FREE DRAMA AND CANNON!
gangsta grillz, you bastards!

Update: NY Times weighs in on the issue, fairly accurately portraying it - in stark contrast to the uninformed, sensationalist pseudojournalism in the Fox Atlanta video being circulated about the event.

Bottom line is - mixtapes are an essential part of rap culture at this point. They're a prime example of the kind of innovation which is possible through digital distribution and collaboration - but, as always, the music industry is chained to the business model they've been dependent upon since their inception, and can only see this as theft.

Things do need to change, though - some sort of structure needs to be in place for the use of an instrumental track on a mixtape such that the mixtape artist isn't so financially constrained by the licensure process that creating a mixtape is cost-prohibitive, and such that the original instrumental artist sees some benefit from the use of their track. It should be obvious that current license process (which can cost several hundred dollars per song just for a search firm to get in touch with the current copyright holder, not to mention actual use fees) is incredibly inefficient and entirely unsuitable for mixtapes, which often contain dozens of tracks.
- posted by vcmc @  1/17/2007 10:41:00 PM