What do you think about what happened to DJ Drama?

What do you think about what happened to DJ Drama getting gun on his and his boy's heads by the FEDS and the raid on his legitimate Aphilliaties mixtape distribution company? Not to mention his studio, which was left gutted.

How is see it is the state of the industry is such that at one point labels started frantically trying to reinvigorate their urban rosters by incorporating mixtapes, at the same time RIAA moved in on neighborhood retail stores and now they assualt the DJs themselves and illegally search, seize and shut-down legitimate companies.

By the way, these days many mixtapes are now out-selling proper releases. Nothing is coincidental.

This situation makes evident how the government in fact now controls every facet of corporate media. The price we pay for accepting income from the labels to do mixtapes is that we are now affiliated with the corporation. B.u.t. if a label's intent were to cut costs they would just fire DJs, not have their companies raided. This to me is not just the music industry exerting its control in desperation. This is a concerted sting on local business and our independent distribution networks (non-governmental organizations). Whatever does not fall under their control is systematically neutralized.

You wanna know what i think about this? ill tell you what i think.

I think that labels are pissed off that DJ Drama and Don Cannon's mixtapes where out selling the labels releases featureing that labels artist. what bullshit!

so now the labels are pissed, but what about the RIAA? well i bet dollars to doughnuts Drama and Cannons mixtapes and label had nothing to do with the RIAA, not a member and i cant blame them. The RIAA are a bunch of wankers who try and dictate whats good for an industry thats moving ahead faster then they are. The RIAA have become DINOSUARS!! and they are scared.

So now that the RIAA are pissed off and scared, and the label is upset they arent selling like the mixtapes are, now what?? well lets shut them down.

Since the RIAA is all buddy buddy with god knows who in the US goverment, they could have just about anything staged for the right amount of money.

So when you can have a goverment agency raid a legit business, and charge the owner with RICO, then you have sent a message to others like him. Well RICO is ment for mobsters not a DJ who sells mixtapes.

This is all a staged game to try and shift power back to the RIAA and the labels, its a shame that DJ Drama and DJ Don Cannon had to be the examples. But its only because they where makng the money and everyone knows about them, so SLAM them and everyones ear prick up and listen.

BUT the thing to remember is that the releases the label did put out and sold some copys of, even at low numbers, own some of that to the mixtape game. People buy mixtapes, becuase we like them, they break new artists and all that. Now another bet i would make is, that the artists on thses labels that sold some records, probably appered on a mixtape or 2 before there record dropped.

Rob

thefirehooligan wrote:Since the RIAA is all buddy buddy with god knows who in the US goverment, they could have just about anything staged for the right amount of money.

So when you can have a goverment agency raid a legit business, and charge the owner with RICO, then you have sent a message to others like him. Well RICO is ment for mobsters not a DJ who sells mixtapes.

well legally the RIAA has every right to raid them and shut them down. they didn't have to stage anything. of course in the hip hop game, everyone knows mixtapes are legit, but legally it isn't a legit business. copyright infringement is huge in mixtapes. not to mention these artists appearing on them are usually under record contracts with labels, legally preventing them from putting out material without the label.

thefirehooligan wrote:This is all a staged game to try and shift power back to the RIAA and the labels, its a shame that DJ Drama and DJ Don Cannon had to be the examples. But its only because they where makng the money and everyone knows about them, so SLAM them and everyones ear prick up and listen.

I completely agree. The RIAA has been chasing its tail lately with suing music downloaders and P2P networks and now this. They need to start focusing on fixing their broken business model to adapt to the future, but instead they're too busy clinging onto their past monopoly on music sales. Unfortunately, Drama and Cannon have been made into examples, like a threat to the rest of the mixtape industry. And legally, I believe the labels and RIAA have a very strong case against them, even with the RICO statutes.

the catch is if the mixtape industry folds the (major) hip hop industry will have little to stand on. major labels have become so bad at breaking new artists they have to depend on the mixtape newtwork to it for them. Labels are lazy now, they dont wanna develop any artist, they just want artists who already have followings or a subsidiary who will do it for them. It's a case of old money loosing it's footing to new money ventures.

another thing the're trying to do is limit how long an artist can own his own publishing? WTF? these are a bunch of good ole boys trying to run sh*t. too late, we off the plantation now baby! one

I know this thread is getting dated but I just got here and thought it was real interesting....just to add my 2 cents....If you can highjack the white house you can do just about anything you want (not as flashy as Michael Corleone's comment on getting to Roth)...we all see how corporate interest and government issues work together they're all the same people cutting deals on 2 kinds of bills....its a Corporate Intelligence Program...called Secret Underground Corporate Kops...S.U.C.K...their motto is "We S.U.C.K. on everything"