WorldstarHipHop exposed as lying about Ace Hood's plaques, Dame and Hopsin reunite to end their beef and clear the air, what an odd way to start 2021. Let's talk the truth about plaques, the truth about the Funk Volume breakup and the truth about the role of luck in music business success.

Some rappers don't want to pay royalties to producers. Pain 1 offers a solution. Dame is tired of the "you don't need a manager" conversation, but explains how managers can add value. Also, will new technologies help music careers? Probably not.

If you're selling beats online, do you deserve royalties? Are rappers too broke to buy beats? Is selling beats dead? Dame and Pain talk healing the problems between producers and rappers, the problem with royalty splits and why performance royalties matter less in today's music business.

Why don't people like DJ Pain 1? Is he as mean and nasty as they say he is? Also, lots of producers and rappers are getting advice from Clubhouse conversations. But is the advice good? Should rappers and producers focus on one platform for selling beats online or selling their music? Dame throws an axe at the Clubhouse establishment.

Selling beats online is impossible, making a living off of beats can't be done, not unless you have a HUGE budget, right? And you can't become a successful rapper unless you have 100k to invest, true? No. And Dame and Pain are sick of explaining it. Also, Dame and Hopsin took a photo together... what's going on?

Should producers charge for beats or is selling beats dead? Should producers always get money upfront? What about the backend? This is a more complicated conversation than most people realize. Dame and Pain debate and discuss selling beats, royalties, paying for beats with "exposure" and more.

Selling beats must be dead if no rappers are willing to pay for beats. But how true is this? Plenty of producers express that they're beats aren't selling and they blame rappers for their lack of sales, but in this episode, we discuss this notion in detail. Dame also explains HOW to effective release music in 2020/2021.

Pain asks Dame why producers hate on each other and why there's so much self-sabotage and doubt in the music business. Dame shares that co-owning Funk Volume was the "beginning of the end" of the label, talks management pitfalls.

Spotify's announcement has a lot of artists feeling undervalued by the platform. Are they making a mistake? Also, should producers send the same beats to multiple artists or keep their beats on hold? Trakksounds joins us to weigh in.

With music business success, comes ego. And ego can break up a team, hurt a collaboration, destroy a friendship or kill an opportunity. Dame and Pain share stories about producer splits, bad managers and egos that ruined a lot of potential.