In the most recent OZONE Magazine, Wendy Day has an article about The Screw Shop in Memphis being raided and having all their mixtapes confiscated and more. In the article she basically says that the RIAA will go after this little black dude in Memphis, but won't go after the white owned company who sells mixtapes to Best Buy and major chains. Then Drama chimes in and does not name BCD outright but says soemthing like -there's a distributor in Houston who bootlegs my shit and puts it in the Best Buys and such.[/b]
Best buy sells mixtapes?????? am i disconnected from the music chain game? Do any of yall see mixtapes in your local Best Buy? I find it hard to believe that BB would fuck with anything without a bar code.
yeah they sell them, i've seen drama ones too...they keep in them in full sized jewel cases.
In the most recent OZONE Magazine, Wendy Day has an article about The Screw Shop in Memphis being raided and having all their mixtapes confiscated and more. In the article she basically says that the RIAA will go after this little black dude in Memphis, but won't go after the white owned company who sells mixtapes to Best Buy and major chains. Then Drama chimes in and does not name BCD outright but says soemthing like -there's a distributor in Houston who bootlegs my shit and puts it in the Best Buys and such.[/b]
Best buy sells mixtapes?????? am i disconnected from the music chain game? Do any of yall see mixtapes in your local Best Buy? I find it hard to believe that BB would fuck with anything without a bar code.
They also sell bootleg DVD's. Lots of major chains carry bootleg ish. Sometimes the buyers can't tell the difference, I guess.
DJ Drama (whose real name is Tyree Simmons) and Mr. Cannon were each charged with a felony violation of Georgia???s Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization law(known as RICO) and held on $100,000 bond[/b].
That is shameful.
This is unreal.
This makes me sick to my stomach,i even loss sleep last night thinking about his predicament. Oh the injustice of this world.
DJ Drama (whose real name is Tyree Simmons) and Mr. Cannon were each charged with a felony violation of Georgia???s Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization law(known as RICO) and held on $100,000 bond[/b].
That is shameful.
This is unreal.
This makes me sick to my stomach,i even loss sleep last night thinking about his predicament. Oh the injustice of this world.
Look, DJ Drama is going to be okay (he was released earlier today) and losing 10K to the bail bondsman isn't going to break him--but none of that changes the fact that it is an embarassment that the government is allowing its powers to be abused this way. It is shameful that a SWAT team would swoop down on a mixtape DJ and that he would then be held in jail on 100K bail.
Look, DJ Drama is going to be okay (he was released earlier today) and losing 10K to the bail bondsman isn't going to break him
Exactly.
but none of that changes the fact that it is an embarassment that the government is allowing its powers to be abused this way. It is shameful that a SWAT team would swoop down on a mixtape DJ and that he would then be held in jail on 100K bail.
Yeah they should've forewarned him first that it was illegal to bootleg.
I'm still unclear as to what the "illegal content" RIAA was talking about (let alone ATL's police). Is it b/c artists are appearing without the contractual permission of their labels?
I agree with Matt's skepticism that this was a case where some local distributor decided to push RIAA to bust down on Drama for them (I mean, it's *possible* but seems a bit far-fetched at this point). But obviously, someone had to file a complaint.
Legal-heads: is that something that would have a paper trail?
If they are doing any mixes other than the licensed mixes or incorporate any tracks that have not been cleared or licensed for their use then it would be illegal... Not that I think that's the reason, jsut sayin the technicalities are all around this and the RIAA is all about enforcing weak technicalities just to make a point... Aren't we talking about the same organization that tried to sue a 11 year old girl that was file sharing?
Seriously I think this organization is nothing but wash ups that couldn't make it into a real law enforcement organization.
Yeah they should've forewarned him first that it was illegal to bootleg.
To be fair, there is a difference between what most people familiar with what these mixtapes are and how they are created think of what Drama does and what is bootlegging. It may be that he does use other rappers instrumentals without clearing the songs, and he probably does not have written permission to publish "leaked" tracks, but what he does is very different from simply copying someone elses album or songs, distributing and profiting from a "bootlegged" album. He has successfully established himself as a promoter, and until now, he had been ignored by the labels because he (albeit debatably) helped push their product. He also established himself through branding in the form of drops/logos/titles, thereby (albeit arguably) creating a unique product.
Think of it this way: what he is doing is very different than what everyone on here does when they make a mixtape of songs. I would argue that only the "upper echelon" of the street tape deejays (Smallz, Drama, et al) truly create a unique product that is not a bootleg. I would never argue that he shouldn't profit from his own unique work. I think he was the victim of an "RIAA definiton" situation, where they do not establish a difference between what he does and bootlegging. However, as with any regulation on an art form, eventually it needs to be examined to see if it truly applies to the market for the art. In this case, it obviously does not function properly.
Yeah they should've forewarned him first that it was illegal to bootleg.
To be fair, there is a difference between what most people familiar with what these mixtapes are and how they are created think of what Drama does and what is bootlegging. It may be that he does use other rappers instrumentals without clearing the songs, and he probably does not have written permission to publish "leaked" tracks, but what he does is very different from simply copying someone elses album or songs, distributing and profiting from a "bootlegged" album. He has successfully established himself as a promoter, and until now, he had been ignored by the labels because he (albeit debatably) helped push their product. He also established himself through branding in the form of drops/logos/titles, thereby (albeit arguably) creating a unique product.
Think of it this way: what he is doing is very different than what everyone on here does when they make a mixtape of songs. I would argue that only the "upper echelon" of the street tape deejays (Smallz, Drama, et al) truly create a unique product that is not a bootleg. I would never argue that he shouldn't profit from his own unique work. I think he was the victim of an "RIAA definiton" situation, where they do not establish a difference between what he does and bootlegging. However, as with any regulation on an art form, eventually it needs to be examined to see if it truly applies to the market for the art. In this case, it obviously does not function properly.
What i know for certain is that we are all speculating and none of us know the specifics of this case.And i like being contrary.
Yeah they should've forewarned him first that it was illegal to bootleg.
To be fair, there is a difference between what most people familiar with what these mixtapes are and how they are created think of what Drama does and what is bootlegging. It may be that he does use other rappers instrumentals without clearing the songs, and he probably does not have written permission to publish "leaked" tracks, but what he does is very different from simply copying someone elses album or songs, distributing and profiting from a "bootlegged" album. He has successfully established himself as a promoter, and until now, he had been ignored by the labels because he (albeit debatably) helped push their product. He also established himself through branding in the form of drops/logos/titles, thereby (albeit arguably) creating a unique product.
Think of it this way: what he is doing is very different than what everyone on here does when they make a mixtape of songs. I would argue that only the "upper echelon" of the street tape deejays (Smallz, Drama, et al) truly create a unique product that is not a bootleg. I would never argue that he shouldn't profit from his own unique work. I think he was the victim of an "RIAA definiton" situation, where they do not establish a difference between what he does and bootlegging. However, as with any regulation on an art form, eventually it needs to be examined to see if it truly applies to the market for the art. In this case, it obviously does not function properly.
What i know for certain is that we are all speculating and none of us know the specifics of this case.And i like being contrary.
No, not really--we know a lot of the specifics. We know that what he was doing was technically illegal--it would be artistically and economically prohibitive to do it legally. We also know that he did it with the cooperation and the monetary support of the major labels. And we know that they derived significant benefit from it.
There are echoes of the payola scandal of the 80s.
In the 80s record companies paid "independent" promoters to promote certain artists. Powerful independents would get paid 10s or thousands of $$$ to promote a release.
The independents would give powerful djs incentives ranging from promo records that had unreleased tracks and color vinyl to cash, drugs and sex.
Eventually it got so out of hand that the independents were charging more than the records would ever make back. Not surprisingly the feds then cracked down on the independent promoters.
The majors were then left with promotional depts that had not successfully promoted a record in years and had no idea what to do. The big radio programmers with out direction started programing lots of blues rock resulting in top ten hits for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
The majors funnelled thousands of copies of "rare" promos by artists like Prince and Bruce Sprinsteen through the in dependants.
Maybe mixcds were costing majors too much $$$ upfront.
I'd like to see the RIAA work with law enforcement to take away the ceos of Sony, EMI and WEA for not paying royalties. Sorry guys, looks like Jerry Williams dropped a dime on your ass.
(Davey D's is particularly interesting to me. The other is by Drama's sister.)
[i]Rascism, Power & Drama-What's Really Behind the RIAA Raids[/b]
As stated earlier, many are starting to suspect that there are deeper implications to the RIAA Raid. DJ Drama's sister Aishah Shahidah Simmons who did the incredible documentary 'NO' lays out some compelling thoughts in the essay 'Thirty Strong And A Gun To His Head???Pay Attention?' following my remarks that all of us need to think about.
As I noted in my first reports on this incident- The raid on the offices of DJ Drama and the Aphilliates WAS NOT about mixtapes, this is about inserting power. Please bear in mind that over the past year, many deejays from all around the country have been quietly organizing and weighing their options while assessing their collective power. For example, last month several hundred deejays met at a highly publicized West Coast Summit. Already we have TJDJs, The pioneering DJs who are down with Tools of War, The Core DJs, The Heavy Hitters,The Big Dawgs, The Beat Junkies Nasty Nes and the RappattackDJs and The Bum Squad DJS all running profitable businesses and working in a collective fashion. Some of these DJ Collectives have been behind the scenes organizing to demand Health Care and other provisions from the industry. When folks got together in LA, it was to start demanding more work opportunities. In all these DJ collectives, they have been asserting that they 'run the industry' because the deejay has the ability to make or break records.
In case many of you have not noticed, the DJ is what started off and put Hip Hop culture in motion. It was DJ Kool Herc, DJ Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Grand Wizard Theodore, DJ Grandmaster Flowers, Pete DJ Jones, DJ Hollywood, DJ Lovebug Starski and DJ Grandmaster Flash who people went to see back in the early days of Hip Hop. When the record industry got involved with Hip Hop, the DJ was cut out. Ever since then the DJ has morphed into a producer and behind the scenes man.
In recent years the DJ has returned to being a front and center entity. In 2007 the DJ has become more popular then many of the artists, radio stations and labels that put out material. What makes the deejay collectives so potentially powerful is the fact that their members all have direct income sources which allows them to make moves. The most prevalent being the mixtapes. As these deejay collectives began to further organize, it was only a matter of time before you could see people moving in a direction where they could act totally independent of the Record industry. 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 was definitely a dream for the late Justo Faison who started organizing mixtape DJs
If you follow the industry closely you can catch glimpse of this potential power being excercised. It may show up in the form of Latin Prince who heads up the Bum Squad DJs being hired as a main marketing VP for Universal Records. It may be people like DJ Skee (Game's DJ) putting together sold out car shows and other events that draw thousands. This is without the major record labels. You can see people like Jazzy Jeff working quietly behind the scenes to develop new radio formats or people like DJ Revolution working with new companies like M-Audio to develop new products for DJs. In the case of DJ Drama, many artists from the South would not have made it without his mixtapes being the the crucial introduction to a public that has become increasingly fickle and dissatisfied with commercial radio. The list goes on and on.
From the K-Slays to the Whoo Kids to the DJ Clues to the DJ Warriors and DJ Vlads we seen DJs all over the country seriously step their game up and get involved with everything from setting up their own Internet Radio stations on down to sparking off their own TV shows. Many of the popular regional music movements like Hyphy, Snap, or Chopped and Screwed would not have surfaced had it not been for the deejays. And this is just the mixtape DJs. We haven't even begun to talk about the stuff jumping off with DJs who call themselves turntablists like your DJ Q-Berts. In fact let me rephrase that-Many of the DJs were forced to be independent of the industry because they weren't getting paid and definitely weren't getting benefits.
At the end of the day all this potential power that can be a problem if you can't control them, buy them off or keep them happy with happy with crumbs. We caught a glimpse of this potential power of these deejay collectives when Young Buck got into a altercation in Atlanta with a popular club DJ. A conference call had to be set up and Young Buck had to do damage control as deejays from around the country stepped up and were ready to start boycotting Young Buck and G-Unit. We saw DJ collectives step up and intervene when Benzino got into beef with Funkmaster Flex and the editor of Ozone Magazine Julie Beverly.
Remember the Recording Industry made moves to eliminate the DJ and focus on the rapper. The DJ made a return for the better. The fact that so many of these deejays were forced to step up their 'poli' and 'econ' games is the fault of the industry that would do things like hire popular popular deejays to do mixes on commercial radio stations at 25-50 bucks a mix with no benefits. And that was considered good pay. Meanwhile these deejays who garnered street cred and large followings, would help these stations move up in the ratings, but not have enough to eat themselves. Thus they stepped their game up and discovered they could do things on their own. DJ Drama moving 50 thousand mixtapes is major. This not about mixtapes-its 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. -It's gonna be time for the industry to step up their game even more and totally change the game.
Written by Davey D
----------------
Thirty Strong And A Gun To His Head???Pay Attention? By Aishah Shahidah Simmons[/b]
There have been and probably will be numerous articles on the January 16, 2007 RIAA raid of the Aphilliates Music Group studio and arrest of my brother Tyree (DJ Drama) Simmons and DJ Don Cannon. There have been and will be numerous articles on what the implications of this raid will not only have on the Aphilliates Music Group but on the entire mixtape business/game.
In the midst of those ongoing discussions, let's not forget the reality that racism and sexism are alive and well in Ameri-KKK-a.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007 marked the first day of my supporting a three day fast that Black Women in Durham, North Carolina organized to expel and heal from the ongoing collective trauma that many of us who are victim/survivors of rape and other forms of sexual assault have been experiencing ever since members of the predominantly White Duke LaCrosse team were publicly accused of raping a Black woman in Spring of 2006. Little did I know, that while I supported my Spirit Sister-Survivors in Durham, North Carolina, that another assault against a member of my Blood family was about to happen.
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 brot
her 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
Based on the January 16, 2007 Fox Atlanta News edition http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/...TY&pageId=1.1.1, when one of the agents said "Usually, we find other crimes during these types of busts." Clearly the agents expected ( possibly wanted) to find drugs and/or illegal arms. K-9 dogs whose noses are trained to sniff and find drugs, were ultimately board with nothing to do.
So the question for me and the rest of the Portnoy-Simmons-Thwaites family is was a SWAT team needed? Was this solely about mixtapes? Would this have happened if this wasn't a Black run company? One of the claims is that Tyree (DJ Drama) was racketeering. Well, this alleged racketeer is a legitimate businessman who played and continues to play a pivotal role in the careers of numerous known and unknown hiphop artists, which by direct extension helps the recording industry immensely. Tyree ( DJ Drama) is also a partner, a father, a brother, and a son.
When I think about all of the scandals in corporate Ameri-KKK-a (Enron and WorldCom to name a minute few)???I don't ever recall hearing about any SWAT enforced raids. I don't recall any images of Ken Lay or other top executives of corporations being forced to lay face down on the ground surrounded by SWAT agents with guns to their heads and K-9 dogs sniffing them. For a detailed expose on the evils that corporations all around the world do and get away with legally and illegally, check out the powerfully gripping documentaries "Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room," and "The Corporation."
As Tyree's (DJ Drama's) sister and as a radical Black feminist lesbian social activist, I am beyond outraged at how the RIAA handled/orchestrated the raid. If he or anyone in the Aphilliates camp didn't follow the directions of the agents, asked the 'wrong' questions,'or made the 'wrong' move during the raid, he and/or his cohorts could've been murdered in a twinkling of an eye. And for what? Selling mixtapes, which feature artist sanctioned original music?
The RIAA should be held accountable for their actions. They need to know that their violent response to addressing their accusations of racketeering was unacceptable.
There was (and is) no covert operation going on with the business of the Aphilliates; and yet the Aphilliates were treated as if they were public enemy number one.
I am explicitly clear that the music entertainment power structure has a very serious problem with people of Color making profits, on their terms, off a multi-billon dollar international industry hiphop that they created.
I am also clear that since the founding of Ameri-KKK-a, this type of state sanctioned racist and sexist treatment towards men and women of Color happens every single minute of every single day. Unfounded police raids are nothing new to countless communities of Color across this country.
So while we debate and discuss the legalities of mixtapes and the long term impact of what the January 16, 2007 raid of the Aphiliates studio will mean, we must not ever forget that innocent people were terrorized and incarcerated in the name of protecting the Recording Industry Association of America.
There are echoes of the payola scandal of the 80s.
In the 80s record companies paid "independent" promoters to promote certain artists. Powerful independents would get paid 10s or thousands of $$$ to promote a release.
The independents would give powerful djs incentives ranging from promo records that had unreleased tracks and color vinyl to cash, drugs and sex.
Eventually it got so out of hand that the independents were charging more than the records would ever make back. Not surprisingly the feds then cracked down on the independent promoters.
The majors were then left with promotional depts that had not successfully promoted a record in years and had no idea what to do. The big radio programmers with out direction started programing lots of blues rock resulting in top ten hits for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
The majors funnelled thousands of copies of "rare" promos by artists like Prince and Bruce Sprinsteen through the in dependants.
Maybe mixcds were costing majors too much $$$ upfront.
Not really:
1. The rates DJ Drama is able to command are anomalous; very few, if any, other mixtape DJs are getting money like him;
2. It's still a lot less than what record labels would sink into other forms of promotion--like filming a big budget video;
3. It truly is peanuts compared to what independant promoters were getting during the seventies and eighties;
4. Unlike independant promoters, mixtape DJs actually provide a legitimate service
There are echoes of the payola scandal of the 80s.
In the 80s record companies paid "independent" promoters to promote certain artists. Powerful independents would get paid 10s or thousands of $$$ to promote a release.
The independents would give powerful djs incentives ranging from promo records that had unreleased tracks and color vinyl to cash, drugs and sex.
Eventually it got so out of hand that the independents were charging more than the records would ever make back. Not surprisingly the feds then cracked down on the independent promoters.
The majors were then left with promotional depts that had not successfully promoted a record in years and had no idea what to do. The big radio programmers with out direction started programing lots of blues rock resulting in top ten hits for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
The majors funnelled thousands of copies of "rare" promos by artists like Prince and Bruce Sprinsteen through the in dependants.
Maybe mixcds were costing majors too much $$$ upfront.
Not really:
1. The rates DJ Drama is able to command are anomalous; very few, if any, other mixtape DJs are getting money like him;
2. It's still a lot less than what record labels would sink into other forms of promotion--like filming a big budget video;
3. It truly is peanuts compared to what independant promoters were getting during the seventies and eighties;
4. Unlike independant promoters, mixtape DJs actually provide a legitimate service
Good points. I have no idea what Drama or other DJs get paid. Is it public knowledge or speculation. I was going to call out to strut djs who do these, but they may be lying low right now. Whatever it is I'm sure you are right it is far less than what Indepenent promoters were doing. But as the above articles suggest the majors may still be afraid of djs power. I understand that is biting the hand that feeds, but it also RIAA (majors) MO.
I like your point about actually providing a service.
What i know for certain is that we are all speculating and none of us know the specifics of this case.And i like being contrary.
No, not really--we know a lot of the specifics. We know that what he was doing was technically illegal--it would be artistically and economically prohibitive to do it legally. We also know that he did it with the cooperation and the monetary support of the major labels. And we know that they derived significant benefit from it. Please be serious. Besides a 2 minute clip from Fox, what reliable source of information you have about this legal case ? All I see is speculation and opinion. We want FACTS !
What i know for certain is that we are all speculating and none of us know the specifics of this case.And i like being contrary.
No, not really--we know a lot of the specifics. We know that what he was doing was technically illegal--it would be artistically and economically prohibitive to do it legally. We also know that he did it with the cooperation and the monetary support of the major labels. And we know that they derived significant benefit from it.
Please be serious.
Besides a 2 minute clip from Fox, what reliable source of information you have about this legal case ? All I see is speculation and opinion. We want FACTS !
Why don't you reread what I posted?
None of it is dependant on FOX's coverage--it's all information that's generally available to anyone that pays attention to the music industry, and it's all indisputable.
Who, specifically, filed the complaint against him doesn't particularly matter in the bigger picture.
There are echoes of the payola scandal of the 80s.
In the 80s record companies paid "independent" promoters to promote certain artists. Powerful independents would get paid 10s or thousands of $$$ to promote a release.
The independents would give powerful djs incentives ranging from promo records that had unreleased tracks and color vinyl to cash, drugs and sex.
Eventually it got so out of hand that the independents were charging more than the records would ever make back. Not surprisingly the feds then cracked down on the independent promoters.
The majors were then left with promotional depts that had not successfully promoted a record in years and had no idea what to do. The big radio programmers with out direction started programing lots of blues rock resulting in top ten hits for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
The majors funnelled thousands of copies of "rare" promos by artists like Prince and Bruce Sprinsteen through the in dependants.
Maybe mixcds were costing majors too much $$$ upfront.
Not really:
1. The rates DJ Drama is able to command are anomalous; very few, if any, other mixtape DJs are getting money like him;
2. It's still a lot less than what record labels would sink into other forms of promotion--like filming a big budget video;
3. It truly is peanuts compared to what independant promoters were getting during the seventies and eighties;
4. Unlike independant promoters, mixtape DJs actually provide a legitimate service
Good points. I have no idea what Drama or other DJs get paid. Is it public knowledge or speculation. I was going to call out to strut djs who do these, but they may be lying low right now. Whatever it is I'm sure you are right it is far less than what Indepenent promoters were doing. But as the above articles suggest the majors may still be afraid of djs power. I understand that is biting the hand that feeds, but it also RIAA (majors) MO.
I like your point about actually providing a service.
Well, there are a few people who post here that would know definitively, but I doubt that they would put it out there.
My guess is that he can get up to 50K to do a tape--but that's just a guess.
He's also pretty unique in that regard. No other mixtape DJ has managed to brand themselves so effectively, such that it is generally believed that he can break an artist--or at least that his imprimatur on your street album greatly increases your official projects chances of success. It undoubtedly helps, but all of the artists who are regarded as major Gangsta Grillz success stories--Lil Wayne, T.I. and Jeezy--all had a lot of other things going for them. The former two both had already had substantial success with mixtapes and building a street buzz before they connected with Drama. And then there are those artists whose entire promotional budget seems to have gone towards a Gangsta Grillz tape, who you never really hear from again.
For anyone who wants to know more about Drama, here is the interview that I did for The Fader:
???The only shit I have a problem with is the motherfuckers who call me a culture vulture. I want to smack the shit out of those motherfuckers. If you only knew what I had to do to get where I'm at, how dare you call me that!???
Real talk, it is hard for some to wrap their head around the fact a white-looking dude from Philly who first made a name for himself spinning Erykah Badu and Common records at poetry nights is now the biggest DJ in the South's trap-hop movement. How did a cat who toured in the 90s as Bahamadia's DJ end up being TI's right hand man?
Tyree Cinque Simmons grew up in two of the shittiest neighborhoods in Philadelphia. His mom, a white schoolteacher, lived in The Hollow in Germantown, while his dad, a black political activist, lived across town in The Bottom in West Philly. Inspired by Jazzy Jeff, Miz and Ghetto (he also cites the DJ scenes in Juice), Drama caught the DJ bug when he was a freshman at Central High, spending his lunch money on 12" singles at Philly's infamous Armand's Records until his crate was full enough to spin house parties.
By the time he was an undergraduate in Clark Atlanta University's Mass Communications department, Drama had his mixtape hustle down to a science and quickly made a name for himself rocking campus parties and DJing at the aforementioned poetry nights. ???I would do a college party where I was DJing for a strictly Down South crowd, then I would go over on a Wednesday and DJ at a poetry reading and play a lot of Erykah, lot of Blackstar. That's what a lot of people who know me for Gangsta Grillz have confused about me, 'Dram was soul DJ and then he just went over to being a gangster.' The thing about me is I've always been versatile. I mean you're a fucking DJ, every DJ does it, for real for real. You know your crowd. I did weddings, I did house parties - whatever you have to do to get ahead, you do. Coming from Philly, our musical background is so deep and we have so much range. I knew my music so I could play for any crowd.???
Fast forward to the present, and Drama is far and away the mixtape king of the South if not the entire country. On top of the Gangsta Grillz series, he has individual artist tapes with Young Jeezy (Trap or Die, Can't Ban the Snowman), Lil Wayne (Dedication 1 & 2), Pharell (In My Mind), TI (The Leak), Lil Brother (Separate But Equal), and nearly every other major name in the south. He and his Aphillyates crew have a radio show on Shade 45 and another on 107.9 in Atlanta, and most recently signed a label deal with Asylum, where they will release their Gangsta Grillz album. Of course when you're on top, the haters line up to take shots, most prominently in the comments section of Drama's highly entertaining, much maligned blog on the XXL website. ???You have to read [the negative comments] because it's there whether you look at it or not. It's a good balance to MySpace, because MySpace is just like head all day.???
Mix-Tape SWAT Raid Based On Non-Copyright State Copyright Law from the your-tax-dollars-at-work dept
You might remember the story from a few weeks ago about how the RIAA had a SWAT team raid an Atlanta hip-hop mix-tape producer. The situation surrounding the raid -- in particular how the RIAA gets a public law-enforcement SWAT team to do its dirty work -- was already quite murky, but as the EFF's Fred von Lohmann notes, things aren't getting any clearer. While the mainstream media interest in the case has waned, some bloggers have stayed on top of the story, pointing out that this is not a copyright case. The SWAT team was from local authorities, not federal agents who enforce copyright law, because the DJs aren't charged with breaking copyright laws. Instead, they're being hit with state racketeering charges, with the apparent underlying law Georgia's "true names" statute. These sorts of laws were pushed through state legislatures by entertainment industry lobbyists, and require audiovisual recordings to carry the real name of their producer -- basically giving the RIAA and MPAA a way to get local cops to bust vendors selling pirated material, without having to go to the trouble of involving federal authorities.
Things start to get a little shifty with these true names laws, as there's some question as to whether or not they illegally pre-empt federal copyright laws. The analoghole blog has done a pretty great job of delving into this issue, noting that the Georgia law's attempt to make the distribution of unauthorized audiovisual works illegal would certainly appear to step on the toes of federal laws. The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that it does not, while a similar law in California also stood up to a legal challenge. It seems like the effort has been made to really make an end run around copyright law, as the Georgia law says that owners of the "master copy" of a recording determine what's authorized and unauthorized distribution -- not the copyright holder, meaning even if an artist holds the copyright to their music, but their record label owns the master tapes, they're not the ones making the call. While the law, and this case, isn't very clear, one thing is: the RIAA has again used the legislative system and public law enforcement as a servant to protect its outdated business model. While there's enough question surrounding these true names laws to warrant further examination of them by a higher court, we're once again left wondering why state legislators and police have seen fit to do the entertainment industry's dirty work.
Comments
They also sell bootleg DVD's. Lots of major chains carry bootleg ish. Sometimes the buyers can't tell the difference, I guess.
This makes me sick to my stomach,i even loss sleep last night thinking about his predicament.
Oh the injustice of this world.
Look, DJ Drama is going to be okay (he was released earlier today) and losing 10K to the bail bondsman isn't going to break him--but none of that changes the fact that it is an embarassment that the government is allowing its powers to be abused this way. It is shameful that a SWAT team would swoop down on a mixtape DJ and that he would then be held in jail on 100K bail.
Exactly.
Yeah they should've forewarned him first that it was illegal to bootleg.
If they are doing any mixes other than the licensed mixes or incorporate any tracks that have not been cleared or licensed for their use then it would be illegal... Not that I think that's the reason, jsut sayin the technicalities are all around this and the RIAA is all about enforcing weak technicalities just to make a point... Aren't we talking about the same organization that tried to sue a 11 year old girl that was file sharing?
Seriously I think this organization is nothing but wash ups that couldn't make it into a real law enforcement organization.
Either way, this was some massive overkill on the part of the authorities.
To be fair, there is a difference between what most people familiar with what these mixtapes are and how they are created think of what Drama does and what is bootlegging. It may be that he does use other rappers instrumentals without clearing the songs, and he probably does not have written permission to publish "leaked" tracks, but what he does is very different from simply copying someone elses album or songs, distributing and profiting from a "bootlegged" album. He has successfully established himself as a promoter, and until now, he had been ignored by the labels because he (albeit debatably) helped push their product. He also established himself through branding in the form of drops/logos/titles, thereby (albeit arguably) creating a unique product.
Think of it this way: what he is doing is very different than what everyone on here does when they make a mixtape of songs. I would argue that only the "upper echelon" of the street tape deejays (Smallz, Drama, et al) truly create a unique product that is not a bootleg. I would never argue that he shouldn't profit from his own unique work. I think he was the victim of an "RIAA definiton" situation, where they do not establish a difference between what he does and bootlegging. However, as with any regulation on an art form, eventually it needs to be examined to see if it truly applies to the market for the art. In this case, it obviously does not function properly.
What i know for certain is that we are all speculating and none of us know the specifics of this case.And i like being contrary.
No, he doesn't sell bootlegs--this was strictly about mixtapes.
No, not really--we know a lot of the specifics. We know that what he was doing was technically illegal--it would be artistically and economically prohibitive to do it legally. We also know that he did it with the cooperation and the monetary support of the major labels. And we know that they derived significant benefit from it.
didn't think so.
actually he got treated like a fuckin' hero.
In the 80s record companies paid "independent" promoters to promote certain artists. Powerful independents would get paid 10s or thousands of $$$ to promote a release.
The independents would give powerful djs incentives ranging from promo records that had unreleased tracks and color vinyl to cash, drugs and sex.
Eventually it got so out of hand that the independents were charging more than the records would ever make back. Not surprisingly the feds then cracked down on the independent promoters.
The majors were then left with promotional depts that had not successfully promoted a record in years and had no idea what to do. The big radio programmers with out direction started programing lots of blues rock resulting in top ten hits for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
The majors funnelled thousands of copies of "rare" promos by artists like Prince and Bruce Sprinsteen through the in dependants.
Maybe mixcds were costing majors too much $$$ upfront.
I'd like to see the RIAA work with law enforcement to take away the ceos of Sony, EMI and WEA for not paying royalties. Sorry guys, looks like Jerry Williams dropped a dime on your ass.
(Davey D's is particularly interesting to me. The other is by Drama's sister.)
[i]Rascism, Power & Drama-What's Really Behind the RIAA Raids[/b]
As stated earlier, many are starting to suspect that there are deeper implications to the RIAA Raid. DJ Drama's sister Aishah Shahidah Simmons who did the incredible documentary 'NO' lays out some compelling thoughts in the essay 'Thirty Strong And A Gun To His Head???Pay Attention?' following my remarks that all of us need to think about.
As I noted in my first reports on this incident- The raid on the offices of DJ Drama and the Aphilliates WAS NOT about mixtapes, this is about inserting power. Please bear in mind that over the past year, many deejays from all around the country have been quietly organizing and weighing their options while assessing their collective power. For example, last month several hundred deejays met at a highly publicized West Coast Summit. Already we have TJDJs, The pioneering DJs who are down with Tools of War, The Core DJs, The Heavy Hitters,The Big Dawgs, The Beat Junkies Nasty Nes and the RappattackDJs and The Bum Squad DJS all running profitable businesses and working in a collective fashion. Some of these DJ Collectives have been behind the scenes organizing to demand Health Care and other provisions from the industry. When folks got together in LA, it was to start demanding more work opportunities. In all these DJ collectives, they have been asserting that they 'run the industry' because the deejay has the ability to make or break records.
In case many of you have not noticed, the DJ is what started off and put Hip Hop culture in motion. It was DJ Kool Herc, DJ Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Grand Wizard Theodore, DJ Grandmaster Flowers, Pete DJ Jones, DJ Hollywood, DJ Lovebug Starski and DJ Grandmaster Flash who people went to see back in the early days of Hip Hop. When the record industry got involved with Hip Hop, the DJ was cut out. Ever since then the DJ has morphed into a producer and behind the scenes man.
In recent years the DJ has returned to being a front and center entity. In 2007 the DJ has become more popular then many of the artists, radio stations and labels that put out material. What makes the deejay collectives so potentially powerful is the fact that their members all have direct income sources which allows them to make moves. The most prevalent being the mixtapes. As these deejay collectives began to further organize, it was only a matter of time before you could see people moving in a direction where they could act totally independent of the Record industry. 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 was definitely a dream for the late Justo Faison who started organizing mixtape DJs
If you follow the industry closely you can catch glimpse of this potential power being excercised. It may show up in the form of Latin Prince who heads up the Bum Squad DJs being hired as a main marketing VP for Universal Records. It may be people like DJ Skee (Game's DJ) putting together sold out car shows and other events that draw thousands. This is without the major record labels. You can see people like Jazzy Jeff working quietly behind the scenes to develop new radio formats or people like DJ Revolution working with new companies like M-Audio to develop new products for DJs. In the case of DJ Drama, many artists from the South would not have made it without his mixtapes being the the crucial introduction to a public that has become increasingly fickle and dissatisfied with commercial radio. The list goes on and on.
From the K-Slays to the Whoo Kids to the DJ Clues to the DJ Warriors and DJ Vlads we seen DJs all over the country seriously step their game up and get involved with everything from setting up their own Internet Radio stations on down to sparking off their own TV shows. Many of the popular regional music movements like Hyphy, Snap, or Chopped and Screwed would not have surfaced had it not been for the deejays. And this is just the mixtape DJs. We haven't even begun to talk about the stuff jumping off with DJs who call themselves turntablists like your DJ Q-Berts. In fact let me rephrase that-Many of the DJs were forced to be independent of the industry because they weren't getting paid and definitely weren't getting benefits.
At the end of the day all this potential power that can be a problem if you can't control them, buy them off or keep them happy with happy with crumbs. We caught a glimpse of this potential power of these deejay collectives when Young Buck got into a altercation in Atlanta with a popular club DJ. A conference call had to be set up and Young Buck had to do damage control as deejays from around the country stepped up and were ready to start boycotting Young Buck and G-Unit. We saw DJ collectives step up and intervene when Benzino got into beef with Funkmaster Flex and the editor of Ozone Magazine Julie Beverly.
Remember the Recording Industry made moves to eliminate the DJ and focus on the rapper. The DJ made a return for the better. The fact that so many of these deejays were forced to step up their 'poli' and 'econ' games is the fault of the industry that would do things like hire popular popular deejays to do mixes on commercial radio stations at 25-50 bucks a mix with no benefits. And that was considered good pay. Meanwhile these deejays who garnered street cred and large followings, would help these stations move up in the ratings, but not have enough to eat themselves. Thus they stepped their game up and discovered they could do things on their own. DJ Drama moving 50 thousand mixtapes is major. This not about mixtapes-its 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. -It's gonna be time for the industry to step up their game even more and totally change the game.
Written by
Davey D
----------------
Thirty Strong And A Gun To His Head???Pay Attention?
By Aishah Shahidah Simmons[/b]
There have been and probably will be numerous articles on the January 16, 2007 RIAA raid of the Aphilliates Music Group studio and arrest of my brother Tyree (DJ Drama) Simmons and DJ Don Cannon. There have been and will be numerous articles on what the implications of this raid will not only have on the Aphilliates Music Group but on the entire mixtape business/game.
In the midst of those ongoing discussions, let's not forget the reality that racism and sexism are alive and well in Ameri-KKK-a.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007 marked the first day of my supporting a three day fast that Black Women in Durham, North Carolina organized to expel and heal from the ongoing collective trauma that many of us who are victim/survivors of rape and other forms of sexual assault have been experiencing ever since members of the predominantly White Duke LaCrosse team were publicly accused of raping a Black woman in Spring of 2006. Little did I know, that while I supported my Spirit Sister-Survivors in Durham, North Carolina, that another assault against a member of my Blood family was about to happen.
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 brot her 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
Based on the January 16, 2007 Fox Atlanta News edition
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/...TY&pageId=1.1.1, when one of the agents said "Usually, we find other crimes during these types of busts." Clearly the agents expected ( possibly wanted) to find drugs and/or illegal arms. K-9 dogs whose noses are trained to sniff and find drugs, were ultimately board with nothing to do.
So the question for me and the rest of the Portnoy-Simmons-Thwaites family is was a SWAT team needed? Was this solely about mixtapes? Would this have happened if this wasn't a Black run company? One of the claims is that Tyree (DJ Drama) was racketeering. Well, this alleged racketeer is a legitimate businessman who played and continues to play a pivotal role in the careers of numerous known and unknown hiphop artists, which by direct extension helps the recording industry immensely. Tyree ( DJ Drama) is also a partner, a father, a brother, and a son.
When I think about all of the scandals in corporate Ameri-KKK-a (Enron and WorldCom to name a minute few)???I don't ever recall hearing about any SWAT enforced raids. I don't recall any images of Ken Lay or other top executives of corporations being forced to lay face down on the ground surrounded by SWAT agents with guns to their heads and K-9 dogs sniffing them. For a detailed expose on the evils that corporations all around the world do and get away with legally and illegally, check out the powerfully gripping documentaries "Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room," and "The Corporation."
As Tyree's (DJ Drama's) sister and as a radical Black feminist lesbian social activist, I am beyond outraged at how the RIAA handled/orchestrated the raid. If he or anyone in the Aphilliates camp didn't follow the directions of the agents, asked the 'wrong' questions,'or made the 'wrong' move during the raid, he and/or his cohorts could've been murdered in a twinkling of an eye. And for what? Selling mixtapes, which feature artist sanctioned original music?
The RIAA should be held accountable for their actions. They need to know that their violent response to addressing their accusations of racketeering was unacceptable.
There was (and is) no covert operation going on with the business of the Aphilliates; and yet the Aphilliates were treated as if they were public enemy number one.
I am explicitly clear that the music entertainment power structure has a very serious problem with people of Color making profits, on their terms, off a multi-billon dollar international industry hiphop that they created.
I am also clear that since the founding of Ameri-KKK-a, this type of state sanctioned racist and sexist treatment towards men and women of Color happens every single minute of every single day. Unfounded police raids are nothing new to countless communities of Color across this country.
So while we debate and discuss the legalities of mixtapes and the long term impact of what the January 16, 2007 raid of the Aphiliates studio will mean, we must not ever forget that innocent people were terrorized and incarcerated in the name of protecting the Recording Industry Association of America.
Not really:
1. The rates DJ Drama is able to command are anomalous; very few, if any, other mixtape DJs are getting money like him;
2. It's still a lot less than what record labels would sink into other forms of promotion--like filming a big budget video;
3. It truly is peanuts compared to what independant promoters were getting during the seventies and eighties;
4. Unlike independant promoters, mixtape DJs actually provide a legitimate service
Good points. I have no idea what Drama or other DJs get paid. Is it public knowledge or speculation. I was going to call out to strut djs who do these, but they may be lying low right now. Whatever it is I'm sure you are right it is far less than what Indepenent promoters were doing. But as the above articles suggest the majors may still be afraid of djs power. I understand that is biting the hand that feeds, but it also RIAA (majors) MO.
I like your point about actually providing a service.
No, not really--we know a lot of the specifics. We know that what he was doing was technically illegal--it would be artistically and economically prohibitive to do it legally. We also know that he did it with the cooperation and the monetary support of the major labels. And we know that they derived significant benefit from it. Please be serious.
Besides a 2 minute clip from Fox, what reliable source of information you have about this legal case ? All I see is speculation and opinion. We want FACTS !
Why don't you reread what I posted?
None of it is dependant on FOX's coverage--it's all information that's generally available to anyone that pays attention to the music industry, and it's all indisputable.
Who, specifically, filed the complaint against him doesn't particularly matter in the bigger picture.
Well, there are a few people who post here that would know definitively, but I doubt that they would put it out there.
My guess is that he can get up to 50K to do a tape--but that's just a guess.
He's also pretty unique in that regard. No other mixtape DJ has managed to brand themselves so effectively, such that it is generally believed that he can break an artist--or at least that his imprimatur on your street album greatly increases your official projects chances of success. It undoubtedly helps, but all of the artists who are regarded as major Gangsta Grillz success stories--Lil Wayne, T.I. and Jeezy--all had a lot of other things going for them. The former two both had already had substantial success with mixtapes and building a street buzz before they connected with Drama. And then there are those artists whose entire promotional budget seems to have gone towards a Gangsta Grillz tape, who you never really hear from again.
???The only shit I have a problem with is the motherfuckers who call me a culture vulture. I want to smack the shit out of those motherfuckers. If you only knew what I had to do to get where I'm at, how dare you call me that!???
Real talk, it is hard for some to wrap their head around the fact a white-looking dude from Philly who first made a name for himself spinning Erykah Badu and Common records at poetry nights is now the biggest DJ in the South's trap-hop movement. How did a cat who toured in the 90s as Bahamadia's DJ end up being TI's right hand man?
Tyree Cinque Simmons grew up in two of the shittiest neighborhoods in Philadelphia. His mom, a white schoolteacher, lived in The Hollow in Germantown, while his dad, a black political activist, lived across town in The Bottom in West Philly. Inspired by Jazzy Jeff, Miz and Ghetto (he also cites the DJ scenes in Juice), Drama caught the DJ bug when he was a freshman at Central High, spending his lunch money on 12" singles at Philly's infamous Armand's Records until his crate was full enough to spin house parties.
By the time he was an undergraduate in Clark Atlanta University's Mass Communications department, Drama had his mixtape hustle down to a science and quickly made a name for himself rocking campus parties and DJing at the aforementioned poetry nights. ???I would do a college party where I was DJing for a strictly Down South crowd, then I would go over on a Wednesday and DJ at a poetry reading and play a lot of Erykah, lot of Blackstar. That's what a lot of people who know me for Gangsta Grillz have confused about me, 'Dram was soul DJ and then he just went over to being a gangster.' The thing about me is I've always been versatile. I mean you're a fucking DJ, every DJ does it, for real for real. You know your crowd. I did weddings, I did house parties - whatever you have to do to get ahead, you do. Coming from Philly, our musical background is so deep and we have so much range. I knew my music so I could play for any crowd.???
Fast forward to the present, and Drama is far and away the mixtape king of the South if not the entire country. On top of the Gangsta Grillz series, he has individual artist tapes with Young Jeezy (Trap or Die, Can't Ban the Snowman), Lil Wayne (Dedication 1 & 2), Pharell (In My Mind), TI (The Leak), Lil Brother (Separate But Equal), and nearly every other major name in the south. He and his Aphillyates crew have a radio show on Shade 45 and another on 107.9 in Atlanta, and most recently signed a label deal with Asylum, where they will release their Gangsta Grillz album. Of course when you're on top, the haters line up to take shots, most prominently in the comments section of Drama's highly entertaining, much maligned blog on the XXL website. ???You have to read [the negative comments] because it's there whether you look at it or not. It's a good balance to MySpace, because MySpace is just like head all day.???
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070130/091806.shtml
Mix-Tape SWAT Raid Based On Non-Copyright State Copyright Law
from the your-tax-dollars-at-work dept
You might remember the story from a few weeks ago about how the RIAA had a SWAT team raid an Atlanta hip-hop mix-tape producer. The situation surrounding the raid -- in particular how the RIAA gets a public law-enforcement SWAT team to do its dirty work -- was already quite murky, but as the EFF's Fred von Lohmann notes, things aren't getting any clearer. While the mainstream media interest in the case has waned, some bloggers have stayed on top of the story, pointing out that this is not a copyright case. The SWAT team was from local authorities, not federal agents who enforce copyright law, because the DJs aren't charged with breaking copyright laws. Instead, they're being hit with state racketeering charges, with the apparent underlying law Georgia's "true names" statute. These sorts of laws were pushed through state legislatures by entertainment industry lobbyists, and require audiovisual recordings to carry the real name of their producer -- basically giving the RIAA and MPAA a way to get local cops to bust vendors selling pirated material, without having to go to the trouble of involving federal authorities.
Things start to get a little shifty with these true names laws, as there's some question as to whether or not they illegally pre-empt federal copyright laws. The analoghole blog has done a pretty great job of delving into this issue, noting that the Georgia law's attempt to make the distribution of unauthorized audiovisual works illegal would certainly appear to step on the toes of federal laws. The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that it does not, while a similar law in California also stood up to a legal challenge. It seems like the effort has been made to really make an end run around copyright law, as the Georgia law says that owners of the "master copy" of a recording determine what's authorized and unauthorized distribution -- not the copyright holder, meaning even if an artist holds the copyright to their music, but their record label owns the master tapes, they're not the ones making the call. While the law, and this case, isn't very clear, one thing is: the RIAA has again used the legislative system and public law enforcement as a servant to protect its outdated business model. While there's enough question surrounding these true names laws to warrant further examination of them by a higher court, we're once again left wondering why state legislators and police have seen fit to do the entertainment industry's dirty work.