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Hip-Hop Outlaw (Industry Version) - Samantha M. Shapiro - New York Times
by Rattle at 1:30 pm EST, Feb 20, 2007 |
 Late in the afternoon of Jan. 16, a SWAT team from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, backed up by officers from the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office and the local police department, along with a few drug-sniffing dogs, burst into a unmarked recording studio on a short, quiet street in an industrial neighborhood near the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The officers entered with their guns drawn; the local police chief said later that they were “prepared for the worst.” They had come to serve a warrant for the arrest of the studio’s owners on the grounds that they had violated the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO, a charge often used to lock up people who make a business of selling drugs or breaking people’s arms to extort money. The officers confiscated recording equipment, cars, computers and bank statements along with more than 25,000 music CDs. Two of the three owners of the studio, Tyree Simmons, who is 28, and Donald Cannon, who is 27, were arrested and held overnight in the Fulton County jail. Eight employees, mostly interns from local colleges, were briefly detained as well. Later that night, a reporter for the local Fox TV station, Stacey Elgin, delivered a report on the raid from the darkened street in front of the studio. She announced that the owners of the studio, known professionally as DJ Drama and DJ Don Cannon, were arrested for making “illegal CDs.” The report cut to an interview with Matthew Kilgo, an official with the Recording Industry Association of America, who was involved in the raid. The R.I.A.A., a trade and lobbying group that represents the major American record labels, works closely with the Department of Justice and local police departments to crack down on illegal downloading and music piracy, which most record-company executives see as a dire threat to their business. Kilgo works in the R.I.A.A.’s Atlanta office, and in the weeks before the raid, the local police chief said, R.I.A.A. investigators helped the police collect evidence and conduct surveillance at the studio. Kilgo consulted with the R.I.A.A.’s national headquarters in advance of the raid, and after the raid, a team of men wearing R.I.A.A. jackets was responsible for boxing the CDs and carting them to a warehouse for examination. If anyone involved with the raid knew that the men they had arrested were two of the most famous D.J.’s in the country, they didn’t let on while the cameras were rolling. For local law enforcement, the raid on Drama and Cannon’s studio was no different from a raid they executed in October on an Atlanta factory where a team of illegal immigrants was found making thousands of copies of popular DVDs and CDs to sell on the street. Along with the bootlegged CDs, the police found weapons and a stash of drugs in the factory. (The Fox report on the DJ Drama raid included a shot of a grave-looking police officer saying, “In this case we didn’t find drugs or weapons, but it’s not uncommon for us to find other contraband.”)
Read this whole article... |
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RE: Hip-Hop Outlaw (Industry Version) - Samantha M. Shapiro - New York Times
by Hijexx at 3:24 pm EST, Feb 20, 2007 |
Rattle wrote: Read this whole article...
Read it. Here's my take. I touched on something similar before with respect to a store in Indianapolis that was raided for selling mixtapes. Bottom line: If you make deals with the devil, get the details in writing. It's hard for me to feel any sympathy for these guys. The word "entrapment" does come to mind, but as much as they are ballyhooed as being such genius businessmen, they should definitely know the value of a contract and insist on one. The economics of mixtapes appeal to XL, and so do their politics; as he sees it, mixtapes undermine the power of major record labels and radio stations. "Most artists can't afford to get their music on the radio, but an artist has the right to let his fan base hear what he's done," XL said. "Who is the label to dictate how to feed the fan base?" An artist does have the right to get his fan base hear their music. There are a myriad of ways this can be accomplished. These days the barrier to entry is as low as it has ever been. If you play hard, you can be heard. Mindshare is the toughest nut to crack. But, sorry, you have to play the game by the rules. If the rules seem a little too tough, those are the breaks. To answer the question, "Who is the label to dictate how to feed the fan base?" the answer is very simple if the artists has signed a contract with the label: Whatever the contract dictates! To add to what I said before, if you do decide to make a deal with the devil, be prepared to live with it. Before DJ Drama went to jail, no mixtape D.J. had been the target of a major raid; busts had been directed at small retailers, like Mondo Kim's in New York's East Village. Jonathan Lamy, a spokesperson for the R.I.A.A., said the raid on Drama's studio represented no official change in policy and had been undertaken only at the behest of Atlanta law enforcement. But for many in the industry, the focus on a single prominent figure seemed like no accident. "Arresting them criminally under RICO was firing a warning shot at anyone who has mixtapes," said Walter McDonough, a copyright lawyer who has negotiated with the R.I.A.A. on behalf of Jay-Z. Given the context of the previous bust on the bootleggers that also yielded a drugs/weapons cache, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a touch of "profiling" involved in this case as well. The Aphilliates boast at length how they lace their CD's with "gangsta" culture drops, even though they do not partake in the lifestyle themselves. But whatever you want to call it: guilt by association or 'where there's smoke there's usually fire' they painted themselves as targets for suspicion. The RICO law infraction was probably just used as a wedge, a foot in the door, in order to possibly find other associated contraband. I see that as more of a motivation than a warning shot ... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ] |
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Hip-Hop Outlaw (Industry Version) - Samantha M. Shapiro - New York Times
by k at 2:25 pm EST, Feb 20, 2007 |
Late in the afternoon of Jan. 16, a SWAT team from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, backed up by officers from the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office and the local police department, along with a few drug-sniffing dogs, burst into a unmarked recording studio on a short, quiet street in an industrial neighborhood near the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The officers entered with their guns drawn; the local police chief said later that they were “prepared for the worst.” They had come to serve a warrant for the arrest of the studio’s owners on the grounds that they had violated the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO, a charge often used to lock up people who make a business of selling drugs or breaking people’s arms to extort money. The officers confiscated recording equipment, cars, computers and bank statements along with more than 25,000 music CDs. Two of the three owners of the studio, Tyree Simmons, who is 28, and Donald Cannon, who is 27, were arrested and held overnight in the Fulton County jail. Eight employees, mostly interns from local colleges, were briefly detained as well.
Interesting. If nothing else, this shows me how broken the industry is. One consultant uses the word "schitzophrenic" but I think hypocritical is more accurate. They try to capitalize on the indie cred these guys have and then burn them when they get too big or too noticable. At the same time, I think there are legitimate issues raised regarding the level of profit sharing between the DJs and the artists. If the DJ is making bank from producing a mixtape, he owes it to the artists to share down some of that. I think this is only natural. When you have a top heavy industry with high barriers to entry and a mass-production, profit-centric business model within, coupled with dropping prices on technology that enables production, grass roots systems are going to develop. I think it's good and I certainly prefer it to the major label approach, but it needs to be equitable. There needs to be some guidance in the way it develops. It's a complex situation. |
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