For hip-hop sampling older songs has become a way of life, but the federal court of appeals plans to make sure everyone gets compensated. This week they ruled that sampling a song or using a snippet of previous musical works is allowed as long as the original artists is paid. Previously the using snippets, smaller notes or chords without compensation had been allowed. A Circuit Court of Appeals planned to issue a halt to music piracy that would have included digital sampling saying,” If you cannot pirate the whole sound recording, can you ‘lift’ or ‘sample’ something less than the whole? Our answer to that question is in the negative.” The argument on sampling begun when NWA’s song “100 Miles and Runnin” appeared on Master P’s film “I Got the Hook Up” in 1998. The film company argued that the copyright law did not protect the sample. The federal courts final decision, “Get a license or do not sample. We do not see this as stifling creativity in any significant way.”
Dave Chappelle isn’t joking about his love for music. On September 18th Dave Chappelle is sponsoring a Block Party with such artists as Kanye West, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Dead Prez, Common, Lauryn Hill and many more. I’m glad to be a part of it. Dave just called me and broke it down,” Mos Def told MTV. “A lot of my friends and heroes are going to be there. It’s very inspiring”. The block party will be filmed at a secret location and later sold on DVD.
