But the thing is essentially, he still middlemans them. So he will receive his paycheck regardless, being that he gets paid both ways...from the parent label and from what he makes from the artists. He actually has job security.
It's not just young dudes from the hood though. No matter what you present and this goes for whoever, everyone knows that the "there's 100,000 that will jump that this opportunity being present to you" argument will always connect with someone. It doesn't matter how slanted against the person whatever deal is.
The parent label was collecting money off everything. Any money Puff made off his artists was after the parent label got their cut.