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Jun
25
WTF: J. Dilla’s Estate Threatened By Bootleggers Moving His Beat CD’s
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Found a very interesting article over at HipHopDX about the financial situation J. Dilla’s estate is in due to the overwhelming bootlegging of his infamous beat tapes/cd’s that’s been going on since he passed. For all the true Dilla heads this is a MUST READ!
When Fan-Tas-Tic Vol. 1 was released in 1996, few people familiar with the fickle nature of the music industry could have predicted the impact it would make. Twelve years later, the album serves as a major milestone in the legacy of one of Hip Hop’s most heralded producers, J Dilla. After his death in 2006, the man born James Yancey left behind a catalogue which cemented him in the pantheon of great producers. He also left behind what the executor of estate says is a “six-figure IRS debt and few tangible assets.” While the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Dilla’s death are not unique to the Hip Hop world, the mounting problems trying to fix them are.
“The problem is that Dilla was friendly with a lot of people,” Arthur Erk tells LA Weekly. Erk, who serves as the executor of Dilla’s estate, says copyright infringement is the number one threat to the estate. “There have been dozens of bootleg situations we’ve had to expend estate cash on to shut stuff down. If we don’t, it cheapens the value of his brand. We’re trying to protect his legacy and his heirs.”
One of the projects Erk is in mediation on is the recently released Dillagence . The mixtape was put together by Mick Boogie and Busta Rhymes, who was an early and ardent Dilla supporter. The mixtape even features an intro by Dilla’s mother Maureen Yancey . However, Erk asserts that projects such as Dillagence, and, more specifically, the selling of outright bootlegs of unreleased Dilla material create the problem of untraceable assets. Additionally, bootlegs drain cash from the estate which would be better served elsewhere.
“We’re not sure how many Dilla beats are floating around,” says Dilla’s former lawyer Micheline Levine. “It’s been an absolute nightmare. and I have been working without fees, and neither of us dreamed that copyright infringement would be so extensive and harmful to the estate. We’re trying to get the message out to third parties, who may in some convoluted way think they’re helping out the heirs but are really depriving them of income.”
Read the rest of this article over at HipHopDX!
Exactly.
Jun
20
WTF: Jewish Defense League Protest Freshjive
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Freshjive recently released a few shirts with Yasser Arafat and Palestinian children holding AK-47’s and the shirts have not been deemed quite controversial. Freshjive founder, Rick Klotz, who is Jewish himself is definitely receiving a lot of angry letters about the new releases and the Jewish Defense League headed down to the store on Fairfax (which is predominately a Jewish community) to let shoppers and passers by know how they feel about the new shirts, and it ain’t pretty.
Shouts to Bobby Hundreds for getting close to the battlefield.
Exactly.
Jun
18
WTF: M.I.A. Announced Retirement?
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Now I’d be lying to you if I said this news saddens me, but apparently it saddens a lot of people. I personally never got into her music so I don’t understand her fanbase’s sentiments. What I will acknowledge is that she has played a big contribution towards changing what mainstream music is considered because with the majors on the decline, the Indie scene is really reshaping the industry. As much flack as the Hipster scene gets, it has played a key role in giving control somewhat back to the artist. So, with that said, thanx M.I.A., and hopefully you won’t retire….here’s the details:
British singer M.I.A. announced a surprising news to her fans as in her concert at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on Friday, June 13, she hinted her retirement. The singer mentioned her statements about three times during her performance at the concert saying, “This is my last show.”
Making her retirement statements clearer, on one occasion during her set after saying “this is my last show”, she also added, “and I’m glad that I’m spending it with all my hippies!”. Beside announcing the surprising decision at the concert, M.I.A. even let some of her fans, who broke through the barricades and climbed on the stage, to stay with her from the midway of the event until most of her songs.
At the end of the concert after closing her performance by singing her hit “Paper Planes”, the singer once again said her farewell to her fans stating, “Thanks for coming to my last gig.” Despite hinting out a possible retirement it is still not clear whether she would only stop doing concerts or really departing from the music scene.
Before announcing the shocking news, previously M.I.A. has also disappointed her fans after she decided to cancel her European tour, which supposedly started on June 9. The singer claims that the cancellation was triggered by her condition, stating that she was too exhausted to do the tour.
Exactly: AceShowBiz.com
Jun
17
WTF: Laterian Smith Strikes Again
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So I got a message from Thurzday of U-N-I and he told me that hood star 7 year old Laterian Smith was involved in more hoodrat activities and back in the news again. I couldn’t believe it until he sent me the link….seems he beat up his grandmother in a Wal-Mart because she didn’t want to buy him any fried chicken. It made me giggle at first, but then I realized that this kid and countless others probably have the same problem. Pretty sad.
Exactly.
Jun
16
WTF: Boxer Sues Jay-Z For Stealing His Flow
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So THAT’S where Jay Z got that style from! What a relief, this whole time I thought he was just getting old.
Former heavyweight boxer Mitchell Rose has filed an $88 million dollar copyright lawsuit against Jay-Z in Brooklyn Federal Court, AlHipHop.com has learned.
According to Rose, he gave Jay-Z his demo tape on March 12, 2001, following a bout between William Joppy and Felix Trinidad.
He was shocked to discover that Jay-Z allegedly stole his style of rhyming, delivery and even certain lyrics.
“He took the style and the delivery,” Rose told AllHipHop.com. “He’s using it on the regular, now Lil’ Kim is using it. All I want is justice. Jay-Z knows what I am talking about.”
Rose, 39, is also a personal injury lawyer who wrote a book called Mike Tyson Tried To Kill My Daddy.
The former heavyweight boxer who is known for knocking out Eric “Butterbean” Esch, claims he met Jay-Z right after the Joppy-Trinidad fight and gave a demo to the rap superstar, who promised to listen to it.
Now I know there are quite a few of you who visit The Exactly who aren’t quite into hip hop as much as the rest of us, so for those that don’t know what flow they’re talking about you should check out the video below. It’s one of the best examples of the flow I can think of..
Exactly.
Jun
10
WTF: My Little Mixtape
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So I received a MySpace message today, and it read:
Are you still getting people together for the exactly mixtape? I have a singer who’s signed to universal motown whos single is about to drop this summer, he might be a good look for your mixtape. - Breezy Inc.
I then reply:
Who he’s signed to doesn’t matter at all
labels don’t mean anything these days
if hes dope hes dope. - Mr. Lee
Then she says: If he’s signed ur little mixtape might get more exposure
Fool - Breezy Inc.
Now, should I be slightly offended at the fact that she called our project “little”? Would YOU have been offended?
The Exactly Presents Your New Favorite (Little) Mixtape - Dropping July 22nd
Exactly.
May
27
Somebody slap this old hag…not only did she insinuate that Obama is in the same category as Osama, she laughed about it afterwards…on national television…but hey..whats new?
Terrible.
May
15
I was checking out the homeskillet Illseeds rumors section on AllHipHop.com and saw this ridiculousness.
Mike Norman, owner of Mulligan’s Food and Spirits in Marietta, Ga., is selling his Curious George T-shirt, but he’s started some ish for real. First, there is a furor over the shirts and people are boycotting him for his inferred racism. Second, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, who own the rights to Curious George, are thinking about suing him. They said in a statement that the T-shirt “offensive and utterly out of keeping with the values Curious George represents. We are monitoring the situation and weighing our options with respect to possible legal action.”
Bastard! Stop selling the shirts- OR ELSE!
Man, racism is the new cool thing to do. Read my editorial “They Live” for my thoughts on the DL racists.
I’m starting to think people are doing this for attention..or are people really that bold with their prejudices?
May
9
WTF: OKAYplayer Message Boards
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OKAY, now I’ve heard the term “hip hop is dead” but I didn’t really think much of it until I saw some of the things people decide to talk about on the Okayplayer message boards. While I was doing my daily check up on the OKAYplayer hip hop community I came across a message board post that I thought was both tacky and pointless. The title of the post was simply:
“fellas: if you HAD to have sex with one MALE Okayartist”
Now, I know hip hop is pretty boring right now. With all of the Lil Wayne mixtapes dropping and the so called “highly anticipated” albums that only deliver a lackluster and unsatisfying experience, I know it’s easy to lose interest in the happenings of the hip hop world. But damn…is there nothing better to talk about or speak on than THIS? SNAP OUT OF IT MAN! It’ll get better, I promise!! But for now, I just have to SMH in dismay.
Exactly.
May
8
WTF: Nick Cannon Married To Mariah Carey
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Now for anyone else I would say this is acceptable, but Nick Cannon was smashing Christina Milian at one point. Mariah getting kinda old school and she’s about to look it in a little bit. Damn, everybody trying to be Hov and B. In any case, congratulations.
Exactly.