NYT on Drama and Cannon

The New York Times ran an expose on the crew solidifying long held views that these DJ's actually have the blessing of the labels and are being paid by the labels to market their next hip hop album. The writer actually contacted me regarding this post. She contacted me saying she had already been writing bout the Aphilliates but with this new revelation wanted to contact the industry insider whose quote I posted up. I contacted my source but they were unwilling to cooperate because of possible repercussions. With further digging, Samantha was able to talk to the promotions director for Jive records, Ron Stewart

Mixtape D.J.’s have effectively absorbed many of the functions of an A&R department, the branch of a record label that traditionally discovers and develops new talent. Ron Stewart, a promotions coordinator at Jive Records, a subsidiary of Sony BMG Music, told me he prefers to test new artists out on mixtapes. “Budget permitting,” he said, “we’d do a few mixtapes with a few D.J.’s, because they have different audiences in different regions.” Labels prefer to use established mixtape D.J.’s like Drama, rather than produce promotional CDs themselves, Stewart said, because “the best D.J.’s have a better brand than the average label does.”

Although the deals are informal and often secret, labels typically pay a prominent D.J. like Drama $10,000 to $15,000 to produce a mixtape for an artist. The label’s representatives, Stewart explained, adopt what amounts to a don’t ask, don’t tell policy about the D.J.’s plans to sell the work; what the D.J. does with his copy of the master, Stewart said, “is his own business.”

Can someone inform the RIAA what the left hand is doing? The RIAA is supposed to represent the labels but has so far alienated consumers and has no idea what the constituents they represent really want to do. Clearly a job well done.

NYT:Hip-Hop Outlaw (Industry Version)

More on Drama and Cannon

First up, they're out on $100,00 bond. Drama was on ATL radio but didn't mention much about it and mostly just talked about his upcoming album. Over at Mixunit.com, mixtapes are gone. Reports from Idolator indicate you can still buy Drama mixtapes on iTunes. All is not lost yet.

HoustonSoReal breaks it down in three different ways

• One from Davey D and one from Drama's sister
• Hearsay and what not direct from the RIAA

As mentioned in the hearsay article above

• This could be a setup by BCD distribution who lost a court case to Drama the day before.
  

New York Times Weighs In

• With Arrest of DJ Drama, the Law Takes Aim at Mixtapes

Lil Wayne Responds

• Weezy says "Play the Game Fair"
• Why is Weezy throwing dude under a bus? I really can't figure him out at all. Does he have any idea what hes talking about? Weezy, you wouldn't have charted a million without Drama.
  
• Meanwhile DukeDaGod from Dipset is actually talking sense:
• "Why are [the RIAA and FBI] getting involved?" Duke asked. "Leave us alone. Let us make our hip-hop. Nobody is dying, nobody is killing nobody. It's just music being made. Everybody is gonna feel it whether you're on the radio, not on the radio. Even if you're a consumer, you gonna feel it, 'cause it's gonna be hard to find certain tapes. Certain people are not going to carry the mixtapes anymore because they know what could happen. It's so many people that wanna hear our stuff. We get e-mails from all over the world. They don't care about the RIAA, they wanna hear some Dipset, they wanna hear some Drama. So it's messed up for the whole world."

Finally one last thing to leave you with from someone who works in the industry for a major

not to make things worse... but...

I sadly have too much insight into this situation due to my job....

I can guarantee you Drama had rights to every song on those tapes....

the majors have departmetns dedicated to "mixshow" ya know, the whole hot 97 funkmaster flex or cipha sounds playing what they're "feelin" on the radio. that whole thing is orchestrated. just like radio spins

basically, there are local people in every city (I'm sure you DJs know them) who tap the "heavy hitter" djs and have them on lock... a "promotional team" so to speak. so the mixshow department at the major label will PAY a "promotional team" 10K or more to get a song on the streets... in reality, that money is being funnelled directly to DJs for ideal placement on a mix tape and to get the single played extra at the club.

Drama is taking the fall for the INDUSTRY. since payolla is illegal, all the majors will deny any involvement and say they just paid the promotional team. Drama takes the hit.

and when you clear a track, you need publishing AND master clearance

the publisher -- whoever owns the samples, rights to the song etc. AND
the master -- the artist -- they have to say its ok for you to use their voice/likeness

when a major puts a song on the streets, they have cleared it already (it sucks i do this on a daily basis and its like pulling fucking teeth).

its all tied up together and this dude got his hustle on and put on SO many people, and do you think the majors are going to expose their ways and show that their "street cred" is just paid off? HA. theyre gonna let him fall.

the RIAA sucks and has this delusional ideal that they can "clean up" the industry. Taking down someone who is trying to get music out there is NOT the way to do it. Exposing the way things are TRULY done is. too bad there are so many multi million dollar majors with loobyists and shit making sure they dont get touched by the law.

i am yet again disgusted by the machine that pays me. and sadly every day learn more and more that my dream of "changing the industry" was incredibly naieve.

on a more refreshing note -- i met lil flip today and he actually went outside, climbed up a pole and put up his own posters. kinda funny watching his bling swing around in the freezing cold, but i thought y'all would appreciate that image.

More updates when I find out.

Free Drama & Cannon

Holler at the PR dude responsible for the innate ramblings in the below article. Matthew Kilgo MKilgo@RIAA.com

Edit: Here is a link to the Fox news report where you can see Mr. Kilgo himself.

Aphiliates Music Group Raided

The Aphiliates Music Group was raided yesterday afternoon at the behest of the RIAA. The Fulton County SWAT team and Clayton County Police brought all 17 employees in for questioning on warrants to arrest DJ Drama and Don Cannon who were among the 17. Drama and Cannon are being held for racketeering without bond.
From the RIAA:

"These guys are actively advertising online. They've got a website that they're advertising from, that's where you place your orders and that's how the orders are shipped out," Matthew Kilgo of the RIAA told local reporters. "Statistics also show that you can make up to a 90% profit just off the resale of counterfeit CDs. So there's huge money to be made in it, and there's no stigma attached to purchasing it."

Resale of counterfeit CDs? Huh? Mixtapes are a promotional tool that the labels have been falling over themselves for. See also Papoose, Young Jeezy etc. It seems as though the Gangsta Grillz series apparently got too big and popular for its own good. Yet still, the RIAA PR story was that they were reselling counterfeit CDs. These CDs are of course full of tracks from the labels, partially funded by the labels and the labels are in turn funding the RIAA. It is exactly instances like this where people don't care about downloading music for free.
DJ Drama was born and raised in Philadelphia and later moved to Atlanta where he went to college at Clark Atlanta University.
Heres a couple Cannon joints from his MySpace jumpoff

• Young Jeezy - Mr. 175
• Lil Scrappy - Get Right
• Willie the Kid - Get You a Gun

Full Story, DJ Drama, The Aphilliates (mixtapes section taken down)