Cultural lampreys, DJ Drama Busted for Bootlegging
This afternoon, a SWAT team raided Gangsta Grillz studios in Atlanta. Allhiphop.com quotes the RIAA:
“These guys are actively advertising online. They’ve got a website that they’re advertising from, that’s where you place your orders and that’s how the orders are shipped out,” Matthew Kilgo of the RIAA told local reporters. “Statistics also show that you can make up to a 90% profit just off the resale of counterfeit CDs. So there’s huge money to be made in it, and there’s no stigma attached to purchasing it.”
For a representative of the RIAA to call the Gangsta Grillz mixtape series “counterfeit” illustrates perfectly the giant gulf between the real international culture of hip-hop and the industry that leeches from it. This raid also clearly identifies the two-faced neocolonialist nature of the major label hold on mainstream hip-hop. While the marketing department encourages mixtapes as vehicles to launch careers, promote new artists, and hype forthcoming releases, the legal department sends in the cops.
Enough! I’m too heated to write intelligently about this right now. We need to start planning an organized response to this affront.
NEWSFLASH TO ALL RAPPERS: STOP SIGNING TO SO-CALLED “MAJOR” LABELS AND START YOUR OWN. THESE “MAJORS” ARE BACKSTABBING YOU AND YOU DON’T NEED THEM ANYMORE. IF YOU STOP SIGNING, THEY WILL DIE OUT.
In the meantime, I’m ripping my favorite Gangsta Grillz mixtape: Lil Wayne / DJ Drama - the Dedication 2.
Until I finish uploading, you can stream it from datpiff.
January 17th, 2007 at 15:11:51 (PST -04:00)
[…] Altanta rappers DJ Drama and Don Cannon, famous for their Gansta Grillz Mixtapes, were arrested last night in a big bust of their so-called “bootleg” CDs. These were not counterfeited CDs as the RIAA claims, but instead freestyle rap mixtapes that were often used to hype new releases. […]
October 1st, 2007 at 14:03:19 (PDT -04:00)
lil wayne is ma husband
October 4th, 2007 at 12:16:35 (PDT -04:00)
DAT THE PIFF SHIT NIGGA KEEP MAKING THE MIX TAPES.
January 25th, 2008 at 08:57:17 (PST -04:00)
i love lilwanye because he is so cool and i like this song called fireman and cash money and we fly high