KILL SCREEN

My friend Mendez sent this photo around.

Take note of the scotch tape in the upper left, which rendered the cassette “dub-able”.  The next consideration is the EP’s duration – 13 minutes, 54 seconds.  Which rendered this marketing stunt virtually “inevit-able”, considering manufacturing plants generally don’t make cassettes with sides shorter than 10 minutes because of breakage concern.

Stunt, by the way, is a compliment.  The thing I love about this picture / concept / stunt is how utterly harmless it is.  As if music fans would accelerate their industry-killing ways, given access to comparatively expensive, hard-to-label, one-sided 14 minute blank tapes.  That’s the genius of it – the Dead Kennedys were commenting on something that was plainly obvious, and yet stubbornly rejected by entrenched powers (see also: the folly of religious dogma).

Hopefully, Kill Screen can get stunts of this caliber.  And while we’re on the subject of stunts:

“Lemonade was a popular drink
and it still is -
I get more props and stunts
than Bruce Willis.”

One of my favorite rap lyrics of all time.  Speedy recovery to Guru.

A somewhat unsatisfying documentary, but worth a look for those interested in the IP debate landscape … Copyright Criminals recently debuted on PBS.

Totally worth the ten minutes of your time.  Relish this making-of video about Prodigy’s Smack My Bitch Up.

The “awesomeness” factor of this song is well-documented.

What’s less chronicled is the intellectual property aspect of the tune.  After watching the video a couple of times, I count six different underlying source tracks.

• Kool & the Gang / Funky Man
• Randy Weston / In Memory Of
• Coldcut / More Beats + Pieces
• Rage Against the Machine / Bulls on Parade
• Ultramagnetic MC’s / Give the Drummer Some
• Mixmaster Gee and The Turntable Orchestra / Like This

What’s interesting, though, is that the liner notes from The Fat of the Land only mention Give the Drummer Some.

If this were at all legible ...

The relevant excerpt is “Track 1 contains portions of “Give The Drummer Some” by Ultramagnetic M.C.’s from their album entitled “Critical Breakdown” used courtesy of Next Plateau Records”.  As such, Prodigy / Maverick Recording Company only paid licensing fees for one of the six sourced songs.  And, gender politics aside, I would contend that Kool Keith’s borrowed vocal is not as integral to the finished song musically as some of the other samples.