Full disclosure: Hip-Hop is not my preferred genre.
That being said, I am insensed by this display. Imagine this same "intervention" on the part of the RIAA amid the burgeoning country music underground or the seedy pirates recreating overtures heard performed by the Cinicinati Philharmonic. A SWAT team? "Sometimes those black musicians have guns." I don't mean to sound naive about the content of the music or persona of the musicians being marketed in this niche, but I cannot help but rankle at the over-use of force in an urban black community. And at the expectation that because someone is in the hip-hop industry they would have "contraband in their studio."
Universalizable maxim du jour: Protect artists - Make a living with your art.
A LIVING, not a killing. If after reading this story anyone believes the RIAA is trying to protect the integrity of artists and not profits for distributors, I would be surprised. The telling datum is that the idea that mixers might generate profits in "legitimate" markets has not been lost on some decision makers. The idea that mixers are making "too much profit" is really what is at issue. I don't know how much is sufficient and how much is excessive, but it occurs to me in this article that the standard for both is different for urban black men than sub-urban white men.
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That being said, I am insensed by this display. Imagine this same "intervention" on the part of the RIAA amid the burgeoning country music underground or the seedy pirates recreating overtures heard performed by the Cinicinati Philharmonic. A SWAT team? "Sometimes those black musicians have guns." I don't mean to sound naive about the content of the music or persona of the musicians being marketed in this niche, but I cannot help but rankle at the over-use of force in an urban black community. And at the expectation that because someone is in the hip-hop industry they would have "contraband in their studio."
Universalizable maxim du jour: Protect artists - Make a living with your art.
A LIVING, not a killing. If after reading this story anyone believes the RIAA is trying to protect the integrity of artists and not profits for distributors, I would be surprised. The telling datum is that the idea that mixers might generate profits in "legitimate" markets has not been lost on some decision makers. The idea that mixers are making "too much profit" is really what is at issue. I don't know how much is sufficient and how much is excessive, but it occurs to me in this article that the standard for both is different for urban black men than sub-urban white men.