1) Cool hunts
"back in the mid to late 90's, the streets were buzzing about B.G.'s chopper city album, Master p and C-murder's TRU, triple six mafia's Tear da club up, ying yang twinz "whistle while u twurk"...i can remember when these cats were just nobodies but people loved their music"
--The recording industry looked for the next big thing and found these local artists selling thousands of independent records.

2) Agenda Sets
"because the industry recognized 'hey, all this bubbly shiny suit bullshit is not what the people want, they want this gangsta, grimy, street, down south hip hop'"
--The recording industry decides that it will put its money behind Master P and not, say, Crooked Lettaz. And because the industry has a multi-billion dollar marketing machine, it can set what it thinks is "cool."

3) Is responsible for market saturation
"and they signed them!!"
--Signed them and dozens of other copycat acts in hopes of making the same big payday that they did with those first artists.

4) Controls distribution
This goes without saying.

5) Is the gatekeeper for expression
Through vertical integration that marries recording companies to the media outlets that distribute music and set what the norm is.

"EXCELLENT. BUSINESS. MOVE." -- What is good for business isn't necessarily what's good for an artform or a community.