, I'm not going to lie andsay after I heard that song, I
listened to her a lot, but I didput that song in my playlist.
If you go to 2020 of my of myApple streaming, I'm guaranteed
she was in the top 20, maybe 30songs listened to that year,
right?
Also, you can hear the NickiMinaj influence.

(03:32):
You can hear a little bit oflike even that breathing
exercise in the background.
You can hear that now in hernew music, but that's besides
the point.
The point is, it seems to peoplethat she has been an industry
plant because TDE has now takenher under the wing and it seemed
like a fast rise, right, whichdoesn't make sense to me.

(03:56):
She didn't get signed to TDEuntil 2020, 2021, I believe TEDE
until 2020, 2021, I believe andthen she didn't really pop
until 2024.
Now, if you know TEDE, tede isgreat for actual development of
artists.

(04:16):
So she was behind the scenes,learning and still trying to get
it together, right, but alsotrying to get it together, right
.
But also, I don't understandhow people now think she's an
industry plant when she lastyear or the year before, which
is 2023, had a a hit with umwith uh if I got kodak black,

(04:39):
right.
So she had a hit with kodakblack, which let me.
Let me look that up real quick,because a lot of people probably
didn't even know that that'swho they was listening to when
they was listening to the songwith Kodak Black, right.
So here's a little portion ofthat.
Here we go.
Now.

(05:09):
A lot of people listen to thatand not even know that.
That's.
If he put it down, I'm going topick it up, can't you see?
It's just me.
Now a lot of people listen tothat and not even know that.
That's the Dolce that we arehearing rapping today.
That's the same Dolce that wason that song with Kodak Black in

(05:31):
2023.
So, being an industry plantversus being a person who just
have a good back and it shouldbe two different things.
I'll give you an example of anindustry plant that I believe
Tommy Richmond, million dollarbaby.
You see posts online.
You see posts on Instagram,twitter, on TikTok.

(05:52):
It was going crazy.
It looked like this young manhas just organic, like just, oh
my God, people are flocking tothe song.
Now, people was flocking to thesong, but there was already a
label behind him pushing himright.
There was already a labelbehind the advertisement and the

(06:18):
organic quote, unquote organicrise.
Now people like the song.
That's not to say people don'tlike the music, but that's an
industry plan.
Not to not to be confused witha um bobby schmurder, who had a
organic blow up and then thelabel got behind them real quick

(06:41):
.
That's two Different things.
Because his when Hot Niggadropped, it was popping and then
a label got behind themafterwards With Tommy Richmond
or with any other industry Plant.
That Is A total different lookat An outcome, on what you see
and when you look in that a songblow up, when people behind you

(07:05):
that's why I say thisdefinition that say somebody who
was, who got fame through theirconnections, which man?
I could go into a whole, notherthing.
So if you look at Will Smith'sson, jaden, jaden Smith makes
good music.
He's not an industry plant.
His dad just happens to be WillSmith.

(07:27):
You get what I'm saying.
Like an industry plant ispushed by a label that but make
it seem like they're not reallybehind.
Like people get confused.
What a label is supposed topush your numbers?
A label is supposed to pushtheir artists.
That does not make them anindustry plant.
An industry plant can besomebody without no talent and

(07:52):
all of a sudden, jamelo what'sthat?
Liangelo Ball or whatever.
Like you can see, you can saythat may be an industry plant
because that is Def Jam, notgonna I'm, I'm, I'm under the
the assumption that Def Jam wasalready behind a little
something like labels just don'tpop up the next day.

(08:13):
Here's 13 million dollars offof one song.
That is something that wasalready in the making, but they
had to push it to see what mightwork.
I don't know if y'all remember,but Yo Gotti had a?
Um, yo Gotti had a contestyears back, years back, uh uh,
it was like one of them open,open verse challenges and

(08:36):
whoever won the open versechallenge?
So what he did was have peoplepost videos on TikTok and on
Instagram or whatever.
Whoever won the challenge gotto be on the verse or got signed
to the label and all that stuff.
Out of all the people thatpopped up and won.
When you look back into theguy's catalog, he was already in

(08:58):
connections and already signedwith Yo Gotti.
That's an industry plan.
That's also good promotion onYo Gotti's part, because he got
the people singing the song andrapping and listening to it,
because he's advertising that,he's promoting that song.
But he's also playing into thegame of like, whoever wins get

(09:18):
to be on the song.
And then there's somebody thathe already rocked with.
You know what I'm saying and Idon't want to get too far
Because I can, once my brainstart going, I start going into
other things.
But an industry plant is notwhat y'all believe it to be.
Just because a person has abacking.
Just because a person is pushedto the front, that does not

(09:43):
make them an industry plant.
That just makes them a them anindustry plant.
That just makes them a.
It just makes them a person who, who has a label behind them.
Even if you want to look at thenumbers of uh, like everybody's
saying that kendrick lamar hasbeen pushed more over Drake,

(10:09):
your label is supposed to pushy'all.
If you sign to a label and thenyour label don't do nothing,
you should be looking at yourlabel like, wait a minute, what
are you doing?
That does not make you anindustry plant.
Your connections don't make youan industry plant.
It can make you an industryplant.
But that's not just the root ofit all.
The root of it all to me issomebody who is online faking

(10:32):
like they're, they're, they're,they're just grinding and but
the whole time the label isbehind them.
You just not.
You know.
I'm saying I don't know.
I just wanted to get on herebecause a lot of people have
been calling doji an industryplant.
But like she's been.
If you go back through her, heryoutube, and if you go back
through the songs that she'salready dropped, she's been
dropping stuff since like 2018,2017.

(10:54):
She just grinded and all of asudden that year that y'all
heard about her and a lot ofpeople are just mad because she
signed a TDE.
And then people are mad.
For some reason the Nicki Minajfans are mad at her.
But just because she's beengrinding and then this rise
seems so quick to y'all does notmake her an industry plant.

(11:15):
I don't know.
I just wanted to talk aboutthat real quick.
An industry plant versussomebody who's just signed to a
label those are two differentthings.
You get what I'm saying.
Hopefully y'all get what I'msaying.
Tommy Richmond is an industryplant.
Dolce is not an industry plantand just because Jaden Smith is

(11:38):
Will Smith's son wouldn't makehim an industry plant.
That would just make him anartist of a son.
Damani from TI's.
If you want to call it anindustry plant, cool, but that's
a wrong term to be becauseDamani's not on top of it,

(11:58):
although he can rap and he ismoving in his own pace.
He's not an industry plant justbecause his dad is TI.
It might help you know what I'msaying.
It might help to call and getthat button.
Help, you know what I'm saying.
It might help to call and getthat button pushed.
You know what I'm saying.
It's like LA Reid was on aninterview talking about there's
no such thing as getting abutton pushed.

(12:19):
I mean it is.
You know what I'm saying, butyou got to have the talent.
You just can't push the buttonon anybody.
You got to have the talent tomake the button get pushed.
You know what I'm saying, butthat's just your label pushing
you.
It's what's supposed to.
I just wanted to talk about theindustry plan.
I could get into other stufflater.
All right, if you made itthrough this 13 minutes of

(12:41):
rambling.
I appreciate y'all forlistening.
We'll be back next week, thismonday, with another episode of
late to the party.
This is just something I wantedto put on here, something that
was on my mind, and I'llprobably talk about it with
dodie later.
Peace.