Thread by @questlove

I get the sentiment of the story but it’s also slanted: latimes.com/entertainment-… it’s making it like Daft Punk just robbed a homeless musician for naught. It also reinforces the stereotype that sampling isn’t an art or this pillage act in which acts don’t pay to sample

The real culprit in the sampling controversy always lies with the invisible middlemen who acquire (sometimes legally) dormant catalogues that are up for grabs. Those who operate this way are also super litigious—-they will cop a grip of songs (all those local mom & pop labels)

Sometimes make compilations & charging crazy prices for use (one is so notorious he once tried to sue me for calling him out on acquiring black publishing songs that get sampled & suing for millions in an interview)

A cat like Michael Jackson actually does right by his acquirements by purchasing songs from publishing houses and returning them to their rightful owner (Little Richard, Sly—-stop crying about the Beatles yall at the time they had a chance to purchase & scoffed & decided against)

Of course “We purchased we have a right to” is the shield that will be used. The real answer is “if a song gets written then one shouldn’t have to re-register songs every 30 years” like come 2028 Riq & I will have to reregister our songs to keep them. If we don’t? Up for grabs

Also the problem, the system is set up for you to use your pub as a quick cash solution. Many a hittin rapper from the 90s had hard decisions to make last year w no income. One of the things you can opt to do is sell your catalog—-like if I had a nice hit in the mid 90s

(Hypothetically) if I was Keith Murray & “Most Beautiful” “Get Lifted” “The Rhyme” (songs that already are giving the lions share of their pub to other people (Isleys/KC/Frankie Bev) were up for grabs, someone might make an offer for 2-3 million which seems nice now. You license

a deal, sell your pub. Get your 2-3 mil which is a bandaid over a bullet wound. Then the owner can license to whomever. Great example is “Skinny Boys Are Back” from 86 aka the theme to Workaholics show. Thinking “we had a good run” you sell your song for say 100k...

next thing you know someone licenses that song to commercials/tv themes—-it was the jawn in 86, 3 years ago when i was spinning it? Kids went crazy cause they knew it as the theme. Skinny Boys aren’t getting a dime cause they sold it already thinking “it’s dead in the water”

There is many a rabbit hole to uncover. In an ideal world there should be a universal flat rate established (now it’s crazy: Led Zeppelin is notorious for overcharging—strange considering they “sampled” from many a black blues singer w no credit) George Clinton undercharged

knowing more people will come to him for music, keep his legacy alive & now generations of people are Pfunkateers whether they knew Flashlight from school in 77, or Salt & Pepa using it in the 80s, or Digital Underground in the 90s—-ripple FX. George makes his $ from concerts

this says nothing of the musicians not seeing a dime. Right now you pay the person who wrote the song & the label from which the song is being taken: so if JB covered a funky version of “The Look Of Love” you gotta negotiate w Bacharach & David (writers) & Polygram (label)

Meanwhile James’ musicians aren’t being helped (unless they are in the AFM union, a whole nother mess of a situation) & technically their interpretation of the song is why you’re using it. Which then forces producers (most not that skilled in musicality) to make half baked songs

A whole generation of folk my age wondering why (said rap banger from 2020 doesn’t hit their gut the way blah blah from 1995 felt) in closing I wish this was the modus operandi:

-flat sampling rate writer of song
-I guess a flat tax for label 🙄
-cut a percentage for non AFM cats (Clyde Stubblefield whose #FunkyDrummer STILL gets chopped) should have a pieces)
—this keeps those who are creative with sampling in business. This also generates interest in

those who are getting sampled: you become a fan, you cop more of their music, and pass it on. Leading back to the Daft Punk story—-I wanna know what circumstances occurred that caused the writer of the song to no longer have his publishing. THAT is the story.

aight rant over.