DJ WARRIOR MENTIONED IN THE BOSTON HERALD

[HIPHOPWEST.COM]

DJ WARRIOR MENTIONED IN THE BOSTON HERALD
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/musicNews/view.bg?articleid=177880&format=text

Hip-hop mixtapes get a bad rap
By Chris Faraone
Friday, January 19, 2007

When it comes to developing street buzz, hip-hop artists don’t look to record companies for help. Instead, they turn to DJs such as Atlanta’s DJ Drama, whose “Gangsta Grillz” mixtape series has been crucial to the success of rappers such as Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne and T.I.

    Mixtapes usually feature unreleased and often unlicensed material coveted by fans. But since the mixtapes provide free guerrilla marketing, record executives generally ignore copyright infringement issues associated with them. But the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) isn’t turning a blind eye. With help from Georgia authorities, RIAA officials raided DJ Drama’s Atlanta offices on Tuesday, seizing 81,000 discs, production equipment, four vehicles and other property that was deemed related to his mixtape business.

    Mixtapes - which despite their name are actually CD compilations - have served as the most powerful underground marketing tool for major record companies for more than a decade. It’s not uncommon for labels to test market appeal by leaking tracks to well-known mixtape DJs such as New York’s DJ Clue, Los Angeles’ DJ Warrior and Drama, who is renowned for popularizing Southern rap before it found big-label success.

    But with Drama (real name Tyree Simmons) facing felony Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization charges, the steady flow of raw beats and rhymes that spills onto American streets via mixtapes will likely be affected.

    Statik Selektah, a Boston-bred, Bronx-based mixtape DJ who recently released CDs with Nas and Q-Tip, said the RIAA is acting against its own interests. He believes taking legal action against mixtape DJs will further damage a music industry already reeling from flagging CD sales.

    “The RIAA is acting ignorantly,” Selektah said yesterday. “Someone like Drama develops brands and careers. Look at T.I. He was the biggest-selling rap artist of 2006. He’d be selling 200,000 copies without the mixtape support. The RIAA benefits, but they don’t take the time to figure that out.”

    The raid on the office of Drama, who’s set to make his debut on Atlantic Records later this year, is only the latest example of anti-rap hysteria in Atlanta. Last October, authorities there seized more than $14 million in CDs and assets from an illegal retail operation.

    According to Selektah, police and RIAA officials neglect to differentiate between original mixtapes, which are sold for profit but also function as marketing tools, and bootleg reproductions of commercial CDs.

    “With all the time the RIAA puts into catching who they think the bad guys are,” Selektah said, “they don’t take the time to understand the difference between promotional mixtapes and counterfeit CDs. This is different than someone selling a burned copy of Jay-Z’s new CD on the street.”

    If label executives refuse to stand up to RIAA lawyers, who are supposed to be working for them, then it’s possible that mixtape kingpins such as Drama will be forced to move their operations further underground. As of now, mixtapes can be easily purchased at independent record stores, on Web sites such as MixUnit.com and even on iTunes.

    While their actions suggest otherwise, it’s almost unfathomable that RIAA officials are unaware of the benefits mixtapes provide to record companies. Yet the RIAA appears to believe it can boost CD sales and aid the ailing record industry by stifling the sale of mixtapes.

    In any case, considering the organization’s track record, its campaign against mixtapes is likely to end the same as its 2004 crusade against concertgoers bringing camera phones into live music venues: a failure.