BMAC's Willie “Prophet” Stigger on DEI Layoffs & Music Industry's “False Promises”

When the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) releases its annual Music Industry Action Report Card, co-founder and president/CEO Willie “Prophet” Stigers says a barrage of distressed phone calls from executives inevitably follows. The ratings score music companies on how well they have delivered on their 2020 pledges to diversify their workforces, among other measures. Executives call, he explains, to complain that grades are affecting their bottom lines.

“That's what we want to do,” says Stigers, who is also CEO of artist and brand management company 50/50 Music Group Management. “You can't continue to operate on false promises after you say you stand in solidarity with your Black brothers and sisters and then not promote Black empowerment and ensure that a woman is in an environment where she is protected and her vision is carried out.”

The BMAC was founded in June 2020 following the #TheShowMustBePaused movement to promote racial diversity, equality and inclusion in the music industry. But this year's mass industry layoffs, which included many DEI executives, “unwound some of the progress we were making,” Stigers says.

As a result, BMAC will present a new version of its report ahead of its fourth annual gala in September. The agency sent a link to executives asking them to anonymously indicate whether they've seen real change, what has gotten worse, and what still needs to be addressed.

The first results, says Stigers, are “almost a slap in the face – a 'whitewash', if you will, on the commitments made in 2020. The question has become, was this – really effective or not?”

Why are there fewer black executives in the music industry now than in 2019?

The major labels, I'm sure, would call you AI [artificial intelligence]. The uncertainty of this sphere made them tighten. But my suspicions are that there is a piece of it, but these positions [for Black and women executives] they were not permanent. A lot of people were put in those positions in 2020—directors became top-level managers, for example—and then in 2024, they were asked to go back to that lower position or leave altogether. When you have the RIAA's report of record revenue generated by the industry in 2023, it seems to me a little bit how that translates into a lack of employment.

What is your opinion on the PPC posts that have been abolished from 2020?

The reality is that many of these label commitments were three-year commitments. That seemed to be the hot number where they thought at the end of three years this would go away or we'd go to something else. Ostensibly, the contracts these PPC executives had were for three years. As soon as they got up, [the labels were] like, “We did this. We checked the box. Now let's get back to business as usual.” We had so many possibilities to get this thing on track. So going back is really embarrassing and history will reflect that.

How do you advise these companies to uplift people of color and women?

Many of our conversations with these labels, we do confidentially. Here's what I can say about it. We bring all kinds of statistics to prove how profitable diversity is. how profitable it is when you let women lead. how profitable it has historically been when people of color – those who make the product, who consume the product – drive [in terms of] how this product is distributed. It's not even a moral discussion at this point. I tell you how it affects your result.

What do you think of the Recording Academy's efforts to diversify its voting membership for the Grammy Awards?

Racism is a 450 year old issue. It's not going to be solved in three or four years. What we can do is talk about the progress that has been made. We have, for the first time, a Black CEO of the Recording Academy. This is progress. We've watched new categories emerge [like] the best song for social change. This did not exist before Harvey Mason jr. as CEO. It is up against decades-old systems that we are slowly dismantling. The mere fact that there is a Black Music Collective. The fact that Jay-Z stood on stage and held a Grammy named after Dr. Dre. We're not going to act like this is the liberation of our people, but we're not going to act like it won't change.

You say BMAC has moved from protest to politics. How;

In 2022, it came to our attention that there were over 500 cases of black men being jailed for lyrics. This became a problem for us. So BMAC created the federal legislation called the RAP Act. The work we did at that federal level created all these statewide bills like the one that the Governor. [Gavin] Newsom signed with California last year. This was a direct result of our work. We're working with the team around Fix the Tix and we're working with the teams around AI protection. Our work around legislative policy is as powerful, as real, and as meaningful as the work we do with pipeline programs.

What are some of these pipeline programs?

Three years ago, we partnered with the RIAA and Tennessee State University and [Nashville Music Equity’s] Brian Sexton, who is an alumnus there, to bring a unique business school to young people looking to enter the industry. We bring executives and artists from across the industry. They get paid internships coming out of it every year. We had many people gainfully employed in record labels and music studios. More recently, Live Nation hired one of the participants. Tri Star [Sports & Entertainment] hired a young woman from this year's classes.

This isn't your only Nashville-related initiative.

BMAC also went out a report in 2022 entitled Three Chords and the Actual Truth: The Manufactured Myth of Country Music and White America. When we published this report, there was a call to action for the music world to join us in addressing structural racism on Music Row in Nashville and creating access. We were inspired by a guy named Michael Tubbs from Stockton, California. He created Mayors for Guaranteed Income and asked mayors across the country to create these pilot programs where they would give [citizens of their city] guaranteed income up to $2,000 per month. He got the qualitative and quantitative data needed to show the positive effects of small increases in money going directly to people.

We felt we could bring the same idea to the music industry and creators. The Academy of Country Music was the first to raise their hand and join us. A year from the date of that report, 20 young black children [in the music community] started receiving $1,000 a month, plus coaching and [other] Services.

BMAC also works with the live industry.

We partnered with Live Nation and created BMAC Live, a 10-day intensive program in California as part of Live Nation's School of Live. They allowed BMAC to come in and carve out a program specifically geared toward young black students not in college who want to be in the live space. We've already had 3,000 applicants and we're going to pick 20 of the best from that group and fly them to Los Angeles for a whole week. Each of these young people will go to their respective cities and receive paid internships from Live Nation for six months. [Then] will be eligible for the Live Nation apprenticeship program. It is another six months that will then lead to employment. This is the type of access and training we talked about, and this program will scale and grow annually.

Is there anything else you would like to point out?

We're working on something really special with Apple Pathways. [We are training young people] around spatial sound, spatial vision and their preparation for tomorrow's technology. Here we go, and if we don't create accessibility to technology, another divide is going to happen. Another turn will be made in which Black America is once again left out.

Is BMAC looking to expand its staff as these programs and initiatives develop?

Yes. We will expand and look at college representatives. Young people are ready. They are not driven by the same obstacles and the same willingness to allow rules to continue to divide people. It's a different spirit in this generation here.

One thing we realized is that this fight for justice is not just here in the US. We are in partnership with organizations in the UK and Australia and are forging a huge movement with several key organizations across the continent [of Africa]. I am very worried about what is happening with Afrobeats. If we don't get there and start working with our African brothers and sisters to understand the industry, the cultural appropriation that happened in hip-hop, blues, rock, country will happen there. If we don't protect it [intellectual property]it will be cultural colonization all over again.