“We didn't talk about anything else at school,” says Zyen Hulskamp (20) at the protest Tuesday evening by rapper Ronnie Flex. “This could be a turning point, so that artists will hopefully be seen more as people and not as products.”
Hulskamp is one of approximately one hundred and fifty people on the Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam, a significant number of whom were media, who responded to Ronnie Flex's call to protest against his former record label Top Notch. Flex is angry about the contract he signed with Top Notch in 2012, because of the small share he was paid. According to Flex – stage name of Ronell Plasschaert (31) – he did “75 percent of the work” and only received 8 percent of the royalties. Flex broke through in 2014 with the song 'Drank & Drugs', the hit he made together with Lil 'Kleine. His album Remi (2017) achieved platinum status. “I was tired Remi listening and thought to myself, damn, I never had any of it,” Flex said on Tuesday about why he set up this protest.
The Rotterdam musician broke with the label in 2021 and filed a lawsuit against them, a case he lost in January. In the run-up to the lawsuit, Top Notch adjusted the royalty percentage to 20 percent. He rejected that.
Flex is appealing and has been fiercely critical of Top Notch on social media in recent days, with the action in Rotterdam as the temporary highlight. According to him, the intention was to create awareness and “to prevent young artists from signing a stranglehold contract.” During the action in Rotterdam, a video clip was immediately recorded for his new song 'Kees Closed', a so-called diss track towards Top Notch' label owner Kees de Koning.
Legendary moment
The one hundred and fifty people present during the action were not the thousands that Flex himself said he expected in advance, but according to fan Hulskamp it was still “a legendary moment”. He makes music himself under the name XNMI and is in his second year at the Herman Brood Academy. Ronnie Flex is a great source of inspiration for him and he is even currently in discussions with Vincent Patty (Jiggy Djé), general manager at Top Notch, about a possible contract. “That's a thing,” he laughs, “but today I think it's much more about the movement. That young artists start to think more about what they draw and with whom. In any case, it makes me think. I hope that's what Ronnie is about, and that it's not just his own thing.”
Because Flex has appealed and the case is back in court, Top Notch does not want to respond via the media at this time, the label will let NRC know. They await the verdict.
Yet Flex was not spared any criticism on social media, because isn't this action a bit crooked? Why sign such a contract if you don't agree with it? Flex responded to Threads: “Why is no one talking about the person who sets up such a deal and actually applies it to a fellow human being?” He also states that not everyone has people around them who can help with these types of matters, especially at such a young age (he was 20 when he signed). “I just came straight from the community center as a self-made person.”
Zeitgeist
Bjorn Schipper of Plus One Legal, a lawyer in the music world for over twenty years and not involved in Flex's case, states that these types of contracts are not strange in the music world, but the question is whether they are ethical and fair. Schipper: “The judge should have looked at that more closely. In short, the ruling is almost entirely dependent on the rejection of the argument that Flex did not know what he was signing because he was young and had not engaged a lawyer. The judge did not agree with that because he was an adult and had a manager.”
According to Schipper, the judge should have taken the spirit of the times in mind. The music industry has changed since 2012: streaming was not that big yet, and the revenues could not yet be accurately estimated. “Is 8 percent royalties still reasonable? And a contract for four albums, a lifetime in the music world, is that fair? And why would 20 percent, which Top Notch later offered to Flex, be reasonable? Why is 30/70, 40/60 or 50/50 not fair? On appeal, Flex will have the opportunity to do his homework again, especially with the new Copyright Contract Law Act that was recently tightened. This law precisely serves to improve the position of artists in these types of situations.”
According to Schipper, the broader social discussion about this is important, because the relationship between a young, emerging artist and a large, established label is almost always skewed. “This protest action is unique in the Dutch music world, maybe it will make a difference.”
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