LA Weekly: Karma Policed-L.A. Music Publisher’s Suit Against Lil Wayne Threatens to Rewrite Rules on Mixtapes
Don’t really know what to say about this piece that it’s title doesn’t already hint at. It felt like it took an eternity to write, partially due to personal lethargy, partially because it’s a long story and the reporting and organization took forever. If you have any interest in Lil Wayne, the song “I Feel Like Dying,” mix-tapes or sampling laws and how they’ve impacted hip-hop history, hopefully it’ll be of some interest. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to play touch football on Marijuana St.
Download:
MP3: Lil Wayne-”I Feel Like Dying”
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September 5th, 2008 at 3:36 am
Wow. Great piece, Weiss.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Yeah, this is dope.
Karma-Ann Swanepoel? God damned hippies. I wouldn’t be surprised if this goes badly. The music industry will blow it’s nose off with a ruger to spite its face.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:26 am
I wrote this quick news piece for Jazz Times 5 years ago. Fascinating stuff. Sample laws are bullshit.
https://www.jazztimes.com/columns_and_features/news/detail.cfm?article=9797
September 5th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Wow, really didn’t see this coming. Nice work.
September 5th, 2008 at 9:42 am
TUNE Geez..Viva Lil’ Wayne
September 5th, 2008 at 10:29 am
interesting piece. jack lerner’s one of my college friends.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:04 am
this is an incredible piece, weiss.
and to drive your point home, in february, i was sitting backstage at my show, talking about music with some of the guys from the other bands, and one of them said that he liked “i feel like dying” so much, that he sought out karma’s music and was blown away. the number of times this specific occurrence has happened since weezy droppped da drought 3 is probably overwhelming.
i agree with dan weissman: swanepoel should put her hands together and thank god that wayne rapped on a song sampling her. she could have used this to her advantage and got paid like a motherfucker; probably tenfold from what she’ll make (if anything) from this suit.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:20 am
An eternity to write? Also took an eternity to read…
September 5th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Great article. These days it’s rare to see a music piece that’s actually well reported and thoroughly researched. Nice.
And the Dido comparison is dead-on. Anyone with an ounce of business sense would’ve heard the song and said, “holy shit, 16 million people just heard a song that samples me — the biggest opportunity of my life just fell out of the fucking sky.”
Even if she hated the way it was used, she could make something of that, too — like, “hey, come hear the song the way it was meant to be heard.” as Douglas says above, there are so many ways she could have used this to her financial and artistic advantage without just reflexively suing him for the (nonexistent) profits from the song.
And on that note, what exactly IS she suing Wayne for, anyway? No one’s made a cent from this.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Yeah, that’s what I’d like to know, Drewski.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Great article. It does seem strange she wouldn’t try to capitalize on the song’s popularity. This lawsuit certainly isn’t going to send anyone who liked “I Feel Like Dying” in search of her music.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Thanks for the kind words guys. I appreciate it.
As to what the company and Karma are suing for, you can read the lawsuit here.
http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_documents/0529_lil_wayne_wm.pdf
It boils down to the fact that they’re saying the track made him more famous, built up his buzz and ultimately left him in a position to be more successful with Carter III. Plus, he has regularly performed “I Feel Like Dying” live and they want a cut of that.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
It would have to be a very small cut. I enjoyed this part of the complaint:
“The defendant’s infringing work has been a substantial benefit to his career. He has been featured prominently in music periodicals and popular, national magazines. The song has won critical acclaim and has created a lot of pre-release “buzz” for his upcoming album.”
I mean, the question is, if he had never made that song, how many fewer copies of Carter 3 and concert tickets would he have sold? Two? The way I see it, if not for this song, Breihan wouldn’t have written so many annoying posts about it, and I might not have gotten so sick of Wayne.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Well played, sir.
September 5th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Cool article. Goes hand and hand with my Music Business Law class this semester.
September 6th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Good piece Weiss. This is one of the more ridiculous “intellectual property / copyright” situations in a while. She should’ve asked Dido what rappers can do for one’s careeer.
September 7th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Like Brucie B, Ron G and Kid Capr
Isn
t that a line from ‘Juicy’?
September 7th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Of course. Biggie said it because those were the kings of the Mixtape scene when he was growing up and first breaking in. I could’ve changed the order (and did in the first draft) but realized that it was un-wise to fuck with Big’s phrasing.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:03 am
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