Drake Signs With Young Money, "Best I Ever Had" Continues Climb

Remember my last post regarding all the major label attention swirling around Drake ? Well the news is out, meaning the war is now over, the bidding war that is.

Hip hop "star in the making" Drizzy Drake Rodgers has finally signed a deal with his affiliated label Young Money Entertainment/Cash Money Records leaving major labels Atlantic and Warner Music in the dust. Although the rap artist did strike a deal for distribution through Universal Republic, which should add some good support to a music business career that is off to a great start.

Drake is very adamant about signing with Young Money Entertainment, keeping his October's Very Own label with the good people that have helped him build his music brand thus far. Of course good management makes an incredible difference, which is provided to Drake by Hip Hop Since 1978 (repping some of the best in the hip hop/rap music business). Although the rap artist has pure Do-It-Yourself spirit, having achieved a great deal of music business success independently.

Currently the emcee from Toronto is doing very well for him self. Having worked with such talented acts as Mary J Blidge, Kanye West, LiL Wayne and Jay-Z (just to name a few). "Best I Ever Had" is Drake's hot single, which right now sits number 1 on R&B/Hip Hop Billboard Charts. At the same time, "Every Girl" is sitting just below in the third slot which is a song by Young Money, a super group that includes the rap artist/singer.

"Best I Ever Had" is number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts, a leap up from the 27th spot. This is a huge airplay gainer in such short time. Lots of radio play, major label attention and industry artist support has helped launched the young actor/rapper/singer to a new level in his music career.

While Drake's mixtape So Far Gone continues to garner hype and recognition, the debut LP Thank Me Later is set to be released 4th quarter 2009 through distribution arm Universal Republic. Drake was quoted by MTV, saying:

"Independent is a funny term. I can go independent but you need distribution, period. You need somebody to distribute the record, you need that army that a record label has to push the record"

With added momentum Drake's career in the music business is about to take off. Study up and see how artists like Drake are leveraging the Internet, social media and good business skills as tools for implementing successful music marketing strategies. Use these examples to learn how hip hop/rap artists are adapting to the new music industry landscape.

Lessons In Protecting Your Production - Producer Dr. Dre

What up hip hop/rap producers and artists !

When it comes to the music business, you may have noticed that the genres of hip hop and rap music are especially susceptible to music industry legal troubles. Usually it comes in the form of a copyright infringement lawsuit. Most of the time, it's because of "samples" that have not been cleared or licenses not being properly authorized on a song that hits mainstream and takes off.

For all you rap music business entrepreneurs out there, I would like to share this little tidbit I picked up from following a lawsuit in the news. This lawsuit involves one of my favorite producers and of course the lovely Mary J Blidge, whom, any way you slice it is an amazing R & B singer. The song in question is the smash hit "Family Affair" by Mary J Blidge produced by Dr. Dre.

First let me give you some details pertaining to this particular case. In January, a suit was filed by James White, the manager of rap artist Benevolence. According to Benevolence's manager Mr. White, Universal Music Group (UMG) had received a copyright-protected demo of the rap artist in 2001. According to the plaintiffs, Mary J Blidge's hit single "Family Affair" strikingly resembles a track done by Benevolence on his demo, entitled "Party Aint Crunk".

Originally the plaintiff's had named producer Dr.Dre as the culprit in this copyright infringement case. However, it was later discovered that Dr.Dre could not have been implicated due to his style of producing. Dr. Dre organizes a whole group of musicians to lay down tracks for his productions.

Here's a smart tip I picked up from Dr.Dre (or at least his bad ass music business attorneys).
Since Dre always has musicians in the studio to produce with, the courts decided that Dr.Dre could not be held personally responsible for the copyright infringement because of "lack of personal jurisdiction". This is a grey area in the music industry. Basically this means that Dr.Dre could not have been personally responsible for the infringement because the beat was created by himself and musicians that could testify to being apart of the creative process.

So who is actually responsible for the copyright infringement ? Since the doc works with a group of musicians to produce an original new track, it was found that the real bad guys in this one are Mary J Blidge's team of staff writer's at UMG. Mary J's name was also recently dropped from the lawsuit, as this copyright infringement claim has now landed on the desk of those actually responsible.

Rap artists should always be weary of sending any demo's to the major labels, especially if you have not copyrighted your material. Protecting your copyrights in this digital age can be difficult and can sometimes require a team of people to do so. You will notice that Benevolence and his manager waited long enough to file the lawsuit. This is also a very intelligent move. Whenever you're copyrights have been infringed, you should wait until the song becomes big enough of a hit before taking any legal action, or else you would be suing for peanuts instead of big bucks, which may leave you stuck with the legal costs that would make the whole lawsuit pointless. In my opinion, ff you are going to sue it should be for some big money.

Have you ever sent un-protected work to a major label in hopes of getting signed, only later to find a new hit distributed by that label sounding quite identical to your own work ? If so please leave some comments, I would love to discuss it.