The Battle for Black Music: Paid in Full

BBC Two Northern Ireland HD

9:30 PM to 10:30 PM

Saturday 28 September

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Charting the failures and triumphs of record labels run and owned by black people, including Motown, Stax, Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella, as they battled a hostile industry. Soul singer Sam Cooke started Swan Records in the 1950s and started investing in other black artists on reasonable terms, with his mantle picked up by Motown, Philadelphia International and Stax, but all ended up selling their stakes back into the white-dominated industry. It wasn't until Master P in the early 1990s that a black-artist owned label would survive and prosper within the hostile music world, with his success emulated by artists like Jay-Z, Drake and Stormzy