Lil Wayne Being Sued for Use of a Sample

Hip-hop is a genre of music that has done a lot of borrowing throughout its history. When I say borrowing, I mean borrowing other artist's lines and hooks, as well as their music. So it is no surprise that Lil Wayne is involved with a federal lawsuit over the use of a non-cleared musical sample. Some of the best beats ever made in hip hop include samples of other music, and with the internet becoming more popular among hip hop producers, non-cleared sampling is just getting worse.

In the federal lawsuit filed against Lil Wayne it claims that Cash Money records which is Lil Wayne's record label failed to negotiate a license to use Karma Ann Swanepoel's "Once." Apparently Lil Wayne used a sample of the song in his song "I Feel Like Dying." Many of you probably have never heard the song due to the fact that it's not on his Carter III album. The song was a download on Lil Wayne's web site. In the suit, the allegation is that millions of people downloaded "I Feel Like Dying" before they were able to successfully negotiate a license.

Using someone else's copyrighted music or voice (sampling) in music for your own song without permission is obviously called copyright infringement which is what Lil Wayne is being sued for. Copyright infringement has been going on in hip hop for decades but mostly only in the underground scene. It seems as though most musical copyright owners don't pay attention to it until someone who has made it and is making a lot of money does it. There are web sites that were built for producers to be able to showcase their work. The first web site that comes to mind of this kind is soundclick.

Soundclick is loaded heavily with producers that use the MPC to compose their beats. The MPC is a very popular piece of equipment amongst producers in the hip-hop industry and is actually preferred across the board. The MPC is obviously a sampler. It is one of the more user-friendly pieces of equipment out there which is one of the main reasons why so many hip hop producers use it.

Most of the rap beats you hear on the radio and otherwise are all put together on one of these, and has pretty much made copyright infringement or rather sampling a song without permission, a very common thing. Using a sample for a beat seems like its more trouble than not for the simple fact that you have to negotiate a license to use the sample in the first place. So if you don't want any legal problems with copyright owners make sure you get a license to use the material or just don't use samples in your beats at all.