Wallace’s rhymes may embrace sinister themes, touching on violence and poverty, but their juxtaposing with pop-savvy arrangements proved to be a terrific draw. His songs are to the point, hitting hard – and yet, ‘Ready To Die’ doesn’t lack accessibility. Autobiographical of impression, the album chronicles its maker’s criminal past, his drug-dealing at the age of 12, with Biggie’s sleek but loose flow a perfect vehicle for digressive lyricism and bold storytelling. ‘Ready To Die’ is amongst this crop of rare collections, as compelling today as it ever was. Years have taken their toll on many 1990s rap releases, but the strongest have survived intact, unblemished. The album played a pivotal role in revitalising the East Coast rap scene, instantly assuming a place beside the likes of Nas’s ‘Illmatic’ ( Spotlight feature) and Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)’ as a classic of the time – and further evidence that the Big Apple’s best had progressed substantially from the days of Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa.
And while it’s true that albums by N.W.A and fellow Californian rappers did shift perceptions of what rap was about, filtering gangsta sounds through the spectrum of samples and scratches, the East wasn’t about to sit back and see their art wholly appropriated by rival factions.Ĭome September (13 th) 1994, New York had its trump card: ‘Ready To Die’, the debut album from a young Brooklyn MC by the name of Christopher Wallace, better known to a growing fanbase as The Notorious B.I.G., AKA Biggie Smalls or simply Biggie. Dre and his associated acolytes, might have marked a significant sea change for the evolving genre and its culture. Last week, that was followed by another legal threat, precipitating the preemptive lawsuit.Rap’s early 1990s exodus from its home turf of the south Bronx, where hip-hop was founded in the mid-1970s, to the West Coast and its summertime G-funk sounds, pioneered by Dr. The impetus behind the lawsuit appears to be a February letter from the defendant’s lawyer to Universal, EMI, BMI and ASCAP demanding a “hold” be placed on royalties. The plaintiff hired an expert who found limited use of “Can’t Say Enough” and was confident that case law would support the position that the use was non-infringing. At a couple of points during this time, Hutson’s reps are said to have claimed 50 percent ownership in the Biggie song as well as 50 percent of income attributable to it. Over the following 18 months, the parties began negotiating with each other. Skip ahead 18 years, when Bad Boy Records was sent notice of an alleged infringement. The low-end frequencies were removed, and the high-end frequencies were chopped into short and bass tones. On “The What,” the sample is said to have been transposed to match an E-flat minor pitch. Harvey was the producer, and the lawsuit says he sampled the final 1.9 seconds of “fade-out” from the defendant’s song - a faint “wah-wah” sound which oscillated between high and low frequencies. (known as Easy Mo Bee) and Clifford Smith (known as Method Man). In 1989, the song was returned by Mayfield to Hutson.Īs for “The What,” it was written in 1994 by Biggie, Osten Harvey Jr. Finally, Hutson is being charged with copyright misuse for threatening legal action with alleged knowledge of no real infringement.Īccording to the complaint, filed Monday in California federal court, the “Can’t Say Enough” sound recording was originally published in 1974 by a record company owned by musician Curtis Mayfield. Further, any claims to the contrary are argued to be barred as untimely. estate says that the sample is de minimis and fair use as only “two nonsequential tones” were used, adapted, modified and supplemented. Nevertheless, against alleged threats by Hutson’s publishing company, the B.I.G. In this case, the plaintiff admits sampling the song.
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