» Download MP3 here (320kbps, 95M)

Or direct download, 320kbps:

» Yameen – “Housin the Party” (Mix) (Direct Download, MP3 320kbps)

Wow. I found this out while listening to the Giant Bomb podcast this morning: Oakland’s own Raphael Saadiq (Tony! Toni! Toné!, Lucy Pearl) has a video game company called Illfonic! This kind of blows my mind. And they have a game coming out shortly as part of Microsoft’s Xbox Live “Arcade House Party” promotion.

The game is called Nexuiz and drops February 29th for about $10. It’s a first person shooter powered by Unreal Engine 3 and it doesn’t look bad at all. Check a screenshot below:

Looks kinda dope, right? It’ll also be released on PC via Steam and on the the PlayStation 3 Network (PSN) at a later date.

I’m a huge fan Saadiq so this odd pairing of homeboy and games caught me off guard. But apparently he’s a huge gamer. Speaking with TheBoomBox.com, Saadiq had this to say:

“We all play video games all the time, and a friend of mine works for Russell Simmons and she works on a video game and she was coming to town to do voice overs for Snoop and I told her I wanted to be in the game, but just playing. She said, ‘Well, we don’t let R&B singers in the game.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I’m going to make my own game and I’m going to call it ‘Ghetto Golf.” I was just joking and laughing with her, but when she left, Chuck [Brundgardt, my recoding engineer said], ‘Hey, you serious? You really want to do that?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, we should,’ and he [said], ‘You know I went to school for that.”

Saadiq and Chuck created Illfonic in 2007 and have been hitting up indie game shows and conventions such as PAX every year to spread the word about their fledging studio and publishing arm. “IllFonic is committed to delivering AAA games digitally to consoles and PC at an affordable price,” reads the website.

I don’t know. I’m still kinda buggin. Check out the links for more info. And congrats Saadiq, Chuck & Illfonic. An independent videogame company may be a first in the world of R&B/hiphop.

Additional links:

- Illfonic Website
- Interview with Saadiq at TheBoomBox.com
- Nexuiz at Xbox.com

In 1999 I asked my friend, a fellow up-and-coming music producer from the UK, to remix a song of mine. Since we were both fresh faces in the producing game, everything was done innocently enough “on the strenf”…”for the love of the game”. That is, no contracts, no money exchanged. Just homies making music together.

The remix was dance music, different than the hiphop music I was making. Which is why I asked this producer to remix the track, for a little something different. In all honesty, the finished product wasn’t very good. And I struggle to recall what exactly I did with it. MP3.Com was popular at the time and it’s likely it ended up on there as a free download, but I can’t quite call it. In any case, the track was shelved and forgotten.

10 years later, this remix producer is pretty famous. Famous is perhaps a relative term, but he’s been quite successful in the genre he helped pioneer.

Which brings us up to present day: A couple of months ago, I went back to my mom’s crib in Philly and was going through a bunch of old stuff and I came up on the original CD the remix producer sent me featuring the track. “Oh snap!”, I had forgotten all about it. And better yet, this producer had a new release right around the corner. What a dope little “easter egg” for me to post as a free download on my site, I thought; a curiosity from “the olden days” when we were on the come-up.

And so I did. And I was proud I found the song and happy of the success my man has had over the years. And I thought he’d feel the same, but when I tagged him on Twitter with a link to the blog post all hell broke loose. Dude was PISSED. More than surprised, I was shocked by his reaction. Perhaps he thought I was trying to capitalize on his new album release with a few clicks to my website? He never explicitly expressed that, but I couldn’t come up with any other reason why he would react so negatively to the tune. I denied his initial request to remove the song from my SoundCloud account as I tried to contact him personally in Twitter Direct Message to work it all out.

That was at nighttime for me in the United States. And I soon had to go to sleep. But in the UK, where the remix producer was located, his day was just getting started. And boy oh boy was he a busy bee.

As I slept in the U.S., the U.K. producer acted quickly to do what he felt was right and issued a Copyright Infringement claim to SoundCloud. I’m not sure how the remix producer framed the copyright violation — as to what context he presented his claim — but SoundCloud was swift in their reaction. By the time I woke up the following morning, let’s say roughly 8 hours later, the remix had been removed from my SoundCloud page and I received this email from the Copyright Infringement department at SoundCloud:

(Edited for space)

Subject: Copyright infringement

Hi there, Yameen,

This is [redacted] from SoundCloud. I’m getting in touch regarding some sounds in your SoundCloud account.

We’ve received a report that the following sounds contain material that infringes somebody else’s copyright:

http://soundcloud.com/yameen/remix-song-link/ [Link has been replaced to conceal song name - Yameen]

If you don’t own all the relevant rights in these sounds, or don’t have permission from the rights holder to upload, publish and distribute these sounds, then we can’t host these sounds on SoundCloud.

If you believe that there has been some mistake – in particular, if you do have the necessary rights, or if you think the copyright material has been identified incorrectly – please get back to us via the link below:

http://soundcloud.com/settings/disputes

Now, a lot is going through my head when I receive this email:

- Why didn’t my mans work this out with me directly? Why did he go directly to SoundCloud and not talk it out?
- How is this a “copyright infringement” when the remix was produced *for me*?
- How could any Joe Schmoe simply write a letter to SoundCloud, point a finger and claim “Copyright infringement!” and have tracks removed nearly instantaneously?

This last point is the most important one. The remix producer, as revealed in later emails between he and I, simply did not like the song. He felt he had outgrown the song and it was a blemish on his burgeoning music career. Now, as a producer, I get that. I can respect that. But that remix did happen. It exists. It came from you. And for you, the remix producer, to claim ownership of this song to the extent you feel it is within your power to wield a copyright infringement claim is as gray an area as it is for me to claim ownership of the song. Because despite the fact your production is a remix of my original work (which is wholly mine), no legal contarct beyond email exchanges and physical letters was ever produced and no money exchanged. And as a businessman, I get that too. But wow. Has it hit you yet, dear reader? If you simply don’t like a song on SoundCloud’s service, you can email them at copyrightagent@soundcloud.com, claim you are the owner of the work, and issue a copyright takedown.

SoundCloud never contacted me about the claim to get my side of the story. They didn’t hesitate to remove the song once they received the remix producer’s email. His word was good enough. Apparently by law (The Digital Millenium Act to be precise), they have no choice but to remove the song.

I discovered this after I replied to the SoundCloud letter above, stating my side of the story. I wrote:

“I am disappointed to say the least that anyone can hit the ‘File a copyright claim’ button on SoundCloud and remove tracks at will.”

To which SoundCloud replied:

“Please understand that it is not up to us to decide whether a takedown claim is valid or not. By legal regulation we are obliged to act on content being reported as infringing others’ copyright. We received the takedown request from [Remix Producer (remix.producer@email.address.com)]. You would need to get in touch with them directly to resolve the situation.”

And that was it. Did I want to involve my lawyer in this and pay his associated fees for what amounted to probably zero return? Nope. The song wasn’t what mattered to me anymore. It was the precedent this situation and its extremely swift reaction presented that impressed me the most. And that is what is so scary about bills like SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). There is absolutely no due process in the way those bills (and apparently even the current bill, the aforementioned Millenium Digital Act) are written. All it takes is a pointing of the finger and boom: Your track is removed from SoundCloud. Or your website is now unaccessible to the public. All, potentially, while you are asleep like I was, unable to even present your case.

So take heed: SOPA & PIPA may have been de-toothed, but they and other bills like them will be back. And they will be much more clever and sneaky the next time around.

(Click to enlarge. This is from the DMCA’s website, linked below.)

As for me and the remix producer, you may be wondering? We’re cool and no hard feelings. As I said, as a music producer myself, I can respect he didn’t want that old sound out there presented in a modern context. It’s all good. He apologized for the copyright infringement claim and admitted he acted in haste, heated as he was in the moment. And while I still feel a remix produced for a song I created, without a contract, is as much mine as it is potentially his, I’m not going to let it wreck a friendship.

Additional links:

- SoundCloud.com: Procedure for Reporting Copyright and other Infringements for Rights Owners in the United States
- SoundCloud.com: Disputing a copyright claim (Image)
- SoundCloud.com: Contest copyright claim form (Image)
- Copyright.gov: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 [PDF]
- DMCA: “Do-it-yourself takedowns!“
- Ars Technica: Articles on SOPA
- ChillingEffects.com / EFF: Twitter’s public listing of DMCA takedown requests

If thou durst seek more info on Sir Jarlsberg, thou canst click on thy linketh: Party Fun Action Committee Returns.

Here’s a little remix I did to the Pharrell / Jay-Z joint, “Frontin’”. Enjoy:

Download it for free on SoundCloud:

http://soundcloud.com/yameen/pharrell-frontin-feat-jay-z

Machine Language, the latest album from Tajai of Souls of Mischief / Hieroglyphics, features two Yameen songs:

“Formless” from Nuntype
“Hemingway” also from Nuntype

Additionally, Tajai has included an updated version of “Matter of Moments” with a new beat on Machine Language, a song which was originally cut from the Nuntype album (You can download the original here).

Machine Language is available now from Bandcamp.

You can also pick up the full length Nuntype album featuring me and Tajai in high quality FLAC, 320kbps MP3, or WAV from Bancamp now for the first time ever in such high fidelity digital formats.

For more on Tajai, click here.

I have a featured tune on the new DJ Spinna mix, The Best of Mark de Clive-Lowe. Check it out embedded below:

“Light of Love” featuring Lady Alma (Mark de Clive-Lowe Remix) is available from iTunes here or from Amazon MP3 here. If you prefer FLAC or WAV (or any other format imaginable), the song is also available at Bandcamp here.

Now here’s a treat. Philadelphia photographer, Dominic DiGiorgio has shared these classic black and white photographs with us featuring The Roots at the Do You Want More?!!!??! album release party at Tower Records on South Street in Philly, 1995.

If you’re interested in using or reproducing the photos, please contact Dominic for high-res, non-watermarked versions.

These pictures are mostly of Aes recording in the studio, including a pic of Aesop and Percee P. In that picture, I can’t quite call it, but it looks like Aesop is wearing one of the classic Hiero medallions we used to sell on the Hieroglyphics.com website.

There’s also a pic I found of Aesop’s first cassette demo. Or at least the first cassette demo Blockhead gave me. This jawn is extremely rare. It’s from 1998 or so.

Speaking of the old AesopRock.com website, we have it preserved at the link below exactly as it appeared in 1999:

» Archived AesopRock.com from 1999