Art and Culture # 125: “Fighting Fair” in a terrible industry

Dame Dash comments about "Fighting Fair" in the industry by calling "the 48 Laws of Power" as a "cheaters book" will never make sense to me or anyone on planet earth

It’s no secret that business and commerce is a tricky situation. Dame Dash, the past CEO of Roc-a-fella records, claimed “Using the 48 Laws of Power is a cheaters book” to only say, “I want to fight fair” is how no one can survive in the creative industry.

Nobody enjoys their contract in a record, publishing field. It has to be changed because if an artist is worth more money than when they started with, nothing is ever the same. Being rich and successful is a hard subject to talk about. Because your tax bracket reflects your words, art, visuals, what you bring to the table as an artist. It’s hard for me to pretend Stephen King writes scary stories, because his hunger to scare people is gone. The Boys in the Basement, as he calls them, all the scary things that made him who he was, aren’t that much of a priority. Because how can you alienate your audience while maintaining your career as “the scariest author of all time?” Because he had to cheat in business in order to fight against an industry that didn’t want him in the first place.

Because fighting fair in an industry that doesn’t want to pay you your fair share doesn’t want to fight fair. And if you don’t use “the 48 laws of power” once in your life, you really don’t know what it is to be successful. If it is a “cheaters guide” it’s the only guide that all of us should use.

If you think that using a “cheaters guide” is an unhealthy way to fight fair in business, Dame Dash has lost for very good reasons. If you don’t want to survive in the creative arts, as a business man, become a hobbyist and write or make art on the side. Nothing “fair” in the business aspects of art is good. It’s why agents play a more vital role in creating a long lasting business model for artists.

Agents should teach artists when to pivot and find the best move to make. But agents rarely do that anymore and it takes brave artists to make the pivot when the crowd expects something else. Nobody in the industry wants to lose their millions but the only people who manage to make the pivot are extremely talented and understand how to pivot.

If writing books isn’t the way for some people, maybe merchandise, clothing lines, streams, help create more revenue for the books. Branding is a dirty word, but as of February 8^th, 2025, Branding, to a self-published artist, comes with certain caveats. There’s really no one telling you to pivot and if you can make money off it, or gain a cerain amount of clicks or attention to your work, then Branding is also helping you choose what you want your brand to be.

But fighting fair against an industry that doesn’t want to pay you makes “Branding” the dirty word it sounds like. But if you don’t know how to survive in the arts world, then using a “cheaters guide” doesn’t make it so bad for someone at the base level playing field. There’s no where to go unless you use the “48 laws of power” because to be successful is to gain respect, money, or attention, in a world where being broke is the only option to “fighting fair.”