Here is the money quote via Billboard via Pitchfork: “Is it a sample? I actually don’t know what it ended up being in the end, I’m so slack. I know that he tried to fucking rip me off and claim that he’d written it, and they tried to get away with not paying. I was really helpful, and when they first sent it to me, I was like, “Oh, I can re-do that for you, if you like,’ because they’d sampled it really badly and time-stretched it and there was loads of artifacts. I was like, ‘I’ll just replay it for you at that speed if you want.” And they totally didn’t even say “hello” or “thanks,” they just replied with, “It’s not yours, it’s ours, and we’re not even asking you any more.”
What the hell, right? But here is a question Mr. Twin, or Mr. James if you prefer, if Paul Simon is willing to really and seriously dick over Los Losbos and if you the entire hip hop community won’t pay George Clinton a nickle so he is stuck on the road forever, why do you think West is going to fork over bread to James, you’re crazy.
The truth is the question of ownership is so dodgy, if people were suing hip hop performers every time they appropriated someone elses music, many people, more Clinton than James, would be very very wealthy today. But it ain’t happening. The major labels steal lesser luminaries material as a rule of thumb. The artists don’t pay em, don’t give em props, the labels screw em over, and they never break through and never get credit for their music. It has always been a rough business but right now it is rougher than rough. Man it is a deadly business.
