"producers: ya'll cool w/ artists jacking beats as long as ur credited?" Mon Dec-02-13 03:16 PM by Benedict the Moor
Seems like there's been a growing trend of new up-and-coming artists (Joey Bada$$, Logic, Mac Miller, Maverick Sabre etc.) who have jacked beats, shot videos for them, and thrown them up on youtube, bandcamp, amazon, itunes, and soundcloud.
A lot of these songs have obviously blown up and received millions of hits. Mac Miller's resulted in a lawsuit.
But I guess my question is, is all this shit fair game in 2013/2014? Do people not even care about suing or at the least submitting copyright violations to youtube to have the videos removed? Are deals being struck behind the scenes? OR... is it all just the wild west with a 'get in where you fit in' mentality?
Artists/Producers: If some new cat jacked your instrumental and released their own song/video to it would you feel some kinda way if it did numbers? What if they gave you credit? Would you be happy about the exposure? Mad you're losing $$??
How would you want them to approach you? How much would the song being dope/wack influence your reaction?
2. "I don't think it's cool " In response to Reply # 0
Something like a freestyle or live performance is one thing, but to record an actual song on a project (free or not) over someone else's shit...nah. Doesn't sit well with me.
"You can take an African out of Africa, but you can't take Africa out of the African" Afro-Americana/Afro-Caribbana/Afro-Latino unite. We are ALL Black!
4. "RE: Dem ninjaz gonna have ta cut me a check!" In response to Reply # 3 Mon Dec-02-13 05:30 PM by Benedict the Moor
so say rapper "x" hits you up on twitter/email whatever and asks to use one of your beats for free. says he's gonna record the song and shoot a video for it.
would you give the blessing for dude to release that joint as long as you get credit and as long as it's promo only?
what if dude has sort of a semi-cult following on youtube/twitter already? what if he doesn't have a big following yet but his mic skills are nice..
would you feel salty if you said no but then dude blew up a few months later of someone else's joint?
6. "If we stipulated a free agreement then I'd endure...." In response to Reply # 4
....Maybe I misread the post. I thought the post was referring to ninjaz cold jackin' yo' shit WITH NO STIPULATIONS WHATSOVER, den bubblin' off dat shit and tossin' you a credit on the slick all after da fact....sans loot, nahmeanz.
^ ^ ^Thas' the shit Iouunnt rock wit' right dere.
But if I communicated beforehand and I agreed ta let Sun use a beat for free/promo steez with his end of the deal being to oblige me with a credit shout-out,....and he subsequently got huge off dat joint?....I'd respectfully endure per our agreement 'cus Ima still eventually get some kind of come-back love in the long-range tactical sense.
"You can take an African out of Africa, but you can't take Africa out of the African" Afro-Americana/Afro-Caribbana/Afro-Latino unite. We are ALL Black!
5. "as long as its clear its not my association" In response to Reply # 0
ESPECIALLY if theyre wack
------------------------- “Floyd Mayweather should be taking fights up to 157 or 160 pounds...His frame can hold the weight..it's not even a lot of weight....Go to the gym and lift weights man..lol.”-- Warren Coolidge
7. "RE: Just imagine if someone did it in pop music." In response to Reply # 0
Say someone stole all the music for 'Billie Jean' and sang different lyrics over it and put it up as a YouTube video. Not really making any money off it, but it still exists.
8. "RE: Just imagine if someone did it in pop music." In response to Reply # 7
so basically a remix/cover of billie jean? seems like everything is fair game ATM as long as you can get away with it. even if youtube takes it down, if you gain a couple thousand new fans in the process it's still a win.
10. "It's the price we pay for Hip Hop being rooted in Jamaican culture" In response to Reply # 0
just like how reggae could have 15 different artists rocking on one riddim for an entire record, you got rappers hoppin on beats like this. It's part of the DNA thanks to Kool Herc spreading what DJs on the island were doing.
13. "RE: It's the price we pay for Hip Hop being rooted in Jamaican culture" In response to Reply # 11
>So in other words, it's fair game as long as you're cool w/ >the potential repercussions or blow back.
I don't think there should be any repercussions. And when I'm talking about rocking over these beats I'm thinking we're talking about the OG artist already releasing their version first, not someone jacking the beat before the producer gets a chance to place it, right?
15. "RE: It's the price we pay for Hip Hop being rooted in Jamaican culture" In response to Reply # 13 Wed Dec-04-13 11:36 PM by Benedict the Moor
>>So in other words, it's fair game as long as you're cool w/ >>the potential repercussions or blow back. > >I don't think there should be any repercussions. And when I'm >talking about rocking over these beats I'm thinking we're >talking about the OG artist already releasing their version >first, not someone jacking the beat before the producer gets a >chance to place it, right?
Well based on the examples I gave all songs were released beforehand except the Joey Bada$$ joint which was from a Freddie Joachim instrumental album/EP.
How do you feel about artists taking beats from instrumental releases?
14. "RE: But it wouldn't work for other genres." In response to Reply # 12
>Like in my above example, people would be PISSED if somebody >tried to pull that. > >So why would the same fans that would be heated in that >example allow it in hip hop? Because, well, "that's the >culture"? > >I call foul.
Fans? I thought we were talking about producers. Your original post was directed towards how a producer felt about this, no?
And yeah, it's the culture. Even if you say it's ok only in the climate of freestyling on the radio, radio rips are songs themselves. Once you put that freestyle on a recorded medium, it's fair game cuz there's kats who rode around bumpin Jay & Big L an early Eminem like they were singles in the early '00s.
To differentiate just because one is in a booth and you have multiple takes vs. One in a radio station with one take doesn't make that much of a difference to me. The end result is still rapping over someone else's beat, fans getting it, and bumping the shit out of it.
My only problem with rocking over producers beats is when it says "produced by:____" on the track list. I'd rather it say "beat by:_____" instead
Don't care even if I don't get the credit neither. Though noone has ever made a relevant amount of money off of anything so I can't say how I'd feel if that happened.
It's happened to me in lots of different ways though. The weirdest one being that I was surfing the net for porn a couple years ago and came across a penthouse video. The music was a song I did around 10 years ago. It was a total rip-off and I KNOW that guy heard my song and decided to just re-record it. I know how alot of tv and film score work is just blatant re-workings of pre-existing songs cause I mix tv. All the music I use in Sportscentre are easily identifiable as re-workings of random songs. We even labelled them on the replay machine as such. The smithereens track, the dr dre track, the acdc track, etc. It's kinda strange that the scorers get away with that. An oversight by someone somewhere.
Never makes me mad. Just glad that people hear it. I give people music for free all the time.
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