Lil Wayne, Jadakiss and Jay-Z have all allegedly have done it but does that make it right? When does a freestyle over a producers beat become a problem or is it not cool at all to use a producers instrumental without permission?

Sian Anderson investigates…

Hey!

I’m back, I know you guys missed my regular updates on Jam Jam’s blog but I’ve been away traveling and getting to know the “inner-me” you know, become more “cultural” and stuff. I’m also completely out of the loop with more or less everything musical hence the silence whilst I catch up, but seriously I’m so out the loop that you could tell me Roll Deep went number one for three weeks and I’d actually believe you – As you can

see, I’m still funny

Anyways – the first thing I’ve noticed upon my arrival back into the music industry is that a hell of a lot of artists are stealing instrumentals and adding their vocals to them. No I haven’t spent the last 19 years of my life with earplugs in, yes this has been happening forever but I’m noticing it more so nowadays. And when I mean stealing I literally mean taking instrumentals without the permission of the producer and giving their versions to DJ’s who are unaware and playing them anyway. As a DJ (And by DJ I mean someone who has a show on radio but doesn’t actually mix anything) this has happened to me, resulting in a phone call from producers and management asking me to not support the artist or the said tune. My first reaction is ‘what’s your problem? Your instrumental is getting out there and being promoted”. But apparently it’s not that simple…

Rudekid, the 22-year-old producer from London is predominately known for making some of the hottest grime instrumentals.

“I find it a disrespect when an artist vocals my tune without consent. It’s not hard to get it touch with me and ask for permission”. He says. “When I’ve finished making a beat I can imagine who I want on the vocals and utilise the Internet (Twitter/Emails) and get in contact with the artist to make it happen”. But for an artist to get hold of your instrumental you must have played your part in putting it out there. “I have to tell DJ’s not to give certain instrumentals to emcee’s without asking me first. I’ve got a CD out now called Are You Ready so if you buy that then you can vocal the instrumentals. That’s one of the reasons why I put the CD out in the first place. But if it’s unreleased and you vocal it without asking first I find that a disrespect.” Which is fair enough I guess, if you’ve already got a vision of someone vocalling your tune and someone else gets there first it must be very frustrating.

At just 17-years-old S-X from Wolverhampton, is undoubtedly the most talked about producer this 2010 for the legend instrumental that is “Woooo”. Within days of people hearing the beat vocals filled our radios, clubs and YouTubes with versions from half of the grime scene. Some were good… and some were owjsdeihdrferjtoirjt.

The producer (who mainly makes Hip Hop beats) came out of his shell with “Woooo” and sent it out to the artists he already liked but his way of making sure it wasn’t in the hands of people who shouldn’t have it, was pretty old school… “I always travel with the beats to play to artists if they’re exclusive. If they like them then we go from there”. Now that is dedication, and quite sensible if you ask me. Although his travel card must be worn out travelling round England playing music. “When I make a beat I can almost hear a certain artist on the vocal straight away, or I’ll send the same beat to a few artists I have in mind and some will be feeling it, but the others might not, so it just works out like that. Now that he’s hot property every grime-emcee-and-their emceeing-dog must be sieving through their emails looking for beats that he’s previously sent them to get a bit of S-X hype; but FYI – tell him you’re gonna use it first. “If people vocal a beat that I’ve put out for anyone to use then that’s fine, like I’ve got the Wooo E.P out now for anyone to buy and vocal but I do appreciate when they ask me for permission on a beat. If someone had some exclusive beats of mine on their computer and just used it on their mixtape without asking then that’s not cool. I would have sent it to them to see what they thought and it’s not impossible to get hold of me and tell me they’re actually going to use it.”

But it’s not just in the UK where this is an issue. And it’s not only the producers this affects. What about when an artist vocals something another artist has already put out? That’s beef right? (Yes I still use the word “beef” …rate me!) “I heard Backstroke by Teedra Moses and I loved it.” Say’s Mega from the Rap duo SAS.

“I looped the end of the beat and myself and Mayhem did our own version simply because we loved the tune. It was never meant to be a single.” Which I suppose is how it initially starts for a lot of the artists who enjoy experimenting with music. “TVT (the label looking after Teedra at the time) contacted us and wanted to know what we were doing with the tune because they’d heard it getting love on Choice FM and other radio stations, but we never intended to use it as a single so they were cool with it.” It’s not only the label who must be wondering what’s going on. If I were an artist and someone has re-vocalled my tune I’d be letting all hell break loose. “Teedra hit us up on MySpace and said she liked the tune. To her it was all promotion and she was flattered that we liked the tune enough to do that. In America and with Rap/ Hip Hop I don’t think it’s seen as such a bad thing. I mean look at Giggs, he blew up with a freestyle on one of Dre’s beats, it’s all good promotion. When you’re selling it that’s when it becomes and issue. We’ve got a CD out in August and we’ve had to get clearance for a tune on there but it’s cool cause as an artist if you want to do that and make money from it you’ve gotta show props to the people who originally own the tune.”

I’m beginning to slightly get it now. And I’m guessing by now it comes down to your status and how good people think you are. If you’re a good artist and you vocal and instrumental and do something amazing with it, then I don’t think the producer should be annoyed. They should just embrace it. But when the artist is pants and shows no recognition that you made the beat it must be exasperating. (Yes I still use big words!) One of the not-as-successful-as-we-initially-hoped-for-stories was Gracious K’s Funky Anthem “Migraine Skank”.

The instrumental came from an old US house tune called Don’t Panic by DJ Gregory and was vocalled last year by artist Gracious K. The clubs loved it, the DJ’s loved it and the people loved it. But with everything in this music industry, nothing is that simple. I don’t personally think that Gracious believed it would have such a big impact, but when it did, he had to change the instrumental to release the tune when labels showed interest. To use the version originally by DJ Gregory the process of getting it cleared would surely have taken too long. Personally I didn’t prefer the version with the new instrumental, it had lost it’s edge in my opinion and I’m sure it did to a lot of others resulting in the tune not charting (52 in the top 100) as opposed to the top twenty it should have received simply because of the hype it received and the fact that it was a bloody good tune. So the end result saw an artist being creative (as they should) and being held back because of it.

For some people though, it’s not seen as a problem. I for one have never heard London based producer Davinche complaining of a leaked tune, and I figure there must be a reason why his instrumentals are not snapped up by Ben, Jerry and Tom. It’s evidently not because artists don’t want them. Tunes I personally loop on my iPod (Tinie Tempah – Tears, Kano – Brown Eyes and Cleo Sol – Hero) have proved that Davinche is the producer that every artist needs to have on speed-dial… So why no leakage?

“If someone has vocalled my instrumental then it would be because I’ve released that instrumental,” say’s 25-year-old Davinche, who’s been producing for over seven years. “It’s happened to me before without my permission but I didn’t have a problem with it. It’s short sighted too. The only time it would be a problem is if the tune was s***” He laughs. “I don’t buy into this whole “disrespect” thing – it’s just an artist trying to make a better name for themselves. It’s not personal. If worse came to worst, maybe I’d get them into the studio and mix it down properly and make it better. At the end of the day we all want hits!” Then what I personally don’t get is, doesn’t it lose him money when this does happen? “It’s all about handling your business. It’s not really going to lose me money cause I’d just make sure I get my publishing after. I’m all about positivity and promotion.”

After listening to the views of a couple of artists and producers I’m going to have to side with Davinche. If you don’t put your instrumental out there, the artists won’t be able to vocal them. And if you don’t like the end result then you have to hold a tighter reign on who you give your beats too in the first place or embrace it and get them into studio when it does happen. Some of my favourite freestyles * cough – Giggs – Talking The Ardest * have been because of artists getting creative with an instrumental and that’s what music is all about. Creativity. When you do have a red-hot instrumental. Keep it to yourself and do a Rudekid, use your contacts to get the tune to the said artist to vocal and then put it out there on a CD for everyone else.

So I guess that’s it guys… “Positivity and promotion” – Davinche 2010…  To me that say’s it all.

Toodles

Sian x