DJ Drama article from the NY Times
January 22, 2007
Cracking Down on Mixtape CDs
By JEFF LEEDS
Not long before Christmas, Jeff Baker, the chief of police of Morrow, Ga., a small town just south of Atlanta, and one of his officers were walking through a local shopping mall when they happened to pass a kiosk hawking rap music CDs. One in particular caught their attention.
The CD was “Tha Streets Iz Watchin,” with songs performed by the rapper Young Jeezy and, as Chief Baker recalled, it did not carry the name or address of the owner of the music copyrights, as Georgia law requires. Rather than arrest the kiosk vendor immediately, Chief Baker said, “We’d rather go after the source of the material. And at that point we had no idea what the source was.”
Any rap music aficionado would; the creator of the album is DJ Drama, whose real name is Tyree Simmons, arguably the nation’s most prominent producer of mixtapes, the name given to popular but largely unlicensed CDs stocked with yet-to-be released rap hits and free-style rhymes.
And many more people now know: last week, local authorities, working with the recording industry’s trade association, stunned fans and music executives alike by raiding DJ Drama’s studio in Atlanta and arresting him and a fellow D.J., Don Cannon, on racketeering charges. Investigators seized more than 81,000 allegedly pirated CDs and say the pair were producing unlicensed recordings and selling them without permission.
The raid sparked an outcry among many rap fans. But it also threatens to throw into public view the recording industry’s awkward relationship with mixtapes, long an integral element of rap culture and now commonly for sale on street corners, Web sites, many independent record shops and occasionally big chains.
Even as industry-financed antipiracy squads hunt for unauthorized recordings, senior executives at the major record labels privately say that they have courted — and often paid — top D.J.’s to create and distribute mixtapes featuring the labels’ rappers as part of efforts to generate buzz.
“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.”
The raid also exposes a schism that is taking shape as the industry tries to stanch a slide in album sales, for which many blame piracy. On one side, many label executives and officials at the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the major music companies, say the mixtape is contributing to the problem. They argue that sales are ultimately undermined when the mixtape leaps from promotional giveaway item to replacement for an artist’s official label-distributed album.
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.
Label executives remained puzzled over the sudden arrest of DJ Drama, whose ascent through the unregulated world of compilations has largely taken place in plain sight during the last couple of years. There has been speculation that the police inquiry into his business affairs was further spurred by tips from a competitor or unhappy customer. Chief Baker of the Morrow police declined to comment on the participation of any informants.
Mixtapes have been part of rap since the genre’s earliest days in the 1970s — back then, D.J.’s who spun records at clubs or parties committed their playlists to cassettes. But the proliferation of CD burners in the last several years has made the production and wide circulation — or sale — of mixtapes easier than ever.
It has also enhanced their role in tastemaking. Particularly since formerly underground mixtape hero 50 Cent broke out as a mainstream rap superstar in 2003, the top producers of unlicensed CDs have been embraced by the industry’s biggest corporations, who wager that the D.J.’s reputations as renegades will translate into the sale of legitimate, licensed compilations, too.
Atlantic Records, for one, hired the mixtape D.J. known as Sickamore as a talent scout and had signed DJ Drama, to its artist roster with plans to release an authorized mixtape-style album this year. Def Jam, Columbia and other big labels have released such CDs in the past.
The labels’ reliance on the D.J.’s is complicated further by the fact that many of the top mixtape creators also double as radio D.J.’s on major rap stations. Many label executives acknowledge that when they write checks to certain D.J.’s to produce a mix CD for an artist, there is often an expectation that the D.J. will play the artist’s music on the air — an arrangement that recalls the industry’s recent radio corruption scandals involving illicit pay-for-play, or payola.
Brad Buckles, the recording association’s executive vice president for antipiracy, said authorities seized about two million unlicensed hip-hop mix CDs last year, and speculated that sales of the recordings through Web sites and other channels could be running to the tens of millions of units annually.
Public performance of certain mixtape material “is probably good promotion,” Mr. Buckles said. “When you start selling them by the tens and hundreds of thousands, I don’t know that anyone is saying that’s of great promotional value.”
Even in the case of DJ Drama, whose mixtapes have been credited with stoking the careers of artists like Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne and last year’s best selling rap artist, T.I., it appears not everyone applauded inclusion on his recordings. The police said lawyers representing an array of artists sent cease-and-desist demands protesting the unauthorized use of their music, though they declined to identify the artists.
Nonetheless, the arrests instantly sent a shiver through hip-hop circles. One prominent Web site, mixunit.com, halted the sale of its usual wares and instead refocused on rap posters and T-shirts. Under a logo that read “Free Drama & Cannon,” the site said only that it was reorganizing with features that are “positive to the artists, D.J.’s and fans of this special element of hip-hop.”
Fans and music executives say the raid will most likely push the production and sale of mixtapes further underground — and encourage more efforts to skirt the edge of laws against the sale of unauthorized songs. At one major mixtape Web site, fans can choose from an array of current mix CDs on display. To get one, though, they must pay $7 for a sticker bearing the Web site’s name. Each sticker comes with a free mixtape.
The business can be tricky for the D.J.’s themselves too, said Mr. Buckles of the recording industry association. D.J.’s creating mixtapes with the intent of offering them free sometimes find that bootleggers then replicate the music and sell it.
“This is a world,” he added, “where everything just careens out of control once it’s created.”
January 22, 2007
Cracking Down on Mixtape CDs
By JEFF LEEDS
Not long before Christmas, Jeff Baker, the chief of police of Morrow, Ga., a small town just south of Atlanta, and one of his officers were walking through a local shopping mall when they happened to pass a kiosk hawking rap music CDs. One in particular caught their attention.
The CD was “Tha Streets Iz Watchin,” with songs performed by the rapper Young Jeezy and, as Chief Baker recalled, it did not carry the name or address of the owner of the music copyrights, as Georgia law requires. Rather than arrest the kiosk vendor immediately, Chief Baker said, “We’d rather go after the source of the material. And at that point we had no idea what the source was.”
Any rap music aficionado would; the creator of the album is DJ Drama, whose real name is Tyree Simmons, arguably the nation’s most prominent producer of mixtapes, the name given to popular but largely unlicensed CDs stocked with yet-to-be released rap hits and free-style rhymes.
And many more people now know: last week, local authorities, working with the recording industry’s trade association, stunned fans and music executives alike by raiding DJ Drama’s studio in Atlanta and arresting him and a fellow D.J., Don Cannon, on racketeering charges. Investigators seized more than 81,000 allegedly pirated CDs and say the pair were producing unlicensed recordings and selling them without permission.
The raid sparked an outcry among many rap fans. But it also threatens to throw into public view the recording industry’s awkward relationship with mixtapes, long an integral element of rap culture and now commonly for sale on street corners, Web sites, many independent record shops and occasionally big chains.
Even as industry-financed antipiracy squads hunt for unauthorized recordings, senior executives at the major record labels privately say that they have courted — and often paid — top D.J.’s to create and distribute mixtapes featuring the labels’ rappers as part of efforts to generate buzz.
“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.”
The raid also exposes a schism that is taking shape as the industry tries to stanch a slide in album sales, for which many blame piracy. On one side, many label executives and officials at the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the major music companies, say the mixtape is contributing to the problem. They argue that sales are ultimately undermined when the mixtape leaps from promotional giveaway item to replacement for an artist’s official label-distributed album.
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.
Label executives remained puzzled over the sudden arrest of DJ Drama, whose ascent through the unregulated world of compilations has largely taken place in plain sight during the last couple of years. There has been speculation that the police inquiry into his business affairs was further spurred by tips from a competitor or unhappy customer. Chief Baker of the Morrow police declined to comment on the participation of any informants.
Mixtapes have been part of rap since the genre’s earliest days in the 1970s — back then, D.J.’s who spun records at clubs or parties committed their playlists to cassettes. But the proliferation of CD burners in the last several years has made the production and wide circulation — or sale — of mixtapes easier than ever.
It has also enhanced their role in tastemaking. Particularly since formerly underground mixtape hero 50 Cent broke out as a mainstream rap superstar in 2003, the top producers of unlicensed CDs have been embraced by the industry’s biggest corporations, who wager that the D.J.’s reputations as renegades will translate into the sale of legitimate, licensed compilations, too.
Atlantic Records, for one, hired the mixtape D.J. known as Sickamore as a talent scout and had signed DJ Drama, to its artist roster with plans to release an authorized mixtape-style album this year. Def Jam, Columbia and other big labels have released such CDs in the past.
The labels’ reliance on the D.J.’s is complicated further by the fact that many of the top mixtape creators also double as radio D.J.’s on major rap stations. Many label executives acknowledge that when they write checks to certain D.J.’s to produce a mix CD for an artist, there is often an expectation that the D.J. will play the artist’s music on the air — an arrangement that recalls the industry’s recent radio corruption scandals involving illicit pay-for-play, or payola.
Brad Buckles, the recording association’s executive vice president for antipiracy, said authorities seized about two million unlicensed hip-hop mix CDs last year, and speculated that sales of the recordings through Web sites and other channels could be running to the tens of millions of units annually.
Public performance of certain mixtape material “is probably good promotion,” Mr. Buckles said. “When you start selling them by the tens and hundreds of thousands, I don’t know that anyone is saying that’s of great promotional value.”
Even in the case of DJ Drama, whose mixtapes have been credited with stoking the careers of artists like Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne and last year’s best selling rap artist, T.I., it appears not everyone applauded inclusion on his recordings. The police said lawyers representing an array of artists sent cease-and-desist demands protesting the unauthorized use of their music, though they declined to identify the artists.
Nonetheless, the arrests instantly sent a shiver through hip-hop circles. One prominent Web site, mixunit.com, halted the sale of its usual wares and instead refocused on rap posters and T-shirts. Under a logo that read “Free Drama & Cannon,” the site said only that it was reorganizing with features that are “positive to the artists, D.J.’s and fans of this special element of hip-hop.”
Fans and music executives say the raid will most likely push the production and sale of mixtapes further underground — and encourage more efforts to skirt the edge of laws against the sale of unauthorized songs. At one major mixtape Web site, fans can choose from an array of current mix CDs on display. To get one, though, they must pay $7 for a sticker bearing the Web site’s name. Each sticker comes with a free mixtape.
The business can be tricky for the D.J.’s themselves too, said Mr. Buckles of the recording industry association. D.J.’s creating mixtapes with the intent of offering them free sometimes find that bootleggers then replicate the music and sell it.
“This is a world,” he added, “where everything just careens out of control once it’s created.”
posted by Ricky Ross | 9:02 AM
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