Busta Rhymes criticized music streaming payouts on September 21, 2026, saying artists are being paid in fractions of a penny that do not function like a real currency. During an interview with Yahoo Finance about his album Dillagence II , Busta Rhymes argued that the system makes artist income nearly impossible to track, audit, or turn into lasting wealth. Busta Rhymes said the payment model is insulting because platforms can generate billions while musicians receive microscopic amounts per play. T Pain has made a similar point, contrasting today’s roughly 0.003 cents per stream with the one dollar artists once earned from selling a song. Who Is Actually Winning the Streaming Game? T.I. has argued that streaming has diluted the value of making music, especially as approximately 150,000 songs are uploaded every day. Snoop Dogg offered an especially stark example, saying one billion Spotify streams earned him less than $45,000 and that he now prefers Tune.FM, a blockchain based platform that gives artists more control. Busta Rhymes is answering the streaming problem with physical products, including vinyl, CDs, cassettes, and merchandise tied to Dillagence II . The strategy is less about nostalgia than control: direct sales let artists collect meaningful revenue instead of waiting for a platform to convert billions of plays into barely visible payments.