Is everyone meant to be a celebrity? Certainly not. But these days it’s hard to tell someone who doesn’t have legitimate talent that they can’t turn a gimmick into a reality TV show, a book, or in the case of Antoine Dodson, a hit song.
That’s right. Antoine Dodson’s head-shaking TV interview about a rape attempt against his younger sister in her bed has turned into an iTunes chart-topping song. In the first 2 1/2 weeks of sales, the song selling for $1.29 had about 60,000 downloads and at least 25 million views on YouTube. The Gregory Brothers, the musicians who put it together, are splitting the proceeds with Dodson.
The 24-year-old says he plans to use the money to move his family out of public housing in Huntsville, Ala. Dodson has his own blog, but someone has even launched a separate website dedicated to Dodson with updates of his life over the past month. So now even a stranger is working Dodson’s random “success” and milking it for his own profit by selling t-shirts and news.
I would say Dodson and his family are being exploited. The sweet smell of success is so tempting, but we can only hope that they recognize what is happening and get out.
Is Antoine Dodson right to take whatever money he can get and run with it?
