My first job in music was personal assistant to the Music Director at the original 1580-KDAY, the first hip-hop station outside of New York. I spent years as a DJ and journalist before becoming a music lawyer. Sampling someone else's work without payment, permission or credit is really not cool - ESPECIALLY when its given away for free. Think about it, if someone put together their own mixtape of "50's Greatest Hits" and posted it as a free download, I doubt 50 and his label would be too happy about it. It's not that hard to clear samples, and it doesn't have to be crazy expensive if you do it right. But these artists who think its OK to keep sampling other people's works and even using tracks they haven't paid for to promote themselves are playing with fire. Fair is fair. If you really respect art - respect its creators.
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Paid Sampling is Cool - Free Sampling is Uncool
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