We've been spinning "Bullet And A Target," the first single from Citizen Cope's 'The Clarence Greenwood Recordings' album on the Urban Alternative Show pretty tough as of late.

Heavily reminiscent of the politically minded classic soul of the 1970s and the conscious hip-hop of the late 1980s & early 1990s, "Bullet And A Target" finds Cope blending soulful vocals and socially aware lyrics with a bluesy groove and hip-hop flavored drum-track.

The joint's a banger, straight up.

But don't just believe me, because you have a chance to check it out for yourself, complete with video...

Citizen Cope "Bullet And A Target"



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Now if I can only get me a copy of this guys album.

Michael Bell-Smith and Downhill Battle are seeking submissions for 3 Notes and Runnin', an online music compilation commemorating and protesting The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Case No. 01-00412.

This is the case I've been griping about for the last few weeks where the court found that NWA violated copyright law by sampling a 3 note guitar riff from Funkadelic's "Get off Your Ass and Jam" for their song "100 Miles and Runnin'." The ruling was actually a reversal of an earlier district court finding that stated "no reasonable juror, even one familiar with the works of George Clinton, would recognize the source of the sample without having been told of its source," and ruled that "sampling clearance should not be required."

So essentially, a pro-sampling decision instantly became, on appeal, a ruling that finds all sampling to be considered music-piracy and therefore illegal.

To protest this decision, music activist website Downhill Battle has asked sample-based musicians and artists to create their own 30 second songs using the sample in question which will be shared via the 3 Notes and Runnin' section of their website. By doing so, they hope to showcase the potential and diversity of sample based music and sound art, and to call into question the relationship between a sample and its use.

So Hashim over at Hip Hop Blogs agreed with me about the prospect of a Fugeez reunion this morning. In fact it appears as if he agreed with me before I even formulated my opinion.

But in retrospect it seems as though that opinion might have been a little... well... wrong.

This afternoon M.I.C., 12XU and myself all trekked down to Brooklyn to check out our homegirl Malice's new pad as she was throwing something of a belated housewarming party. Upon entering her domicile I was greeted by Springfield area escapee, record collector about town, "Wet America" dj extraordinaire, former graphic artist for Sony, and notorious skate-board guy Rance Brown who informed me he had just walked through the "block party" being thrown in an adjacent neighborhood by comedian and television personality Dave Chappelle. He described the scene as he emerged from the subway and the first thing he claims he saw was... The Fugeez performing live on stage! I haven't heard word of this from anybody else, but I trust Rance, and if he saw a reunited Refugee Camp Crew performing in person then I guess a reunion record might not be too far fetched a proposition.

Only time will tell.

I just wanna be the first one to go on record as saying... BULLSHIT!

The notorious Jose3030 is offering a streaming sneak-peek at the new De La Soul album 'The Grind Date' -- due out October 5th on Sanctuary Records -- in the form of "Church," their collaboration with Little Brother producer 9th Wonder.

De La Soul feat. Spike Lee "Church"

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In case you didn't know, Snoop Dogg has signed on with The Neptunes production company & label Star Trak and is ready to continue the standard of excellence set by their collaboration from last year "Beautiful." If "Drop It Like It's Hot" featuring Pharrell, the first single they're releasing from the project, is any indication of what the new album has in store I think we should prepare ourselves for some of Snoop's best work since "Deep Cover" hit back in 1992. I've already been bumping this shit pretty much non-stop for the last two weeks myself, but feel free to check it out right here if you haven't heard it already...

Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell "Drop It Like It's Hot"



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Former Black Star frontman and current Def Poetry Jam host Mos Def is also set to return to the music scene with his long awaited full length sophomore album 'The New Danger.' The first single is "Sex, Love & Money" and I'm not really sure if it's what I want from Mos. It ain't bad, but it's not really Black Star or 'Black On Both Sides' type material either. I will say it's pretty fuckin' catchy, and he could certainly have done a lot worse. Check it out for yourself right here...

Mos Def "Sex, Love & Money"



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In a decision that really shouldn't surprise anybody a Federal Appeals Court has declared that "hip-hop" as an art-form intrinsically violates anti-piracy laws. Why? Because of sampling of course!

In case you weren't aware, the very foundation of hip-hop as an artistic discipline is the use of pre-recorded music to create a soundtrack for explosive dancing, festive live vocal toasting, or even totally new musical compositions. This practice could involve two turntables, a dj mixer and vinyl records, digital sampling instruments or even computers and computer software. But whichever technique you happen to employ, it is the act of spinning, cutting, scratching, juggling, looping, chopping and sampling that is in and of itself hip-hop. Forget all that 5 elements bullshit. The rapping, the dancing, the graffiti ... they're all superfluous and interchangeable dressing for the body of hip-hop which is in fact the vinyl record, the breakbeat, the sample.

And now, that artistic act is considered piracy. Break out the eye patches and peg legs people!

Of course, the courts decision has all kinds of other implications outside of hip-hop that I'm sure they're not even aware of. They ask the question "If you cannot pirate the whole sound recording, can you 'lift' or 'sample' something less than the whole?" They answer their own query in the negative.

To me this brings up the sticky point of what actually constitutes "intellectual property." Is it the "art" itself? The physical sound recording? The mass-manufactured copies of that recording? And if you can come to a satisfactory answer to those questions then where & when does the alleged theft of such property occur? If I hear a sound recording without paying the artist or copyright owner, whether in a store, in a friends house or car, blasting from a neighbor's apartment or a passing automobile, or through any other conceivable means, have I "stolen" it? In theory I never need to hear it again, I've "experienced" the art ( or trespassed on the "intellectual property" as it were ) regardless as to whether I posses a physical copy of it.

I only need to see a painting once, I don't need to take a copy of it home. If I wanted to I guess I could take a photo of it so that I have a lower quality vestigial image of it to refer to in the future, and that wouldn't be considered stealing the art. And if I happen to be artistically minded myself I can even draw a picture of my own that incorporates elements of that painting, absorbing the artists style and making it my own, and I'm still not a pirate.

In my mind the same goes for musical art. Once it's been heard its copyright is nullified. The copyright doesn't protect the "intellectual property" of the artist, it just gives a manufacturer permission to make a large number of physical commodities that contain the art which they will then then sell for profit. If a similarly equipped group of people manage to make a nearly identical commodity which they then have the means to widely distribute for profit in direct competition to the other commodity then sure, you're talking piracy. This isn't the case when dealing with low quality, freely available copies ( be they tapes or recordable compact discs dubbed from friends or associates or digital media files traded by the same ) and it definitely isn't the case when dealing with musical compositions created from pre-recorded sounds. This is a new piece of art, created by a new artist and is a new piece of "intellectual property" subject to a new copyright and new manufacturing & sales agreements in accord with the wishes of that art's creator.

But what do I know? I make music out of samples and go around saying things like "Ahoy matey" to random people before making them walk a plank into the briney deep.

Briney deep... get it? Cuz of the PIRACY?

Never mind.