Young Drummer Boy, Devour, and more - Songwriting & Publishing Royalties

This asset includes 27 songs from the Los Angeles independent rap scene, released between 2015 and 2023 by artists like King Lil G, Devour, Young Drummer Boy, Rucci, and Mac P Dawg with OhGeesy. No major label pushed them. They were never radio hits. They were built on YouTube, on playlists, and on word of mouth in a city that has always made its own stars. The oldest are eleven years old, and people are still pressing play.

The money arrives from two directions at once. About half is mechanical royalties, paid every time a song is streamed, downloaded or sold physically. The other half is performance royalties, paid when a song is played in public or streamed. The performance side reaches this catalog twice: once directly from BMI on the writer side and again through the publisher’s share. Streaming feeds both and is 76% of the last twelve months. The rest comes through BMI and through societies overseas. Three platforms write most of the checks: YouTube at 28%, Apple Music at 26%, and Spotify at 14%. The U.S. is 92% of income, and the other 8% is growing. Canada reported for the first time this year, and the U.K. went from $14 to $81.

The last twelve months came in at $5,798, about 34% under the year before. Roughly a third of the prior year was old money paid late: one-time Mechanical Licensing Collective distributions reaching back to 2018, most of it for 2020, plus a Spotify back-payment on 2018 and 2019 listening. Line the two years up like for like and the softening is closer to 16%.

Take that old money out of every quarter and the shape gets clear. The administrator's payments fell from about $1,275 a quarter two years ago to roughly $750, then held there for three straight quarters. BMI has been steadier still, between $400 and $515 across the past seven quarters. This is what a catalog looks like when it stops sliding and settles into a floor.

One song, "Can't Tell Me Nothing," is 37% of the last twelve months, and the top five are 84%. That same song has been the top earner every year since 2021. All five came out between 2015 and 2019, which puts the steep drop-off that follows every new release well behind them. Nobody here is waiting on a new hit. This audience is returning to music it already knows

This catalog documents a corner of the Los Angeles independent rap scene between 2015 and 2023, where regional artists built durable streaming audiences without major-label distribution.

King Lil G is the best-known name here and the most represented, with eight songs. The Hawaiian Gardens rapper, born Alex Gonzalez, is one of the most successful independent Chicano rap artists of the past fifteen years. His songs make up the catalog's older tier. "Weed for the Low" and "NINESIX" both arrived in March 2015, each featuring EMC Senatra. A 2016 group followed: "Room Full of Smoke," "After My Death," "Get Away," and "Texas Cups Cali Blunts," which features Bun B of the Texas duo UGK. "Cold Christmas" came in March 2016 and "Kennedy" in June 2018.

The two biggest earners come from elsewhere. "Cant Tell Me Nothing," released by Young Drummer Boy in December 2017, is the largest single income source in the catalog. "Chalk Em Out," released by Devour in July 2018, is second.

The result is a catalog with a few clear anchors and a long list of regional records still paying in every quarter.

Earnings Note. 2Q-2024 through 4Q-2024 include roughly $4,100 of back-period streaming mechanical royalties for 2018 through 2021 usage. Any future catch-up payments are payable to the winner of this catalog.