Sim Santana Explain Where He Has Been For Years

 Philly rapper Sim Santana is back on camera with a straight update on what happened after “Flexin N Flashin” blew up and he signed a $500,000 record deal.

In a new video on his channel, titled “Life After $500,000 Deal,” he walks through the rise, the money, the label split, and where he stands now. The full video is below.

Santana says the song started on a rainy day when he couldn’t hit the block. He wrote it at home, got studio money from an older head he calls Yoola, and recorded it at Maat’s studio. He shot the video on his birthday and got it back around April 3 or 4, then flooded his page with snippets. Friends posted it too.

He says the money felt good at first. He was the hottest rapper in Philly and had been on the block a week or two earlier. He spent about $30,000 flying his friends around because he wanted his first signing to be outside Philly, and he bought matching chains for the crew. Looking back, he says he was giving the money out as fast as it came in, and that you have to lock your own situation in before you can really take care of everybody else.

He mentions linking with bigger artists, including a tour run with Lil Tjay and a connection with King Von. Then COVID hit. A move to Atlanta got delayed. Once he got there, he says the label told him there was no movement, while other artists on the same label were still working. He gave them an ultimatum: put him in motion or he was leaving. They asked for two more weeks. In that window, he says, they dropped him instead, so it looked like he got fired rather than walked away.

After the drop, management pulled back. He later found out one of his managers took an A&R job at the label. He also says the paperwork listed them as business partners, not managers, which meant a 50/50 split instead of the usual 10 to 15 percent. The line he calls the worst advice he ever took: don’t worry about the business, just rap. He got signed in under two weeks and says he only knew how to rap.

On the deal itself, he says he got $250,000 up front and had $250,000 to recoup. Almost seven years later, he says he still owes about $186,000 and has only recouped around $76,000, even with two gold records and one record close to platinum. He says “Flexin N Flashin” and “4 Fit” still go viral every year, and that he has talked to artists with smaller records who already recouped bigger advances. He says he cannot collect his royalties in full until that balance is paid, cannot make money off the music on his YouTube page because the label owns it, and has had his own songs taken down on Instagram for copyright. He also says songs of his were used in the Bel-Air series, with offers around $1,400 per song that had to go back to the label.

His advice to artists coming up is simple: get a team you can trust, and learn the business yourself. Do not hand that part off.