This video for the May 22nd release of USDA's is currently running on at YouTube.
For the next two weeks, you can also find a Blogads ad for Cold Summer in the left hand column of ProHipHop.
On a related note, the album is being billed as the The Authorized Mixtape and that sounds like DJ Drama's voice on the commercial so I guess this represents the coming together of post-mixtape arrest realities and the growing interest in treating mixtapes like albums, a la .
Posted by Clyde on May 10, 2007 in Mixtape, Inc. on DVD May 22nd
I recently checked out a review copy of , a documentary about the mixtape scene directed by Walter Bell that's due out on DVD on May 22nd.
Though it was completed before the arrests of DJ Drama and Don Cannon, it remains relevant and interesting, a mark of a good documentary.
There are lots of cameo appearances but the real focus is on the New York mixtape scene and the various innovators along the way. Some attention is paid to folks outside of New York but the discussion typically turns to their relationship to the NY scene.
Nevertheless, an important focus is the legal attack on Berry's Music in Indianapolis that provides an interesting look into the confused nature of the RIAA attacks on mixtapes more generally.
Allied with discussions of the record industry's deep involvement with mixtapes as a marketing device, one gets a pretty good look at the conflicted nature of the whole enterprise.
All in all, Mixtape, Inc. does a nice job on multiple levels.
Many of the interviewees are quite entertaining and there are numerous historical and anecdoctal gems along the way.
A recent article in the NY Times by Samantha M. Shapiro on the has some nice stuff, especially background on how DJ Drama got into the mixtape game.
Towards the last couple of pages she gets into a bit more on how the major labels work with mixtape djs and on questions about how much mixtape djs actually make.
It's a decent article on the background issues but without much new on the arrests. I also find it rather strange that she only mentions fans on discussions boards circulating the graphic and discussing about what happened.
Since everything she mentions was also being discussed on blogs and hip hop news sites and not just by fans, it seems odd to single out one segment of the online scene, especially when blogs and news sites and discussion boards all reference each other.
Posted by Clyde on February 22, 2007 in The above video tells the basic story for folks who've missed out. Note the inaccuracy from the first cop who claims that if something isn't copyrighted, then it's a bootleg.
No, if something that's copyrighted is used on another album or mixtape without licensing, then it's a copyright violation.
But, the reality is, even though artists and record companies were in on DJ Drama's mixtapes, if it's not licensed, it's illegal. But they weren't illegal just because the final product was not copyrighted.
The other problem with that claim is that copyright is legally bestowed once original work is either recorded or notated. Filing with the government is not necessary to receive copyright, though it is necessary to claim damages.
Of course, part of the confusion stems from the scam of work for hire and the archaic con game of the music publishing system.
Not to say that DJ Drama or Don Cannon were confused about the legalities. They were simply operating in an established environment in which a blind eye was turned on the licensing issue by the labels and artists in order to take advantage of a unique form of marketing.
ProHipHop's Opinion - If you're going to bust DJ Drama and Don Cannon, you should follow the complete paper trail and bust all the artists and the labels, especially since they're using conspiracy laws.
But that would require an actual understanding of the mixtape situation by law enforcement.
For what will probably be a more political take, is interviewed on mixtapeshow.net.
Two weeks ago wrote the only decent thing I've seen on the rumors regarding a set-up and also talked to somebody from the RIAA about what was up. I hope he's going to follow up because I don't see much investigation going on anywhere else.
DJ Drama gets the Southern Entertainment Awards' honor.
With the true reasons for the RIAA's still shrouded in mystery and the world of mixtape websites rapidly disappearing, many music industry insiders are concerned that the RIAA does not recognize the record industry's quiet support of mixtapes or understand the different between pirating and mixtape creation with artist involvement.
Ian of broke it down for a reporter:
It might not necessarily have the label’s logo on it, but they’re the ones cutting the checks for the recording and production” of many mixtapes, said Ian Steaman, a longtime talent and marketing executive who writes for the hip-hop Web site Different Kitchen. “It’s just kind of understood you need that channel of exposure for any kind of real, credible artist.
I don’t think this industry’s ready to deal with that conversation.
While some industry types do see mixtapes as pirating:
On the other side are a separate faction of label executives and a variety of artists, many of whom privately say they are worried that the chill cast on the mixtape world would handicap labels’ efforts to promote hip-hop sales, which declined roughly 20 percent last year, more than any other major genre, according to Nielsen SoundScan data.
Other reporters are also hearing from :
It's just another tool for promotion.
I would never say there's anything wrong with them, and I'm an executive, said Block, CEO of Block Entertainment (home to Yung Joc and Boyz N Da Hood). You can use my music, because at the end of the day, you're helping me.
Some label execs don't like where the RIAA is coming from.
If the RIAA isn't speaking to someone like myself or someone at a label to get an idea ...
where problems are, then they're kinda shooting in the dark, said Kawan KP Prather, head of A R at Sony Music.
As more and more industry insiders speak out, the for the direct involvement of the record industry in the creation of mixtapes:
The major labels encourage me to get our artists on mixed tapes, said a lawyer with more than a decade of experience in the rap industry.
The manager of one prominent mixtape DJ added, Record labels send us music and ask us to put it on the tapes, saying, 'I'll give you X amount of dollars to make a tape and you can make your own money, we don't care.
' I don't understand how they can use the DJ's mixtapes and say 'make your own money if you like,' and then not protect us on the flip side.
Let's see, use people until they become a liability then dispose of ASAP? Sounds like the music industry to me!
The recent arrests of DJ Drama and Don Cannon are also being viewed from a political angle by DJ Drama's activist sister and by Davey D.
speaks on the raid:
No one will ever be able to explain to me why the hell a SWAT Team of at least 30 strong went charging into the Aphilliates Music Group studio as if they were doing a major drug or an illegal arms bust? Why did they need to put my brother Tyree (DJ Drama) and his cohorts face down on the ground with guns to their heads?
Did the agents need to ransack the studio, confiscate cd's featuring artist sanctioned original music not bootlegs, disc drives, computers, cars, ultimately stripping the studio of everything with the exception of furniture?
frames the issue as an assault on the power of the deejay:
The fact that record labels CAN NOT break music without mixtape deejays is a problem for some in power. The fact that A list artists are dealing directly with popular mixtape deejays is a problem for those in power.
With the advent of new technology, the DJ in 2007 has all but perched to move to higher levels and seriously change the game. . .
This is not about mixtapes - it's about power and a fading industry doing everything it can to create the illusion they are in control. The key word here is illusion. Remember the RIAA works for the major labels.
If some of these head label honchos aren't stepping up and telling the RIAA to fall back and ease up and let DJ Drama and DJ Canon go free and return their equipment, then like that great urban philosopher Flava Flav would say - You know what time it is.
The responses to the arrests of DJ Drama and Don Cannon show that, though mixtapes do raise many issues, they can be produced in a legitimate manner and the general consensus seems to be that Drama was particularly known for working with the artists to produce products that they wanted to release.
Lil Wayne had this to say to mixtape artists in the above article:
You gotta do it right, Wayne reiterated.
It's gonna be a message. [The authorities] ain't playing. They gonna make an example.
They gonna straighten the game out. A lot of companies take a fall with those mixtapes. N---as be caking up off them mixtapes.
The artists can drop his album — and everybody knows that hip-hop [album sales are in] decline — nobody ain't gonna buy the album, and everybody gets the mixtapes off of the Internet or whatever way they get it. The artists ain't caking, but the n---a you made the mixtape with is caking up. Thank God I ain't got that problem, but I know a lot of people who do.
The NY Times' :
Mixtapes are, by definition, unregulated: DJs don’t get permission from record companies, and record companies have traditionally ignored and sometimes bankrolled mixtapes, reasoning that they serve as valuable promotional tools. And rappers have grown increasingly canny at using mixtapes to promote themselves. The career of 50 Cent has a lot to do with his mastery of the mixtape form, and now no serious rapper can afford to be absent from this market for too long.
In , the Boston Herald's Chris Faraone interviews Statik Selektah:
Statik Selektah, a Boston-bred, Bronx-based mixtape DJ who recently released CDs with Nas and Q-Tip, said the RIAA is acting against its own interests. He believes taking legal action against mixtape DJs will further damage a music industry already reeling from flagging CD sales.
“The RIAA is acting ignorantly,” Selektah said yesterday.
“Someone like Drama develops brands and careers. Look at T.I.
He was the biggest-selling rap artist of 2006. He’d be selling 200,000 copies without the mixtape support. The RIAA benefits, but they don’t take the time to figure that out.
”
I'll have to say that that scooped up DJ Drama and Don Cannon is incredibly good. He makes some amazingly clear and simple connections to the bigger political picture but not until he's broken down an explanation of the kinds of mixtapes that DJ Drama makes and the fact that Fox News sucks at every level.
Related Video News:
If you're following the online video space, here's an interesting piece on where Jay's video is hosted.
The Recording Industry Association Of America's (RIAA) Anti-Piracy Unit have been watching the DJs for sometime, and decided it was time to make their move.
These guys are actively advertising online, RIAA's Matthew Kilgo told Fox News. They've got a website that they're advertising from -- that's where you place your order and that's where you're orders are shipped out.
During the raid, authorities confiscated nearly 50,000 illegal mixtapes, all of which have been taken in as evidence and will later be destroyed.
That's very serious news for mixtape djs and raises the obvious question of why didn't someone just reach out prior to this dramatic move with a cease and desist or whatever would be appropriate? Oh, I forgot, it's the fucking RIAA so it's slash and burn from here on out.
Welcome to the death of the mixtape.
Update:
Here's the footage from on which the above and all other reports I've seen in the online hip hop press are based.
So how does the RIAA go in with a SWAT team?
It's a with a composed of members of the music industry.
Choice quote from some copper:
In this case we didn't find drugs or weapons.
Update 2:
More from Fox 5 Atlanta, much of it same as the above link but with .
So far, though I've seen what looks like at least one individual copy of something by Justin Timberlake, all the stacks of cds they show are clearly mixtape cds. The fact that the website was highly successful with a lot of international sales including to soldiers in Iraq is spun as if it was an international crime empire distributing bootleg copies of major label product.
This is most likely going to be one of those moments where most major label artists fold and remind us of who's in charge rather than supporting mixtapes or honestly expressing their concerns about mixtapes if they, in fact, have concerns.
Further Coverage:
As , DJ Drama's:
Gangsta Grillz series has become a street staple and a promotional tool for emerging artists. . .
Drama actually works closely with several artists and will put a Gangsta Grillz CD with music specifically recorded by one artist for the particular disc. His releases may be best described as street albums, rather than mixtapes.
Some mixtape DJs do get complaints from labels and artists about their material hitting the streets, but Drama has not previously encountered that problem.
When music from T.I.'s King album leaked online last year, Tip and Drama collected the tracks to release as a mixtape, which featured early versions of songs including Live in the Sky.
And artists such as Young Jeezy — who launched his career with the help of Gangsta Grillz: Trap or Die — Styles P, Lil Jon, Busta Rhymes, Lil Wayne and Nelly have all made music specifically for Drama to put on Gangsta Grillz.
I thought that was interesting enough to link to MTV's incredibly stupid website. This situation is one that will basically require big name hip hop artists to take what is essentially a political stance and collectively push the industry in a different direction.
Let's see who steps up and who sits the fuck down.
Trailer for Mixtape, Inc. Documentary
on a new documentary called Mixtape, Inc.
that looks at the mixtape business from multiple perspectives.
There are two more short videos related to Mixtape, Inc. to which Eskay links that I've added to .
The is up for a in the PodSafe Music category.
Voting ends August 11th.
Posted by Clyde on August 4, 2006 in a trailing indicator of the music industry.
In the late 1980’s, as CD’s were booming, mixtapes were literally mixed cassette tapes. Now mp3’s are booming, and mixtapes are on CD. And you don’t have to be a nervous record executive, sweating over the latest SoundScan numbers, to know that no CD boom lasts forever.
While it's an interesting point, it seems surprisingly off-target for Sanneh, as does his inaccurate generalization that mixtapes are unlicensed collections of new and unreleased hip-hop tracks and that it’s illegal to sell them (because they’re full of copyrighted material) when he's that:
When an artist as popular as 50 Cent is releasing new material directly (and sometimes exclusively) to mixtapes, and when hip-hop crews like the Diplomats are supplementing their underground mixtapes with official (that is, licensed and legal) mixtapes, then the boundary between street and store gets harder to maintain.
Although I usually appreciate Sanneh's insights and excellent writing, the notion of CDs as trailing indicators is problematic because it leaves out the fact that cassettes remained easy for hustlers to mass produce at a time when low cost equipment for CD copying just wasn't readily available.
It also doesn't account for the fact that DVDs are currently hot on the streets and in the stores.
Recognizing that DVD duplication equipment is also now relatively cheap and available provides a much more likely explanation for their accessibility on the streets at a time when DVDs are still doing quite well via channels traditionally considered more legitimate.
Besides, MP3s aren't really that easy to sell on the streets unless you burn them onto a disk.
Posted by Clyde on July 27, 2006 in Robert Christgau takes a for the Village Voice:
Someone should write a book about the mixtape world, which encapsulates hip-hop's complexity.
It's dangerous, creative, materialistic, and uncontrollable, up from slavery and on both sides of the law. But as a music critic in for a quick look around, all I can say is that the eight or nine examples I've been sampling are mind-boggling.
For those unfamiliar with mixtapes, he points out that:
They're not tapes.
The cassette era was when DJs began seguing original, remixed, and stolen music into album-length wholes. But CDs are easier to produce (and bootleg). Nowadays, many mixtapes are private product featuring a single artist plus loosely defined crew.
These are generally authorized, as are some multi-artist DJ constructions. Labels often value mixtapes as promotional tools, building word-of-mouth for new artists or whetting appetites for forthcoming releases. But others are accounted criminal.
Need I add that the RIAA has no idea what to make of them?
Mixtapes are a fascinating, informally approved marketing device and the RIAA has a whom they mistake for bootleggers. That's why, just as mixtapes are entering a new era of legitimacy, I'm concerned about the .
Note the list of cities mentioned:
Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, San Diego and San Francisco All Havens For Pirated Music
Most, if not all, of these cities could also be described as havens for mixtapes. Now I don't have any issues with the RIAA attacking actual counterfeiters but I fully expect a lot of little stores selling mixtapes, stores that are often much more important than their size as hip hop community resources, to take it on the chin. And that could be a big blow to the mixtape scene where getting a verbal ok to use a beat won't provide much of a defense.
USA Today has a surprisingly nice piece on that looks at their use for building buzz for artists among tastemakers and in the streets.
Steve Jones considers both mixtapes that are put out by the artists like 50 Cent and mixtape series by djs like DJ Clue featuring artists. The topics of keeping one's career alive between albums and keeping a constant presence on the streets are included.
In a recent press release, of their promotional mixtapes.
Posted by Clyde on April 23, 2006 in Have you noticed how MTV's are less and less and more and more ?
In a lot of ways, that's too bad cause the appearance of Mixtape Mondays was a legitimating factor for mixtapes, even if it always did mix in some nonmixtape news.
Although I could see someone taking the position that mixtapes shouldn't go mainstream, since they're fundamentally an invention for the streets, I think that the growing legitimacy of mixtapes has broadened the whole concept to include a spectrum of niches and uses from street culture to mainstream marketing.
So I'm disappointed to see MTV.com gradually shifting towards Mixtape Mondays as a sort of news mix rather than becoming a news source for finding out about the ever changing world of mixtapes.
And I don't just mean mixtape reviews, but actual news that tracks how the whole mixtape thing has shifted. For example, not only have a wide range of mixtape websites appeared but now you can buy mixtapes through Amazon.
Note: Sorry about the headline.
ProHipHop has an ongoing policy of not writing cutesy headlines but, except for the alliteration, this one says what I mean.
Posted by Clyde on April 4, 2006 in When I saw the that Kim Osorio is puttin out a publication called RHYMES WOMEN Mixtape Magazine aka RAW, I thought that the former editor of The Source, who's bringing a lawsuit against the magazine for , was doing a project to boost female djs and mcs. The very idea seemed like a form of justice, even though it probably wouldn't rake in the dough as did The Source in its heyday.
RAW features interviews and centerfold pinup posters of the hottest models and video chicks from around the country in every issue. This issue features a 54 caramel honey straight out of Harlem, USA.
However, if the business relationship with models is handled in an above board fashion, i.
e. they are treated like professionals rather than choice cuts of meat, then that could also be a positive development in the modeling scene. In fact, if they included some real coverage of what goes on behind the scenes.
it might be a positive endeavor.
Of course, it's not just a modeling magazine, RAW is planned to have news and coverage related to the mixtape scene, so it's a mixtape and pinup play featuring honeys and artists who are mostly men. Which is probably a good business idea since it also will include a "fully licensed Mixtape Album" with each issue.
The time has probably come for licensed mixtapes since they now have a visibility and popularity that makes it feasible to sell them on newstands and so forth, emphasizing their marketing value without putting folks in danger of .
I've been meaning to mention various blogs and websites that I encounter along the way, so here are a couple of interesting sites that have recently moved off venues like Blogger to their own domains:
Mike Street's mixes posts about events in New York with more general happenings and news from hip hop to popular culture.
Dex Digital's is a hip hop mixtape podcast that you can download and burn to cd or whatever else you kids are doing with those podcasts these days.
He's also got a related .
I'm feeling kind of burned out so I'm sure you'll find them more interesting than I make them sound. Check 'em out for yourself!
"This is Mixtape Incorporated, where Hip-Hop culture and corporate America are in bed together behind the scenes, and putting on a game face for the media and the public. Music is the uncut raw. Subject to copyright law .
. . the fact remains that label representatives are giving unreleased tracks away to mixtape DJs like candy.
The DJ . . .
is using the original product - music - and cooking it up with a formula that includes blending, cutting, juggling, remixing; adding freestyles, drops, and exclusives from hot rappers and MCs. The final product is the mixtape, a smooth new blend of Hip-Hop, Rap, Breakbeats, Reggaeton, and R B."
MJ covers a lot of ground including varying levels of attention to such topics as the differences between bootlegs and mixtapes, regional variations in mixtape history, the experiences of mixtape djs and retailers and some interesting comments from the producers of a new film
One of the important things about this look at the mixtape game is the diversity of perspectives.
When you talk to folks involved with mixtapes, some present them as a loss leader for promotional purposes only and others talk about serious money being made. Encountering this diversity of perception in such close proximity is a strong reminder that complex games lead to multiple variations.
Pyramids 2 Projects' gathers responses to the death of DJ Justo.
shares a few additional details.
SOHH's Player Watch column features an conducted just a few days before his death.
Mixtape Awards founder is reported to have died in a car crash on Saturday, though details remain sketchy and only a handful of hip hop sites seem to care.
No doubt, as folks return to work on Monday, we'll be seeing more reports.
Though the Mixtape Awards have been a unique event which helped give djs more attention for their crucial role in the development of hip hop and the marketing of artists both new and old, ironically the Awards themselves were and the suddenly went "under construction" right before the last Mixtape Awards event in March and remains in that condition. ran a brief report after the Awards and shared his unique impressions.
In addition to the personal loss, Faison's passing comes as mixtapes are assuming ever greater prominence in hip hop. has a special section on mixtapes and a weekly feature called . A variety of mixtape websites and special sections on hip hop sites exist, some of which can be found through the link list at mixtape blog In addition, seems to be in the process of relaunching.
Supposedly are happening tonight at a "top-secret Manhattan location." Whatever. The general lack of information that I is just plain annoying.
Not only that, P. Diddy is being honored with a Top Executive and Lifetime Achievement Award! Actually, a lifetime achievement award makes sense for someone whose career is in decline.
You know, Justo Faison an interesting guy. But if he's really "held national rap promotion jobs at Nervous, Atlantic and Epic Records," then why is the promotion for this event so weak and why is the right when the 9th Annual Awards are happening. Not only that, the voting form still has last year's 8th Annual Awards as a heading.
is featured in an article that gives some interesting insights into the mixtape scene.
, part of the "New Bay" movement is expected to release a mixtape later this month called The Bay Area Mixtape King featuring Stat Quo, Chamillionaire, Royce the 5’ 9” and Planet Asia. For additional info see promoblog .
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