Collector’s Item, or Copyright Infringement?
Psst! Hey, kid! Want to buy the master tapes to an indie-rock classic?
CD Presents, the recently revived San Francisco-based independent label best known for the Rat Music For Rat People compilation albums, started 2010 by reissuing that compilation series as well as remastering several other albums in their back catalog and remixing full concert recordings of now-legendary punk bands that the early Rat Music albums were derived from. As the year winds down, the label put up a rather curious item for auction through their eBay account this afternoon: the master tapes to Billy Bragg’s second album Brewing Up With Billy Bragg.
So says their description on the webpage in question (written by CD Presents label head David Ferguson):
My record label, CD Presents, Ltd., proudly released Billy Bragg’s 1st 2 albums for the USA in 1985. These are the 2 [A & B sides] original analog production copies of the Master recording for USA release created in 1984. These recording tapes are only sold as “collectibles” and do not come with any “intellectual property rights.” Please note the Bill of Sale/Agreement included in the picture section. That document must be signed and returned to me via scanned email before I can ship your purchase. I can email you a signing/printout attachment upon sale.
This may be the case, but by all rights, CD Presents basically lost their rights to distribute this album and its predecessor, Life’s A Riot with Spy vs. Spy, when Billy Bragg signed with Elektra/WEA a few years later. Those rights have long since transferred back to Mr. Bragg, who currently licenses them to other indie labels (Yep Roc here in the US, for one).
Arianna “Ari Up” Forster of The Slits (1962-2010)
John Lydon’s website announced this evening that his stepdaughter Arianna, better known as Ari Up, lead singer of the revered post-punk band The Slits (responsible for the classic 1979 album Cut), passed away at age 48 after a serious illness.
TGML sends its condolences to John and Nora Lydon and their family and fans.
REVIEW: YOUNG JEEZY “The Last Laugh”
YOUNG JEEZY
The Last Laugh
(CTE)
Available as a free download (see links below)
I haven’t written much about hip-hop on this blog or it’s predecessor. In fact, probably the only times I ever mentioned it were when I put the Game’s second album in the first year-end Top 10 at MotokoAoyama.com in 2006, and earlier this year when I gave a nice review to Lil Wayne’s rock effort Rebirth. So how is it that one of these times, I end up writing about what is basically a mixtape?
Well, what happened there is simple. One of my personal favorites in the genre in recent years happens to be Young Jeezy, for the sound of his voice, his punchlines, and his presentation, especially when he’s got solid backing tracks and production behind him. Like a lot of fans, I am anticipating the release of his fourth album, TM103 – short for “Thug Motivation 103” (The first two Thug Motivation albums were, of course, his first two major label releases, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 and my personal favorite, The Inspiration, which carried “Thug Motivation 102” as a semi-official subtitle. His third album, The Recession, didn’t carry a similar subtitle but did have his pro-Obama salute “My President”.)
There’s just one problem – it hasn’t come out yet. We’ve gotten three advance singles (“Lose My Mind”, “All White Everything” and “Jizzle”) and two promotional mixtapes (Trap Or Die II: By Any Means Necessary and 1000 Grams Vol. 1) over the past summer, but the recently proposed release date for TM103, which was last Tuesday, came and went. Instead of the album and in addition to the singles and mixtapes, we’ve gotten a lot of chatter – talk of Jeezy having business disputes with Def Jam and wanting to jump ship and record for Jay-Z’s new Atlantic-distributed, LiveNation-supported label RocNation, plus some concerns that Jeezy may be treading water musically – not really true on the basis of the singles, but there’s been some concern about the quality of the material on Trap or Die II, while 1000 Grams basically found Jeezy doing dope-boy parodies of recent singles by Rick Ross, Kanye West, and Diddy amongst others.
A week after TM103’s missed release date, word immediately gets around that Jeezy is dropping yet another mixtape to commemorate his birthday. However, Jeezy’s own website is not referring to it as a mixtape but as a “street album”. Feel free to wonder, especially about those Jeezy-leaving-Def-Jam rumors (even though Def Jam’s own Twitter account circulated a download link). I should point out right now: they’re not kidding about the “album” part of the term.
The Last Laugh plays entirely like an album – and a solid one at that – rather than a mixtape. Jeezy is in top form vocally and lyrically, and the production – mostly by longtime collaborator Shawty Redd providing his trademark layered keyboard orchestrations – is solid and catchy. There isn’t a misstep to be found, although on first listen the album’s last two tracks, “Don’t Stop” and “Strip Club”, may come off to some as gunning for more mainstream airplay. But the presence of two of Jeezy’s summer singles, “All White Everything” and “Jizzle” – the former with the substitution of Yo Gotti for one of Jeezy’s own verses, the latter with the vocal interjections of Lil’ Jon removed – and his next planned single “Rap Game” as well as references to the title of TM103 within some of the songs, combined with the solidity of the overall musical package makes one wonder if The Last Laugh is really a version of TM103 that was mistakenly rejected by Island Def Jam.
Whatever the case, anyone disappointed in Trap Or Die II and 1000 Grams and anxious for TM103 would be best served by The Last Laugh. 5 out of 5 stars.
CAVEAT EMPTOR: Since the album was released on a free basis by the artist himself, we have provided a few different download links. Please note that despite the fact that Young Jeezy and his production company, CTE, are providing this album as a free download, and that his contracted label Def Jam is supporting this promotional release, the album itself is still under copyright. International Copyright Laws still apply to these recordings. The Groove Music Life respects the copyrights of the artist and his label, and does not bear responsibility for the user’s failure to respect copyright law. The artist and his production company and record label reserve the right to withdraw the mp3s after a certain time period or substitute a streaming-only audio option, and The Groove Music Life wholly supports and respects those rights. Out of respect for both the copyright holders of the sonic works contained herein, and for the operator of this blog who is providing download links for this recording, please do not disseminate the files widely or pass off the download links as your own.
Direct from the artist’s website, USDA2day.com
From LiveMixtapes.com
Courtesy of TGML
