Yasiin Bey likens music industry to 'Scrooge McDuck'

Yasiin Bey has likened the music industry to "Scrooge McDuck".

The rapper formerly known as Mos Def did not hold back in a new interview with The Guardian, declaring the music industry had stripped him of his passion early on in his career.

"I was so disillusioned," Yasiin, 51, explained. "You start out with idealism and passion, and then you encounter the kind of conduct and values George Orwell called 'inanities'. And they do this s**t to everybody, it's not even personal, it's systemic."

He added he believed the current streaming model to be "gross" and "exploitative" of artists.

"That s**t is gross, paying people part of a penny for their music," Yasiin said.

"Those motherf**kers are cold-blooded, man, like Scrooge McDuck, lickin' his lips as he jumps into a pool of gold coins... The music industry of now makes the one I started out in seem charitable. It's completely exploitative."

With his new project, Forensics, expected to be released in 2025, however, Yasiin expressed hope.

"I'm just happy to be alive, to be able to create art and beauty, to the best of my ability," he told the outlet.

"Like, to be a human being is a miracle. We're on this spaceship, planet Earth, sharing this experience, and it's crazy. Like, who needs peyote? We're already in outer space, baby."