More Drama / Cannon news in the mix
SOHH reports on possible shady business:
Three days ago (the day before his arrest), Tyree Simmons, b.k.a. DJ Drama, won a lawsuit against music distributing group BCD Music Group. Apparently this music group has also been slammed by Chamillionaire for stealing his tracks and selling them on the mixtapes they distribute. The have also been known to do some dirty dealings with artists about how much of their music was actually being sold–lies all around. So even though the source is remaining tight lipped about what exactly the case was filed by DJ Drama against them for, we’re sure it deals with some stealing/profiting scams. Especially since said music group had to pay a hefty sum to Drama since they lost the case.
MTV’s website is so flashy as to be nearly unusuable. I can’t even use the mouse’s scrollwheel to move up and down the page. Even so, they bring the goods with word from both Lil Wayne, DukeDaGod and the RIAA:
This is like D-Day in hip-hop,” Diplomats head of A&R, George “DukeDaGod” Moore, sighed, commenting on the Aphilliates’ drama.
“DJ Drama is like our favorite mixtape DJ,” he said. “Everybody loves Drama. It’s crazy. It’s like it’s in your own backyard when it comes to Drama. He helps a lot of artists out. It’s kinda messed up. I think they’re trying to make hip-hop illegal or something. They’re trying to make too many regulations on it. This is one of the worst days ever I can remember in hip-hop. I remember when Biggie got shot, when Pac got shot, it was crazy, but this right here is bad because it could determine the future of our music.
“Why are [the RIAA and FBI] getting involved?” Duke asked. “Leave us alone. Let us make our hip-hop. Nobody is dying, nobody is killing nobody. It’s just music being made. Everybody is gonna feel it whether you’re on the radio, not on the radio. Even if you’re a consumer, you gonna feel it, ’cause it’s gonna be hard to find certain tapes. Certain people are not going to carry the mixtapes anymore because they know what could happen. It’s so many people that wanna hear our stuff. We get e-mails from all over the world. They don’t care about the RIAA, they wanna hear some Dipset, they wanna hear some Drama. So it’s messed up for the whole world.” — ‘Play The Game Fair’: Lil Wayne Responds To DJ Drama’s Mixtape Bust, MTV News, 18 Jan 2007.
Contrast Duke’s experience of the raid with the opinion of Brad Buckles, executive vice president of the RIAA’s Anti-Piracy Division in Washington, D.C.:
Buckles was vague when asked about the product that had been seized, saying that he only knew what he had read in the report: that “the product violated state law” and that “I’m given to understand that the CDs also contained a variety of works and different artists” that weren’t licensed or cleared, and were being sold illegally.
When asked if Tuesday’s raid was part of a larger series of raids targeting mixtapes, Buckles said, “We don’t consider this being against mixtapes as some sort of class of product. We enforce our rights civilly or work with police against those who violate state law. Whether it’s a mixtape or a compilation or whatever it’s called, it doesn’t really matter: If it’s a product that’s violating the law, it becomes a target.” — RIAA Speaks On DJ Drama Raid: ‘We Enforce Our Rights’, MTV News, 17 Jan 2007.
Duke suggests the RIAA run a seminar for mixtape DJs and distributors. Maybe the DJs and A&Rs need to run a seminar for the cops and the labels. This is from the Village Voice:
“[…] it’s just another example of the industry’s staggering incompetence and disorganization, a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. My guess is that Kilgo and his boss heard about the mixtape trade somewhere and decided to lash out against it without bothering to figure out how much the major labels depend on those mixtapes. Either Kilgo is doing an amazing acting job in that news broadcast or he has no idea that he’s fucking with the mechanics of his industry. The Fox broadcast clearly shows the cops boxing up and confiscating mixtapes, not bootleg albums, and I’m not sure Kilgo realizes there’s a difference between the two.” — DJ Drama and Don Cannon Arrested on Some Bullshit, Village Voice, 17 Jan 2007
Someone already registered freedjdrama.com and freethedjs.com. Strike while the iron’s hot!
