Love & Hip Hop star Moniece Slaughter recently revealed that she sang the theme song to America’s Next Top Model.
“More America’s Next Top Model Money… ‘YOU WANNA BE ON TOP’ My dad is better than yours,” she wrote on Instagram. “My dad got me the gig to sing the theme song for the show fresh outta high school and it still pays the bills. Thank you daddy @davetake6.”
America’s Next Top Model debuted in the U.S. in 2003. More than 17 years later, Slaughter is still getting paid for the performance.
The hit TV show created by supermodel Tyra Banks crossed two networks and ran for 23 “cycles,” or seasons.
Read More: Family: Comedian Sinbad recovering from recent stroke
In a new interview with TheJasmineBRAND, Slaughter addressed issues of pay disparity at VH1 for reality stars of color.
“Flat out, I’m gonna f*cking say it: We weren’t Kris Jenner; we’re not being managed by Kris Jenners,” she said. “We don’t have, you know, a collective of people who are like, ‘We know your worth, we’re gonna fight for your worth, and we’re not gonna let you do anything that is below what you’re worth.'”
Read More: Terry McMillan announces ‘Waiting To Exhale’ will become TV series
“So,we don’t get treated the same,” Slaughter continued. “We don’t get paid the same, and we don’t have ownership. So, we are literally a slave to the machine. And it’s sold to you one way, and then once you get in it, you didn’t have Kris Jenner representation, therefore, you got stuck in a bad deal.”
She claimed that VH1 listed the popular Love & Hip Hop franchise as “a 48-minute infomercial.”
Read More: Rapper Boosie says he’s ‘good’ after being shot in Dallas
That designation, Slaughter maintained, “allowed them to get away with not having to follow union rules or payout union pay. And so what that means is, you know, we can shoot more than 12 hours. They don’t have to give us per diem. They don’t have to give us, you know, a set budget for lunch. They don’t have to pay us bi-weekly, weekly. They don’t have to, you know, take out taxes.”
The allegations haven’t been addressed by the network.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s “Dear Culture” podcast? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today!