Rapper Lou The Human Claims Record Label Asked Him To Urinate On Black Baby To Go Viral
He wants to break with his label.
Instagram Getting a record deal can seem like living the dream for an up and coming musician. That's what rapper Lou the Human thought when he signed with Interscope Records a few years ago and expected that would be his platform for success. Instead, he says he discovered that the label wanted to manage his music and his image in ways that went against what he wanted to do.
Over the weekend, the rapper took to social media to share his grievances about Interscope and how it has held him back from doing what he always wanted. He was hoping to change up his image and his style with each new project but they wanted to keep him in a box and have him do the same thing over and over. What's more, they were asking him to do truly shocking things in an effort to gain viral fame.
Who is Lou the Human and why is he mad at Interscope?
1. Lou the Human
The rapper, whose given name is Louis Diaz, is from Staten Island and started releasing music independently a few years ago. It didn't take him long to get noticed, however, and he signed a contract after only putting out a few songs. In a Twitter post this weekend, he talked about how that made him feel at the time. "I signed a contract when I was younger to what I thought was the biggest record label and my dream come true, while I only had one or two songs out,” he wrote. “I was sold a dream, told I’d be the biggest artist in the world, told to wait my turn, and I played along.”
2. Radical marketing plans
One of the things he quickly realized is that marketing and visibility are incredibly important in the music industry, His management wanted him to pull some wild stunts in order to get the spotlight and attract attention and hopefully, new fans. But what they wanted from him was so far from ok that it;'s hard to believe anyone would even suggest it. "As things started to progress I was asked to do things that didn’t align with my values," he recalled in his post. "They asked me to piss on a black baby in a music video in an attempt to go ‘viral'…"
Not only is that idea racist and repugnant, but it's also probably a violation of health codes. Unless the label was planning to make it all happen by photo editing, it was likely illegal.
His full post about his label.
3. My right to say no
The rapper wasn't about to abandon his own values and do anything as repulsive as urinating on a child, no matter what his management might think. He tried to be professional about it all, however, even as he felt like he was a product that he didn't control anymore. "I started to feel like I wasn’t in charge of myself or what ‘lou the human’ represented anymore," he tweeted. "I didn’t complain though I just exercised my right to say ‘no’ more, which left me with the reputation of ‘being difficult and dysfunctional.'”
4. Trying to change it up
One of the things Lou wanted to be able to do was change creatively over time. He said on Twitter that he never planned to continue making "horrorcore" rap his whole career and he didn't want to be the label's answer to Eminem like he felt like they wanted him to be. "My whole plan was always to change my persona, 'personality' character with every project. If you're really a fan, you know I stan Bowie," referring to the iconic singer who changed his image and style multiple times over his career. "If I was going to get this attention, I wanted to say something worthwhile."
He achieved that with his recent album Painkiller Paradise, which he called a passion project that he'd been working on since 2014. He used the album to tell the Staten Island story, as he called it.
5. I don't know what a label does
Since he started pushing back on the things the label and management wanted from him, he feels like they've dropped support for his projects. “The label I am signed to has all but given up on me,” he explained in his post. “No type of help releasing my music, project pushed back literally years, no pr work, press, simple things a label does. To be honest I have no fucking idea what a label does at this point. All I’ve gotten was ignored, maybe one photoshoot where my idea was slaughtered anyway lol, can barely get video budgets or another budget to start my album, I literally can’t even get anyone on the phone lol.”
6. This is the end
In a crushing blow to fans, he said straight up that he doesn't plan to continue dropping tracks as Lou the Human. In fact, he may not continue making music at all. “I am not releasing anymore music under ‘Lou The Human,'” he wrote. “I may not release anymore music period. But whatever you know me from I’m sorry to inform you but this is the end.”
He's either changing his handle or ending his career.
7. Social media response
Fans were understandably disappointed, though some held out hope that he would adopt a new creative persona and start a new project on his own. One fan said, "You better be just changing your rap name pkp is probably my most played album this year." Another Twitter user responded, "Wherever you go I'll be there bumping your latest project."
One other fan simply said "Don’t do this to the world."
It's not clear what will come next for the rapper but it won't be under the name Lou the Human.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.