Rap Record for Sale - Sampling practice and commodification in Madlib Invazion
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2018-10-24
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en
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Within our capitalistic society, much if not all the music we consume is to be regarded as
commodities. Musical products are subject to numerous processes, rules and regulations, one
of which being copyright. Essentially, copyright enables the musical product as commodity,
and as David Hesmondhalgh puts it, has become the main means of commodifying culture. A
musical practice that is particularly at odds with copyright is sampling, which makes use of
previously recorded material through recombination and re-contextualisation. For the use of
samples, a proper copyright license must be in place, whether the sample-based song is being
monetized on or released for free. However, hip hop producers often do not comply in licensing
the use of copyrighted material in their music, which challenges not only the copyright regime,
but also copyright as a means of commodification. Over the years, copyright has become an
extensive set of rights, resulting in the criminalization of unlicensed use of samples, but not in
prevention, as technological advancements have made sampling a more widespread and
accessible practice. Within this thesis, the sample-based work of Madlib as released on his
Madlib Invazion label is used as a case study to map the current copyright regime, the costs of
licensing and the risks of unlicensed sampling. The use of copyrighted material through
sampling is often regarded as ‘theft’ or blatant ‘copying’. This thesis does not deal with a
discussion surrounding the creativity of sampling, but rather aims to establish sampling as a
form of creative engagement, which can also have positive effect on the original source material
used. By researching the use of samples as released on the Madlib Invazion label, together with
these samples’ relation to copyright, an understanding is formed concerning the problematic
relation between the commodification of music through copyright, and sample-based music.
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