Diddy woke up with a word on his heart for corporate America. The Hip Hop mogul took to the digital front page of his media company, REVOLT, to discuss how he feels about certain corporations who have "exploited our culture, undermined our power, and excluded Black entrepreneurs from participating in the value created by Black consumers."
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In the open letter, the Bad Boy founder expressed that General Motors (GM) specifically listed REVOLT as one of the Black-owned media companies they support, but Diddy feels their relationship isn't an accurate representation of success. He explained, "REVOLT, just like other Black-owned media companies, fights for crumbs while GM makes billions of dollars every year from the Black community."
The 51-year-old entrepreneur also revealed, "in 2019, brands spent $239 billion on advertising, [but] less than 1% of that was invested in Black-owned media companies." Meaning out of an estimated $3 billion GM spent on ads, only an estimated $10 million was spent on Black-owned media. Diddy expressed, "like the rest of Corporate America, General Motors is telling us to sit down, shut up and be happy with what we get." He went on to demand that Corporate America "reinvests an equitable percentage of what [they] take from [the Black] community back into [the Black] community.
While he may have a point, many haven't forgotten that several former Bad Boy artists have accused Diddy of not paying them for their work. One Twitter user said this was an instance of the pot calling the kettle black. Singer/influencer, Jessie Woo, expressed that she "was recently approached to host [one episode of a] show for Revolt and it came without pay."
Diddy, it starts with us.
— Jessica Fyre 💫 (@TheJessieWoo) April 8, 2021
I was recently approached to host a show for Revolt and it came without pay. We cannot keep knocking white folks for their disrespect towards minority creators while doing the same thing to each other.
I encourage you to be the change we need❤️ https://t.co/Ms1Ekwlg5a
It was an ONE EPISODE but STILL.
— Jessica Fyre 💫 (@TheJessieWoo) April 8, 2021
Online content generates tons of money. Revolt is owned by Diddy. We know how successful he is. No one should be working for free and/or the opportunity especially when your network is the one reaching out to said creator/talent/host etc.
Rapper, Noname responded to the open letter saying, "diddy... about a 150 million away from being a BILLIONAIRE diddy is shaming white corporations for a capitalist business model he almost completely replicated..."
diddy... about a 150 million away from being a BILLIONAIRE diddy is shaming white corporations for a capitalist business model he almost completely replicated 🧐
— 🌱 (@noname) April 8, 2021
abolish the black capitalist industrial complex 🙏🏾 https://t.co/xbpPtDnJA9
You can find Diddy's full open letter here.
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