Matthew Cox

They'll bring their producer.

They put together an album, and they distribute it.

No, they don't really.

Well, on paper...

They sell a ton of CDs because back in the early 1990s, a lot of the hip hop from the West Coast was being sold through swap meets.

Right.

And so you could have 50,000 copies of your album produced, you know, 50,000 CDs manufactured, and you sell 1,800 copies this week.

You know, the swap meets in L.A., the swap meets in San Diego, the swap meets in Oakland, the swap meets in San Francisco, Vegas, all up and down the West Coast.

And so you're selling, you know, 5,000 copies this week.

That's $10 a piece profit.

So you're making $50,000 this week, $5,000 next week, $5,000, or $5,000, $6,000, $8,000.

And the people at the bank, all they see is the secretary from the record company showing up, and she's making cash deposits.

Because back then, nobody's using Apple Pay or even credit cards.

At swap meets, they're just paying cash.

And so a lot of drug proceeds were being surfaced through the music industry that way.

No, T-Bone doesn't realize that as far as he's concerned, it's a flop.

He doesn't even know about the sales because there are no sales.

You're kicking ass.

No, he just doesn't realize there's any sales.

Okay, yeah, we don't want to cut him in.