A prominent televangelist and megachurch leader, TD Jakes, has threatened legal action against two rap artists for sampling a 2013 sermon in a remix.
Jakes posted a notice this week on the Facebook page for his Dallas-based ministry warning that Kendrick Lamar and Jeezy sampled his sermon Don’t Let the Chatter Stop You without his authorization. “We are taking the necessary legal actions to stop the unauthorized use of TD Jakes’ intellectual property,” the post said.
Michael Eric Dyson, a professor at Georgetown University and noted hip-hop intellectual, told the Guardian that the situation is ironic because the song is about the struggle the two rappers have faced growing up in the US.
Dyson said: “What is more obscene? The language that is profane or the obscene conditions of social and income inequality that these young men confront?”
He said that by taking legal action, Jakes is also limiting the amount of people who may hear the mission and values of his ministry. “It’s an unfortunate example of the disconnect between an elder, like TD Jakes, who is an undeniably gifted and remarkable human being, but may be not necessarily as in touch as he should be with the currency of a younger generation,” said Dyson.
Jeezy’s Holy Ghost remix featuring Lamar was released earlier this month. It begins with Jakes saying: “I’m under attack, but I’m still on fire. I got some chatter, but I’m still on fire. I got some threat, but I’m still on fire.” His sermon could be seen on YouTube as of Friday afternoon.
Sampling was born out of people rhyming over records in the early days of hip-hop and is a recognized way of taking another artists ideas and spinning it one context, or repurposing it to give it a new context.
“It’s a sound collage, basically, ”said Joseph Schloss, author of Making the Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop. “Notes are an important part of that, but they are not necessarily the base of that.”
But because of this fundamental part of hip-hop, there have been a parade of intellectual property lawsuits directed at artists.
New York label TuffAmerica sued Frank Ocean in February for a Mary J Blige sample he used on Channel Orange track Super Rich Kids. TuffAmerica said it owned 3.15% of Blige’s song Real Love, and could therefore sue for copyright infringement.
In 2006, a judge halted the sale of Notorious Big’s landmark 1994 album Ready to Die after ruling that the title track illegally sampled an Ohio Players song. Copies of the album released since the decision do not include the sample, a regular penalty instilled on artists who face similar suits.
“You can’t be in favor of hip-hop and be against sampling,” said Joseph Schloss, author of Making the Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop. “It’s possible to do hip-hop without sampling but the idea of sampling is very central to hip-hop.”
The Holy Ghost remix has been removed from SoundCloud, though it can still be heard on World Star Hip Hop.
Def Jam, which represents Jeezy, and Interscope, which represents Lamar, did not respond to requests for comment.
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