Home » Music » Hip-Hop Music & Culture » Chuck D files suit against Arista

Chuck D files suit against Arista

© Steve Juon

Mr. Carleton Ridenhour is not a happy man. Reportedly, the rap artist known worldwide as Chuck D (from the group Public Enemy) is suing Arista records for use of a vocal sample in the Notorious B.I.G. song "10 Crack Commandments". I'm not surprised though. He sued St. Ide's when they used a sample of him saying "The Incredible! Number One!" in a radio ad. As my memory serves I think he won that case too.

Do I feel the lawsuits are right or wrong? That's kind of hard to say. On the one hand I understand how Chuck D feels about being associated with things like crack and liquor. Considering his stance on these products being the poison of the black community, anything that places him in recognition of these items would no doubt bother him greatly.

On the other hand, Chuck D's voice is now a part of pop culture. I'm not sure most people other than diehard rap heads who have been around for more than 10 years in the music and own every P.E. record from now to then knew that was Chuck D in the Biggie sample. Primo just extracted a nugget of rap from the vaults like he always does.

I will say Primo probably should have had a vocal sample cleared with D before he used it. On the other hand if he refused to clear it, that's a real pickle. It's so perfect in the song it would be hard to imagine the record without it. Maybe they could have worked out a deal where Primo agreed to do an anti-crack commercial with Chuck and provide the beat. Some sort of compromise.

My point? I think that Chuck D has the right to be upset about the sample, but this is the same man who in "Caught, Can I Get a Witness?" defended the right to sample. He was talking about sampling MUSIC, not vocals, but aren't the principles similar? Both are used to create a collage of a track whose new sum is greater than the total of it's parts. I hope D and Premier work out a compromise before the ruling ends up adversely affecting rap music production across the board.

Peace, Flash