“No, they stifle business. People think music and the music business are the same thing. Music is music and the music business’ prerequisite is music. I think that the perspective is ‘aw man we got caught,’ but the truth is we are so undereducated in the form of how to monetize our music and the idea that we’re making something out of nothing. [People think] that HipHop music requires jack to start with… Sampling on the business end falls heavily into exploitation.”
In order to discuss the artistic side of the music business, we talked to local rapper, BlackLiq. In our interview, we asked if he believed that copyright laws stifle his or other artists creativity. He simply replied “They stifle business. People think music and the music business are the same thing; they’re not. Music is music, and the music business’ prerequisite is music.” Regulations put on music are meant to control where the flow of money goes, but the laws are imposed on the artists because that’s where the focus of music is. If an artist really wants to use a sample, the laws and payments will not stop them. They will create, but not release which impacts the sales.
It’s important to remember that the music industry is two separate parts. It is split into the business side and the artistic side, but the business cannot exist without the music. What BlackLiq goes into is how that separation becomes blurred when it comes time to decide who gets paid.
He was able to comment on creativity and the art of sampling and also give a more detailed history of sampling and what it means to artists and give advice on techniques that he believes makes for a good production using samples. He characterized a good sample as “a fragrance, like the smell of coffee or the smell of a certain dish that only your family makes. A true HipHop sample in my opinion is taking the emotional content of that song and flipping that; it’s paying tribute in a lot of ways, but it’s also creating new emotions too.” So being able to do that has a lot to do with what justifies the use of a sample.
The creation of copyright laws are made to stifle the business end of the music industry. He talked about how these regulations were put in place to take money from the people who had it, and in the music industry, those people were never the artists. The people who had the money were the “executives and suits” involved in making the business of HipHop profitable. Sampling will always be used and the way that people sample will always evolve and in the future, we were both sure that artists would overcome any other obstacles and regulations that may be put in place, with no problem.
?: Content Warning! Some language used may be found offensive.
BlackLiq on the disconnect between artists and the flow of cash