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Why Instagram Is No Rec Room (And How DJs Navigate Music Licenses and New Technology)

By Hip Hop, Music, Music Business No Comments

In 1973, Kool Herc invented hip hop—or, at least, gave it a huge shove forward—while DJing rec room parties in the Bronx. He played soul and funk records but focused on the breakdowns of each song. By blending, looping and extending the breaks, he created a whole new sound, a beat-driven type of music instantly recognizable, today, as hip hop.

Then, as now, hip hop was much more than a music genre, it was a cultural movement. The pillars of the movement were known as the five elements of hip hop: DJing, rapping, beatboxing, breakdancing, and graffiti. It was graffiti that introduced Kool Herc, after he emigrated from Jamaica, to the movement and to American culture at large. And, of course, the growing popularity of breakdancing is why he started extending breaks to begin with. Read More

More Humans, Fewer Algorithms

By Music, Music Business No Comments

Back in January, Spotify was granted a patent for technology so creepy that it sent a chill through the music industry that still hasn’t subsided. The company has been planning for years, apparently, to listen into our conversations and background noise in order to recommend us music. Spotify told the Patent Office their technology could obtain “content metadata [that] indicates an emotional state of the speaker,” and that once it has gathered enough so-called “emotion objects” it will use them to tailor what it plays next. The paragraph detailing Step 205 of the procedure seems to imply that making users happy is the goal, but then ends with a dire warning that, “Numerous other examples are possible.” Read More

Drake Prevails In Copyright Case Against Jimmy Smith’s Estate

Drake Prevails In Copyright Case Against Jimmy Smith’s Estate

By Copywrite, Hip Hop, Jazz, Legal, Music

This month, Drake and his producers won a key battle in the fight for fair use. But what exactly is fair use? And what does it mean for artists and producers moving forward?

As artists and creators, we constantly take inspiration from our peers and our idols. But do you ever wonder, where is the line? How much is too much? Samples and mashups are commonplace in music and especially in hip-hop. Chuck D. once said: “We thought sampling was just a way of arranging sounds […] to blend sound. Just as visual artists take yellow and blue to come up with green, we wanted to be able to do that with sound.” The art of sampling is woven into the founding story of hip-hop along with the legal challenges that came with its commercial success. Read More

The Evolution of Artist Ownership

The Evolution of Artist Ownership

By Hip Hop, Intellectual Property, Music, Music Business

When industry recognition finally knocks, it doesn’t come bearing a manual on how a musician should make smart choices. But for artists, making smart choices and deals early is critical to ensuring the integrity of their work and securing future earnings.

This past week, rapper Mase took to social media to call out his former label head, Diddy. His concerns centered around ownership of his masters — the recordings from which all licensing and royalty agreements flow: “You bought it (Mase’ master publishings) for about 20k & I offered you 2m in cash. This is not black excellence at all. When our own race is enslaving us. If it’s about us owning, it can’t be about us owning each other.” Read More