January 18, 2007
@ 11:34 PM

I've always wondered how mixtape DJs can get away with selling CDs consisting of people rapping over hot beats from popular pop songs without a nod to the original artist or producer. According to the New York Time story With Arrest of DJ Drama, the Law Takes Aim at Mixtapes it looks like they won't be getting away with it anymore. Excerpt below

In the world of hip-hop few music executives have more influence than DJ Drama. His “Gangsta Grillz” compilations have helped define this decade’s Southern rap explosion. He has been instrumental in the careers of rappers like Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne. He appears on the cover of the March issue of the hip-hop magazine XXL, alongside his friend and business partner T.I., the top-selling rapper of 2006. And later this year DJ Drama is scheduled to make his Atlantic Records debut with “Gangsta Grillz: The Album.”
...
Mixtapes are, by definition, unregulated: DJs don’t get permission from record companies, and record companies have traditionally ignored and sometimes bankrolled mixtapes, reasoning that they serve as valuable promotional tools. And rappers have grown increasingly canny at using mixtapes to promote themselves. The career of 50 Cent has a lot to do with his mastery of the mixtape form, and now no serious rapper can afford to be absent from this market for too long.
...
DJ Drama’s mixtapes are often great. He has turned “Gangsta Grillz” into a prestige brand: each is a carefully compiled disc, full of exclusive tracks, devoted to a single rapper who is also the host. Rappers often seem proud to be considered good enough for a “Gangsta Grillz” mixtape. On “Dedication,” the first of his two excellent “Gangsta Grillz” mixtapes, Lil Wayne announces, “I hooked up with dude, now we ’bout to make history.” The compilation showed off Lil Wayne more effectively than his albums ever had, and “Dedication” helped revive his career.

This sucks. I love mixtapes and would hate for the RIAA to cause an end to mixtape series like Gangsta Grillz or G-Unit Radio. What I didn't expect was that Lil Wayne would start talking smack about DJ Drama after he helped resurrect his career though. From the VH1 article, 'Play The Game Fair': Lil Wayne Responds To DJ Drama's Mixtape Bust

"Smarten up," Lil Wayne advised mixtape DJs. "Smarten up."

For the past few years, Wayne has seen his entire career shift thanks to his performance on mixtapes. Street CDs such as his Gangsta Grillz classics The Dedication and The Dedication 2 have catapulted him to the lyrical elite in the minds of fans. Last year, he may have been the MC with the most material on the mixtape circuit.

"It's a bad thing," Wayne said of the Aphilliates' arrests, "but you gotta play the game fair. If you don't play fair, all kind of things can happen. You gotta watch people like DJ Clue, watch people like DJ Khaled. They do it right."

Wow. All I can say to that is Stop Snitching.


 

Friday, 19 January 2007 03:03:03 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
You should consider listening to GOOD music.
Bob Jackson
Friday, 19 January 2007 13:46:07 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Nice Page. Didnt recognize the topic....i think i have to look.
Friday, 19 January 2007 13:47:50 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Very interesting. But i dont listen to music or watching tv. i love to read books.!!
Friday, 19 January 2007 20:12:57 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
This is an unfortunate turn of events. Hopefully some good can come of it (like DJs embracing creative commons and the good ones promoting it). If an artist wants the free publicity of a mix tape perhaps they can not sign the soul of it over to an organization that treats copyright as an all-or-nothing affair.

(sorry if this gets posted multiple times, your blog doesn't like my default security settings in FireFox)
Friday, 19 January 2007 20:21:41 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
why would you expect anything better from mr. me too?
Friday, 19 January 2007 22:48:10 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Weezy has been gradually moving into a world of delusion with erratic comments. Who knows what he will say next.
Tuesday, 23 January 2007 23:05:36 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Wayne didn't sell no one out bcuz he just speaking the truth & this ain't got shit to do with him in the 1st place...this got to do with dj drama & cannon...and if they feel that weezy is a threat then they just listening to everybody else.
jasmine
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