Free Culture @ NYU

When Being A DJ Becomes Illegal

Monday, 01.22.2007  –  Category: News

First there was the breathless and incompetent FOX news report; facts were sketchy, but it seemed like a DJ was arrested for producing “illegal” CDs.

Then the NYTimes clarified, the CDs weren’t counterfeit, or pirated, but they were mixtapes:

The [RIAA] makes no distinction between counterfeit CDs and unlicensed compilations like those that DJ Drama is known for. So the police confiscated 81,000 discs, four vehicles, recording gear, and “other assets that are proceeds of a pattern of illegal activity,”

…

The compilations produced by DJ Drama and his protégés are known as mixtapes, though they appear on CDs, not cassettes. Mixtapes have become a vital part of the hip-hop world.

It turns out that not everyone in the music business thinks mixtapes are so crazy. Today, the NYTimes published another article on the DJ Drama drama (how could I resist?) with some indications that most labels depend on mixtapes to promote music:

Atlantic Records, for one, hired the mixtape D.J. known as Sickamore as a talent scout and had signed DJ Drama, to its artist roster with plans to release an authorized mixtape-style album this year. Def Jam, Columbia and other big labels have released such CDs in the past.

…

The labels’ reliance on the D.J.’s is complicated further by the fact that many of the top mixtape creators also double as radio D.J.’s on major rap stations. Many label executives acknowledge that when they write checks to certain D.J.’s to produce a mix CD for an artist, there is often an expectation that the D.J. will play the artist’s music on the air — an arrangement that recalls the industry’s recent radio corruption scandals involving illicit pay-for-play, or payola.

The bust will also do quite a lot to raise DJ Drama’s profile in the hip hop world. Maybe hip-hop artists should start packing illegal mixtapes rather than actual heat?

Anyway, download some DJ Drama mixtapes here or here.