The prickly debate between radio stations and music artists is headed to Washington, D.C., and about to work its way through Congress. Called the Performance Rights Act, this bill would require radio stations to pay performance artists for playing their songs over the airwaves. Unlike songwriters and publishers, artists currently receive no radio royalties for their work. Introduced by Representative John Conyers and passed by the House Judiciary Committee in May, the bill is now pending in the Senate.

To hear radio broadcasters like Radio One owner and CEO Cathy Hughes tell the story, the bill will be the death of Black radio. In a call to action against the legislation, she claimed that small, Black-owned stations will be forced to pay artists millions of dollars a year.

However, according to the Performance Rights Act, radio stations with gross incomes of less than $100,000 would pay just $500 annually. The vast majority of Black radio stations, making less than $1.25 million a year, would pay $5,000 or less.

Aside from the relatively low cost of the Performance Rights Act to radio stations, artists believe it's a matter of doing what's right. The bill particularly stands to help older Black "legacy artists" (think Motown) who have no other source of income. These artists are wildly popular overseas, but don't get the royalties that foreign radio stations pay. Championing the Performance Rights Act as a labor and civil rights issue, this week the NAACP passed a resolution in support of it at their centennial convention.

Jazz and R&B singer Lalah Hathaway is another outspoken supporter of the bill. She talked with ESSENCE.com about why radio royalties are essential to the future of Black artists.

ESSENCE.COM: A counterargument to the Performance Rights Act has been that radio stations promote the work of music artists, and that promotion is payment enough. What's your response to that?
LALAH HATHAWAY: Listen, a person who does work should be compensated for their work. It's not a favor to artists for radio stations to play our music. Radio would have nothing to do if it weren't for us. Everybody is fed in this industry off the backs of artists. We are the engines that make everything else possible: for the radio to have something to play, for promoters to put on concerts. Artists should absolutely be compensated for the work that they do.