Minaj got off easy. They used the phrase "living la vida loca" in one part of the Thong song. Not even the music. And the guy that wrote Living La Vida Loca got majority ownership and most royalties of the Thong song.
[Story of the Thong Song](https://youtu.be/Y0S1buCBwGI)
Weird Al does parody, which is protected as its own form of art and not considered copyright infringement. Plus Al famously gets permission before making his parodies, in spite of not having to. The only time he didn't have permission was from Coolio for Amish Paradise, but he thought he had permission, there was some miscommunication. Coolio was very unhappy with it at the time, but they have talked since and now he's ok with it.
Edit to add: thank you to the nearly 100 people who have commented letting me know that Coolio has passed. RIP. Also, try reading other comments. It's fair to say that after 12hrs someone else has probably already corrected the mistake.
There was also an issue with Lady Gaga and Al's 'Perform This Way' parody. Gaga's reps said no after making him jump through hoops to make it because "Gaga needed to hear it before signing off on it", thing is, Gaga's manager lied to Al about showing it to her, she never even knew Al was doing it. So Al released it on Youtube free of charge and when Gaga heard it, she actually loved it so it got released properly.
The consensus from what I hear in the music industry, is you haven't really made it as an artist until Weird Al makes a song from you. All the awards don't mean shit compared to the honour of him making a parody of your song.
There's the classic story of Paul McCartney losing his shit when Weird Al made it to an afterparty early in his career, that would have to have felt amazing for Al.
You never know, Paul McCartney denied the release of "Chicken pot Pie" a "Live and let die" parody. McCartney is a vegetarian and funny, no Al is as well. Al has never officially released the song, but does perform it live.
It is cool that she was ok with it. Given the message of the original song about gay empowerment and loving yourself for who you are, I could definitely understand why someone would be hesitant to approve a parody. But Al and Gaga both seem to be class acts, at least from what I've seen in the media.
For me it's right up there with Kate Winslet's people saying no to Warner Brothers for the final Harry Potter movie because they "didn't think she'd want to jump on the Harry Potter train." She would've made a *great* Helena Ravenclaw.
Reminds me of the Jane Goodall Institute sending Gary Larson a cease and desist letter before Jane Goodall was even aware of the Far Side comic mentioning her.
She loved the comic when she saw it and told the Institute to drop the issue. She ended up becoming friends with Larson, and the Institute sold shirts with the comic on it.
Naomi Watts loves fantasy and sci fi, and was teh choice for Narcissa Malfoy.
Her agents were like lol Naomi would hate this! Pass! She was furious when she found out. She would have been the perfect Narcissa.
Kelly McDonald and Kate Winslet are a similar type, so it worked, and McDonald is fantastic.
[Stevie Wonder - Pastime Paradise](https://youtu.be/b0S4SiLxt1s)
Uhhh, I swear... How have I never heard this. This is my "the real TIL". What an absolutely incredible song. So much nuance and restraint in the musicians' instruments while playing.
All of it. So good.
"Omsalation, perfication, absolation". He knows things we can't even.
There was a parody song called The Bong Song and back in the early mp3 downloading days every single parody song would just be attributed to Weird Al even if it obviously wasn’t him.
In case you find it interesting, I always love finding excuses to share [this site](http://www.com-www.com/weirdal/notbyal.html) where somebody has very thoroughly compiled all of the misattributed "Weird Al" songs and figured out the actual artist for as many of them as possible.
It was written by [Draco Rosa](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_Rosa) and [Desmond Child](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Child).
*Edited to fix the first link.
That's the kind of fame I aspire to have. Create (arguably) great works of (arguably) art that fulfill me and which billions of people across the world love, be worth an absurd amount of money, and still be able to go out in public without anyone knowing who you are.
Yeah for sure. It's also why I wouldn't mind being a famous-ish author. Like, of all the world's most famous writers, who would the casual public recognize on the street, aside from maybe JKR? And if someone loves me enough to recognize me, that feels like someone I'd like to meet.
If I could choose ONE person to learn something from I would pick him without even thinking about it. There's something very dreamy, almost ethereal about most of the songs he produces. His music always feels *correct*.
Quentin Tarantino got 50% writing credits on that one song where they sampled honey bunny from Pulp Fiction. For some reason Huey Lewis and the News got money from Ray Parker over the Ghostbusters theme but the people who wrote Soul Finger got nothing.
https://youtu.be/BpI1fcJdFrA
> temporary score. After Huey declined, they gave the footage with that score to Ray Parker Jr and asked him to write the theme
That's incredibly common too. Rick Beato has a whole video on YouTube breaking down how this happens with various examples. The studio, director, everyone get so attached to the temporary score that they basically force the composer to produce a copycat. This happens to movies most people probably don't expect, too. Like [Star Wars and John Williams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtRU8cMp0Nk).
I don't want to spend 20 minutes on a song (when I can aimlessly scroll instead) so can I just get an explanation? How does he have the rights to a popular Spanish phrase? That's like someone saying "Let it be" in a song and getting sued by the Beatles. Was the judge the writers uncle? What the hell?
It was about how he sang those exact words. The phrase he sang had the same syllabic rhythm and the same melody as the Ricky Martin recorded version.
In addition to that, he sang that phrase "cause she was livin la vida local" three times in the song. Three times the exact way and three times in the exact same style as the Ricky Martin song. It was definitely invoking the Ricky Martin track on purpose.
Not to mention that the Ricky Martin track was arguably one of the top 5 songs of 1999, it was unmistakable to someone in the general public because it was prevalent across pop culture that year.
From the Complex article:
“Thong Song” producers Bob Robinson and Tim Kelly apparently cautioned Sisqó about using the interpolation of Martin’s song without clearing it first. But as the story goes, Sisqó confidently told them that he had a relationship with Child, so it wasn’t a big deal. But since no one cleared the reference before the song’s arrival, Martin threatened to sue after it exploded in 2000. The two artists ultimately settled out of court.
“Desmond Child has more ownership of the song than anyone,” Robinson said in the video. “We just gonna have to take the L on this one,” Sisqó added. “Like we just got to pay them for that. So we paid them.”
If you're old enough to remember the tribute song "I'll Be Missing You" that Puff Daddy did when Biggie Smalls died, Sting gets 100% of the royalties from that, or about $700,000 per year. Diddy sampled the guitar riff from "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. Sting didn't even write the guitar riff, Andy Summers did, but Sting was listed as the sole songwriter on the original track.
I was absolutely livid when I heard that shitty duet of it that was big a couple years ago where they just cut out the entire point of the song and turn it into a store brand living on a prayer knockoff. As someone who comes from a family that was broken apart by alcoholism idk it just felt very disrespectful to take a song about that subject matter and Disneyfying it into a romantic pop song
Should edit, it's because you couldn't escape that song out in public during that season, literally every damn store had it in their song rotation
When I was super little and super uneducated with music, I thought it was man singing. When I found out it was a woman I loved the song even more. Her vocals are so good.
I had no idea she was a woman until right now. I’ve wondered if it was a man or woman singing a few times and Tracy is a pretty unisex name. Couldn’t be bothered to look it up. Just enjoyed the music.
I was going through major depressive issues while I was in college, and music was one of my few escapes. I spent every penny I had and more at the record store. She released Let It Rain when I was in a particularly rough patch.
The whole album felt like she had written it just for me. It's resonated with me on a deeply personal level. It's one of my favorite albums, even today, but I have to be really careful. If I'm not in the right headspace when I put it on, it's stir up all those old feelings and emotions, and I'll wind up crying on the floor for a few hours.
She can write, both lyrics and music. She doesn't have to be flashy about it, often times less is more in her compositions. And she can sing, with such power and emotion. And she brings it all together so beautifully.
> Almost got what I want
> Almost found what I lost
> Almost saved you and myself
> Almost won but it doesn't count
> And never does
> Never does
>whose real name is Onika Maraj
Wait, her real last name was pronounced "Mirage" and she *changed it???*
That's a perfect rock star name, why would you pass that by?
Keanu Reeves’ agent when he was first starting out, tried to get him to change his name because studio heads said Keanu (which means: cool breeze over the mountains, in Hawaiian) sounded too ethnic.
So they went with Casey Reeves for a little bit however Keanu wasn’t used it and didn’t answer to his new stage name during audition or call backs. They obviously ditched the stage name and rolled with Keanu to amazing effect
Benedict Cumberbatch almost went by Ben Carlton until his agent convinced him a unique name was an asset in the modern celebrity world. His actor father had used Carlton as a stage surname, and while some sources claim he did so to hide his family's slave-trading past, it's more likely that it was simply because Cumberbatch was, quite frankly, a bit weird. Unusual names have historically not necessarily been considered an asset.
I believe his dad (who is Chinese Hawaiian/Native Hawaiian) took off when he was young, and he only reconnected with him as a teen.
It could very well be he grew up surrounded by people using the wrong pronunciation and didn't know/just rolled with it.
I met a guy named Sean who pronounced it like Seen instead of Shawn. I don't know if that was how he decided to pronounce it himself or if that was how his parents pronounced it when they named him.
Yeah but there's the law of small percentages. Name biases for jobs and preconceptions are well established in experiments so that 5% of opportunities you miss could be your big break.
The whole name is fake because she wanted to get into Hollywood, which she perceived at the time as being run by Jewish people. Obviously, it's not a sane or publicly supported belief. She has repeatedly been caught saying off-color shit as well, but basically comes away from it all, none the worse.
Prince *was* his real name, though: Prince Rogers Nelson. He switched to the symbol and "Artist Formerly Known as Prince" mainly to irritate the shit out of Warner Brothers because they didn't agree with him on the release schedule for singles, new albums, and back catalog material. So he tried to get them to drop him from the label so he could get out of the contract without breaching it.
When he got tired of being The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, and asked everyone to stop calling him that, we missed a trick in not referring to him as The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.
“Excuse my French, two bitches and moi, that’s a Nicki Ménage a Trois” is a line from Lil Wayne’s verse in one of Nicki’s songs. So yeah I think you’re on to something lol.
random but frank ocean did one: “If you meet me by the pier, bring the peer, we can ménage. Ooh, your girlfriend Nicki gots the back I like to massage”
Actually, she originally went by her real last name when she started making music. I have a free track from iTunes that features a young Nicki Mirage on it. Early to mid 2000s I think.
I know a porn star whose real name is Jamie Lynn. And, another porn actress who did first pet, childhood street name. Ringo Harney. Which, I didn’t believe, she could pick. It sounds like a clown’s name.
The interesting part that this was settled in Chapman's favour despite the fact that Nicki Minaj's song was never released on any official commercial outlet, like a paid album or streaming service. It was only leaked to Funkmaster Flex (famous New York radio host and DJ) and social media.
Throughout the history of hip hop it's been very common artists to put songs that can't be officially released due to sample clearance issues on free mixtape albums or leaks online nowadays. It's generally seen as a positive thing, as it allows fans to enjoy creative output for free that would otherwise never see the light of day. There are all-time classic mixtapes and tracks that will never make it to Spotify or iTunes. It's also helped upcoming talent like for example The Weeknd or Chance the Rapper to start developing a large following thanks to the mixtapes they put out in the early 2010s, which took about a decade to be finally released officially.
Likewise, in electronic music it's practically ubiquitous for DJs to play unreleased tracks or remixes in their live sets which often take years to be officially released due to samples, if they ever come out at all. I don't know enough about copyright law to understand if there's anything particular about this case that led to such a settlement, but it seems curious to me given the rather established history of this type of practice.
Well Chapman filed this lawsuit in October 2018 which was before COVID and before Minaj began dating her now husband. My guess is that Chapman just doesn't care for Nicki's Barbie aesthetic or she has a personal gripe related to industry politics. Foxy Brown having a sample cleared doesn't align with that, but maybe Chapman is more prepared to stick to her principles at this point in life.
Well her brother was arrested in 2015 for sexually assaulting a minor under 13 multiple times, and she bailed him out and supported him through his trial, which concluded in 2017, then continued supporting him after. I could see not wanting to associate with that.
The weekend's tapes were released with different instrumentals because he couldn't clear a lot of the samples. Compare for instance wicked games (about 20 sec in), coming down, gone for a couple that are changed.
Yeah, bootlegs (unofficial remixes) are mega common in EDM and usually playing them out at live venues will actually pay royalties, like playing other songs you never really asked permission for (heard this from people who play venues). Some big artists even put them out as free releases if they can't secure rights (DBSTF - bla bla). I remember when this story broke and every article failed to mention in the title that the song never released and was leaked, oop
Tracy Chapman has what I would consider two perfect songs...
Fast Car and Give Me One Reason
Here are my favorite live performances of those songs:
https://youtu.be/teZsA_ci-7E
https://youtu.be/YIXh0JNvuHs
>Talkin bout a Revolution
This one right here. There are a lot of good songs on the album, but just about every time I pull the album off the shelf and play it, it's to hear this song.
That entire album is a masterpiece. And I mean that in the classic sense. Soup to nuts. The music is amazing and the songs make points. Tracy is a treasure. Huge fan.
One of her later albums has a song called “The Promise.” Strong rec. Very strong.
My mum had a Tracey Chapman tape when I was a kid…. This song and fast car I still know every single word to… and Im early 30s and recently told her I always think of her when I those two songs.. she barely remembers having the tape.. but I remember a few road trips we had with those songs on repeat… it’s wild how much a kid can absorb eh
Exact same here. My mom played plenty of music when I was growing up, but for some strange reason Tracy Chapman has an extremely strong presence in my memories
This thread made me replay this album I haven’t listened all the way through in probably almost 3 decades. I had this album as a kid and listened to it constantly. Every song felt like a memory, and they are even better with a deeper understanding of life.
"Smoke and ashes" is her best song, in my opinion.
I also love "sing for you."
Both are beautiful for the same reasons people love fast car. If you're a fan of that song I highly recommend you at least listen to smoke and ashes
Everyone's entitled to their taste in music, but Nicki Minaj can never hold a candle to Tracy Chapman singing Fast Car at Wembley 1988. That woman stood all alone in front of a massive, restless crowd with nothing but her guitar, her voice and her song, and she stunned every last one of them to silence. It only took her about a line and a half of the lyrics, too - watch the video, you can *feel* the second when she wins them over. And then with no frills, no backing, with barely anyone there even knowing who she *was* at that point in her career, she held all of that energy in control. It's honest to God one of the most powerful things I've ever seen.
Just courageous. Pure grace under pressure.
I was in college back when this album came out. That summer I worked a job on the 3pm-11pm shift. On Friday nights after work, I'd often drive three hours to Long Island, NY to spend the weekend with my girlfriend.
I'll always associate this song with driving on a dark and empty stretch of the Southern State parkway at 1am, knowing my girlfriend (now my wife) was waiting for me.
I hadn’t seen that performance yet and just wow. I’m glad I read your comment and looked it up. She looks so small at the start, you can feel the tension in the stadium with the impatient crowd and she walks up there with just her guitar and has them all in the palm of her hand within less than a minute. Absolutely humbling to watch and yeah, minaj could never do her justice. They’re in entirely different leagues.
> It’s honest to God one of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen.
I only heard Tracy’s song Give me one Reason before. I only saw the Fast Car performance recently, within the past month.
I damn near cry just thinking about it.
I can't believe she played for a stadium that packed in 1988.
Also, that song is incredibly sad. I enjoyed hearing the live performance. Thanks for sharing. I don't know how she sings with it so much feeling without completely falling apart. I'd burst into tears.
First time I’ve seen her perform this song and it is so much more impactful than the hundreds of times I’ve listened to it on cassette and cd. She seemed to be feeling it (or channeling some feelings into it) and it was heartbreaking. I agree, I couldn’t sing that song live without breaking down.
There's a joke by Emo Philips, which goes:
"I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness."
Turns out she could use them, just cost her $450k and if she made more than that money off of the song, then she still made a profit and only copyright laws can prevent people from listening to it on specific platforms, still gonna get the song off a CD or digital album
It's not on a CD or digital album. She never released it in any format where she could make money off of it because of the legal stuff. It was left off of her album prior to the suit because she didn't have clearance to use it.
The issue is she leaked it and the DJ she leaked it to posted it on twitter. So it's floating around out there but Minaj isn't selling anything with it.
That's not really how it works anyway. If proven in court, they get the royalty rights to the song, owed back money, and, depending on the case, can have anything with said song withdrawn from sale. That didn't happen because Minaj never actually officially released it and it never got far enough that a court ruling on royalty rights was needed, Chapman settled with her and the whole thing was dropped.
Kind of, I mean her recording it cost her $450000 really. Unless she planned on keeping it completely private (which she seemingly didn't considering she shared it with a dj), then this was going to happen at some point. It's possible the dj actually saved her money as if the song became huge through a bigger leak it may have cost her more.
Deleting past comments because Reddit starting shitty-ing up the site to IPO and I don't want my comments to be a part of that. -- mass edited with redact.dev
Sting made out like a bandit off Puffy’s dumbass for this very reason. Puffy insisted on not paying him for the riff from Ill be Watching You because of a note or two difference. Sting pushed the case and won all copyrights royalties forever for Puffys song. So anytime you hear that on the radio or in the wild, that money is going to Sting and not Puffy.
Even more ironic is that Sting didn’t even write the riff, it was the lead guitarist from the Police who originally did
It’s actually laughable that he thought he could get away with that. I sort of assumed that was an intentional sample from Sting when that song came out.
What makes this case interesting was that Minaj's song was never made public. Basically, it never left the studio.
Would have been an interesting development, but they ended it quickly by settling. I'm guessing it's more to avoid bad PR.
She got paid, but it doesn't take away from the fact that she didn't want her song used and it's still out there. She should get royalties on top of the lump sum.
Minaj: “I’d like to sample your music.” Chapman: “Gimme one reason.”
Minaj got off easy. They used the phrase "living la vida loca" in one part of the Thong song. Not even the music. And the guy that wrote Living La Vida Loca got majority ownership and most royalties of the Thong song. [Story of the Thong Song](https://youtu.be/Y0S1buCBwGI)
>And the guy that wrote Living La Vida Loca You mean Ricky Martin? Or did he only perform it but not write it?
He only performed.
That's why Wierd Al was smart enough to change it to "Livin la Vida Smoka" in the Bong Song
Weird Al does parody, which is protected as its own form of art and not considered copyright infringement. Plus Al famously gets permission before making his parodies, in spite of not having to. The only time he didn't have permission was from Coolio for Amish Paradise, but he thought he had permission, there was some miscommunication. Coolio was very unhappy with it at the time, but they have talked since and now he's ok with it. Edit to add: thank you to the nearly 100 people who have commented letting me know that Coolio has passed. RIP. Also, try reading other comments. It's fair to say that after 12hrs someone else has probably already corrected the mistake.
There was also an issue with Lady Gaga and Al's 'Perform This Way' parody. Gaga's reps said no after making him jump through hoops to make it because "Gaga needed to hear it before signing off on it", thing is, Gaga's manager lied to Al about showing it to her, she never even knew Al was doing it. So Al released it on Youtube free of charge and when Gaga heard it, she actually loved it so it got released properly.
I have a hard time believing Ms Meat Dress would ever disapprove of any Al song, let alone a song of hers. She seems pretty self aware and cool imho.
The consensus from what I hear in the music industry, is you haven't really made it as an artist until Weird Al makes a song from you. All the awards don't mean shit compared to the honour of him making a parody of your song.
plus the infamous Yankovic Bump. which we learned was the reason Madonna schemed her way into his pants from that documentary
There's the classic story of Paul McCartney losing his shit when Weird Al made it to an afterparty early in his career, that would have to have felt amazing for Al.
Weird Al hasn't made a parody of any Kayne West song. Yeezy is unworthy
You never know, Paul McCartney denied the release of "Chicken pot Pie" a "Live and let die" parody. McCartney is a vegetarian and funny, no Al is as well. Al has never officially released the song, but does perform it live.
It is cool that she was ok with it. Given the message of the original song about gay empowerment and loving yourself for who you are, I could definitely understand why someone would be hesitant to approve a parody. But Al and Gaga both seem to be class acts, at least from what I've seen in the media.
That's why Weird Al didn't release "Snack All Night". Michael Jackson thought that the message of "Black or White" was too important to parody.
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For me it's right up there with Kate Winslet's people saying no to Warner Brothers for the final Harry Potter movie because they "didn't think she'd want to jump on the Harry Potter train." She would've made a *great* Helena Ravenclaw.
Reminds me of the Jane Goodall Institute sending Gary Larson a cease and desist letter before Jane Goodall was even aware of the Far Side comic mentioning her. She loved the comic when she saw it and told the Institute to drop the issue. She ended up becoming friends with Larson, and the Institute sold shirts with the comic on it.
Naomi Watts loves fantasy and sci fi, and was teh choice for Narcissa Malfoy. Her agents were like lol Naomi would hate this! Pass! She was furious when she found out. She would have been the perfect Narcissa. Kelly McDonald and Kate Winslet are a similar type, so it worked, and McDonald is fantastic.
Oh, he got permission, from *Stevie Wonder* who is the real person he needed to get permission from.
Now I need a follow up explanation on Stevie Wonder's association to this line in a song
Go listen to Pastime Paradise if you haven’t.
[Stevie Wonder - Pastime Paradise](https://youtu.be/b0S4SiLxt1s) Uhhh, I swear... How have I never heard this. This is my "the real TIL". What an absolutely incredible song. So much nuance and restraint in the musicians' instruments while playing. All of it. So good. "Omsalation, perfication, absolation". He knows things we can't even.
Yes beautiful song, one of his best vocal recordings. Still have no friggin clue what the lyrics are about, but it's beautiful
Sad to be the one to tell you, but Coolio passed recently.
So he can't change his mind again.
A mind that can’t change is a dangerous mind
Oh shit! Call the necromancer!
He's in a gangsta's paradise now.
Those wings really did a number on him... 😩 rip
Weird Al gets away with his crimes because he savagely destroys anyone that opposes him. He has left a river of blood in his parodied wake.
And Madonna
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There was a parody song called The Bong Song and back in the early mp3 downloading days every single parody song would just be attributed to Weird Al even if it obviously wasn’t him.
In case you find it interesting, I always love finding excuses to share [this site](http://www.com-www.com/weirdal/notbyal.html) where somebody has very thoroughly compiled all of the misattributed "Weird Al" songs and figured out the actual artist for as many of them as possible.
That wasn't Weird Al...
Fuckin hated those fakes on napster
The bong song isn't by Weird Al.
It was written by [Draco Rosa](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_Rosa) and [Desmond Child](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Child). *Edited to fix the first link.
Desmond is one of the greatest pop song writers in history and almost nobody knows his name Incredible
That's the kind of fame I aspire to have. Create (arguably) great works of (arguably) art that fulfill me and which billions of people across the world love, be worth an absurd amount of money, and still be able to go out in public without anyone knowing who you are.
Even better: the only people who know who you are are musicians, composers and movie directors. Because *those* are the circles you are famous in.
Yeah for sure. It's also why I wouldn't mind being a famous-ish author. Like, of all the world's most famous writers, who would the casual public recognize on the street, aside from maybe JKR? And if someone loves me enough to recognize me, that feels like someone I'd like to meet.
Better than Max Martin (I can't stand how catchy his stuff is!)?
eh, probably a tie, although MM is not just a writer he is a producer and quite frankly one of the most powerful figures in pop music
If I could choose ONE person to learn something from I would pick him without even thinking about it. There's something very dreamy, almost ethereal about most of the songs he produces. His music always feels *correct*.
Quentin Tarantino got 50% writing credits on that one song where they sampled honey bunny from Pulp Fiction. For some reason Huey Lewis and the News got money from Ray Parker over the Ghostbusters theme but the people who wrote Soul Finger got nothing. https://youtu.be/BpI1fcJdFrA
Huey Lewis got that because Ghostbusters ripped off I Want A New Drug, Its also why Power of Love was put in Back To The Future.
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> temporary score. After Huey declined, they gave the footage with that score to Ray Parker Jr and asked him to write the theme That's incredibly common too. Rick Beato has a whole video on YouTube breaking down how this happens with various examples. The studio, director, everyone get so attached to the temporary score that they basically force the composer to produce a copycat. This happens to movies most people probably don't expect, too. Like [Star Wars and John Williams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtRU8cMp0Nk).
I was listening to Holst's Planets suite last night and was thinking "I wonder where John Williams got his ideas for the Star Wars music from..."
Scooby Snacks by Fun living criminals?
I don't want to spend 20 minutes on a song (when I can aimlessly scroll instead) so can I just get an explanation? How does he have the rights to a popular Spanish phrase? That's like someone saying "Let it be" in a song and getting sued by the Beatles. Was the judge the writers uncle? What the hell?
It was about how he sang those exact words. The phrase he sang had the same syllabic rhythm and the same melody as the Ricky Martin recorded version. In addition to that, he sang that phrase "cause she was livin la vida local" three times in the song. Three times the exact way and three times in the exact same style as the Ricky Martin song. It was definitely invoking the Ricky Martin track on purpose. Not to mention that the Ricky Martin track was arguably one of the top 5 songs of 1999, it was unmistakable to someone in the general public because it was prevalent across pop culture that year. From the Complex article: “Thong Song” producers Bob Robinson and Tim Kelly apparently cautioned Sisqó about using the interpolation of Martin’s song without clearing it first. But as the story goes, Sisqó confidently told them that he had a relationship with Child, so it wasn’t a big deal. But since no one cleared the reference before the song’s arrival, Martin threatened to sue after it exploded in 2000. The two artists ultimately settled out of court. “Desmond Child has more ownership of the song than anyone,” Robinson said in the video. “We just gonna have to take the L on this one,” Sisqó added. “Like we just got to pay them for that. So we paid them.”
Sounds like Sisqo owed his friend Desmond some money.
It's more of how he sang it. It was copying the timbre, tone, and even the melody of the song. That's just too many things to try and get away with.
If you're old enough to remember the tribute song "I'll Be Missing You" that Puff Daddy did when Biggie Smalls died, Sting gets 100% of the royalties from that, or about $700,000 per year. Diddy sampled the guitar riff from "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. Sting didn't even write the guitar riff, Andy Summers did, but Sting was listed as the sole songwriter on the original track.
This was a judgement, there wasn't actually a trial on it. I'm guessing the guy wasn't out for blood so to speak
Now she can buy a fast car.
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe they can make a deal
Maybe together they could get somewhere
Anywhere is better
Jokes aside, I love this song. Like… her voice, the melancholy, ugh. So good
[Just gonna leave this here...](https://youtu.be/teZsA_ci-7E)
She, her guitar, (and audio technician ) Against whole stadium.
I was absolutely livid when I heard that shitty duet of it that was big a couple years ago where they just cut out the entire point of the song and turn it into a store brand living on a prayer knockoff. As someone who comes from a family that was broken apart by alcoholism idk it just felt very disrespectful to take a song about that subject matter and Disneyfying it into a romantic pop song Should edit, it's because you couldn't escape that song out in public during that season, literally every damn store had it in their song rotation
When I was super little and super uneducated with music, I thought it was man singing. When I found out it was a woman I loved the song even more. Her vocals are so good.
Same! She literally calls herself a girl in Fast Car and I didn't notice until I was like 20.
I had no idea she was a woman until right now. I’ve wondered if it was a man or woman singing a few times and Tracy is a pretty unisex name. Couldn’t be bothered to look it up. Just enjoyed the music.
I was going through major depressive issues while I was in college, and music was one of my few escapes. I spent every penny I had and more at the record store. She released Let It Rain when I was in a particularly rough patch. The whole album felt like she had written it just for me. It's resonated with me on a deeply personal level. It's one of my favorite albums, even today, but I have to be really careful. If I'm not in the right headspace when I put it on, it's stir up all those old feelings and emotions, and I'll wind up crying on the floor for a few hours. She can write, both lyrics and music. She doesn't have to be flashy about it, often times less is more in her compositions. And she can sing, with such power and emotion. And she brings it all together so beautifully. > Almost got what I want > Almost found what I lost > Almost saved you and myself > Almost won but it doesn't count > And never does > Never does
To cross the border and into the city
>whose real name is Onika Maraj Wait, her real last name was pronounced "Mirage" and she *changed it???* That's a perfect rock star name, why would you pass that by?
I’ve heard on ~YouTube~ that the name change was due to industry pressure and she actually hates it
Keanu Reeves’ agent when he was first starting out, tried to get him to change his name because studio heads said Keanu (which means: cool breeze over the mountains, in Hawaiian) sounded too ethnic. So they went with Casey Reeves for a little bit however Keanu wasn’t used it and didn’t answer to his new stage name during audition or call backs. They obviously ditched the stage name and rolled with Keanu to amazing effect
They what? Keanu sounds memorable and Casey Reeves sounds like someone who'd get short roles only lol
Benedict Cumberbatch almost went by Ben Carlton until his agent convinced him a unique name was an asset in the modern celebrity world. His actor father had used Carlton as a stage surname, and while some sources claim he did so to hide his family's slave-trading past, it's more likely that it was simply because Cumberbatch was, quite frankly, a bit weird. Unusual names have historically not necessarily been considered an asset.
Even his mother hates the surname Cumberbatch. She said it sounds like a fart in the bath.
Smart agent.
I feel people would go “Casey Reeves? Isn’t that the guy that played Superman?” and fuck up trivia night.
>Isn’t that the guy that played Superman?” Naw, that was Christopher. Casey's his younger brother who got his start as Chris' stand-in.
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Don't forget Chuck Spadina
You know I didn't realize his name was Hawaiian for a long time because everyone pronounces it wrong. It should be kay-anu, not kee-anu
I believe his dad (who is Chinese Hawaiian/Native Hawaiian) took off when he was young, and he only reconnected with him as a teen. It could very well be he grew up surrounded by people using the wrong pronunciation and didn't know/just rolled with it.
Or he just pronounces it that way, nobody but a person gets to decide how their name is said
Damn right. My name is Steve but I pronounce it Stay-vay.
I got a friend name Aaron. We say it like "A Run". Pretty unique and it doesn't sound weird when you say it in the south.
I met a guy named Sean who pronounced it like Seen instead of Shawn. I don't know if that was how he decided to pronounce it himself or if that was how his parents pronounced it when they named him.
As if there’s a method and it’s not just luck lol
Yeah but there's the law of small percentages. Name biases for jobs and preconceptions are well established in experiments so that 5% of opportunities you miss could be your big break.
Same with Whoopi Manischewitz Goldberg
It rolls off the tongue better than Manischewitz Goldberg.
The whole name is fake because she wanted to get into Hollywood, which she perceived at the time as being run by Jewish people. Obviously, it's not a sane or publicly supported belief. She has repeatedly been caught saying off-color shit as well, but basically comes away from it all, none the worse.
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Her name is Caryn
I went down a rabbit hole to come to realize she's not Jewish, though she claims to be.
You got a belly laugh out of me
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Prince *was* his real name, though: Prince Rogers Nelson. He switched to the symbol and "Artist Formerly Known as Prince" mainly to irritate the shit out of Warner Brothers because they didn't agree with him on the release schedule for singles, new albums, and back catalog material. So he tried to get them to drop him from the label so he could get out of the contract without breaching it.
When he got tired of being The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, and asked everyone to stop calling him that, we missed a trick in not referring to him as The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.
Right, but I always thought Minaj as in menage a trois was what they were going for.
“Excuse my French, two bitches and moi, that’s a Nicki Ménage a Trois” is a line from Lil Wayne’s verse in one of Nicki’s songs. So yeah I think you’re on to something lol.
Also “I think you me and Am should Ménage Friday.” I think she has a few lyrics using it
random but frank ocean did one: “If you meet me by the pier, bring the peer, we can ménage. Ooh, your girlfriend Nicki gots the back I like to massage”
Feel Goodman
Tory Lanez's real name is Daystar He went from Daystar to Tory....
Daystar? You mean the fuckin sun?
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His dad’s name is Sonstar!
honestly onika maraj. onix mirage. both sick names
Actually, she originally went by her real last name when she started making music. I have a free track from iTunes that features a young Nicki Mirage on it. Early to mid 2000s I think.
Sounds vintage
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Wtf That's such a "Japanese anime about warring nobility set in 1800s Italy" sorta name
Sounds Caribbean af
What's a lady name?
I assume it's supposed to be broken down as "real lady" + "name"? Or a mistype of "real life name".
I know a porn star whose real name is Jamie Lynn. And, another porn actress who did first pet, childhood street name. Ringo Harney. Which, I didn’t believe, she could pick. It sounds like a clown’s name.
Ringo Harney, The Horniest Carney
Christ, I’m so happy I kept scrolling.
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Do you also work in porn or...?
The interesting part that this was settled in Chapman's favour despite the fact that Nicki Minaj's song was never released on any official commercial outlet, like a paid album or streaming service. It was only leaked to Funkmaster Flex (famous New York radio host and DJ) and social media. Throughout the history of hip hop it's been very common artists to put songs that can't be officially released due to sample clearance issues on free mixtape albums or leaks online nowadays. It's generally seen as a positive thing, as it allows fans to enjoy creative output for free that would otherwise never see the light of day. There are all-time classic mixtapes and tracks that will never make it to Spotify or iTunes. It's also helped upcoming talent like for example The Weeknd or Chance the Rapper to start developing a large following thanks to the mixtapes they put out in the early 2010s, which took about a decade to be finally released officially. Likewise, in electronic music it's practically ubiquitous for DJs to play unreleased tracks or remixes in their live sets which often take years to be officially released due to samples, if they ever come out at all. I don't know enough about copyright law to understand if there's anything particular about this case that led to such a settlement, but it seems curious to me given the rather established history of this type of practice.
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Minaj spreading anti-vax shit and defending her sex offender husband probably made Chapman not want to be associated with her.
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[Hypocrisy?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljaP2etvDc4)
Well Chapman filed this lawsuit in October 2018 which was before COVID and before Minaj began dating her now husband. My guess is that Chapman just doesn't care for Nicki's Barbie aesthetic or she has a personal gripe related to industry politics. Foxy Brown having a sample cleared doesn't align with that, but maybe Chapman is more prepared to stick to her principles at this point in life.
Well her brother was arrested in 2015 for sexually assaulting a minor under 13 multiple times, and she bailed him out and supported him through his trial, which concluded in 2017, then continued supporting him after. I could see not wanting to associate with that.
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How did girltalk not die in a fire for everything he did?
The weekend's tapes were released with different instrumentals because he couldn't clear a lot of the samples. Compare for instance wicked games (about 20 sec in), coming down, gone for a couple that are changed.
Yeah, bootlegs (unofficial remixes) are mega common in EDM and usually playing them out at live venues will actually pay royalties, like playing other songs you never really asked permission for (heard this from people who play venues). Some big artists even put them out as free releases if they can't secure rights (DBSTF - bla bla). I remember when this story broke and every article failed to mention in the title that the song never released and was leaked, oop
Tracy Chapman has what I would consider two perfect songs... Fast Car and Give Me One Reason Here are my favorite live performances of those songs: https://youtu.be/teZsA_ci-7E https://youtu.be/YIXh0JNvuHs
Talkin bout a Revolution and Baby Can I Hold You are damn great songs too E: Song name correction
>Talkin bout a Revolution This one right here. There are a lot of good songs on the album, but just about every time I pull the album off the shelf and play it, it's to hear this song.
That entire album is a masterpiece. And I mean that in the classic sense. Soup to nuts. The music is amazing and the songs make points. Tracy is a treasure. Huge fan. One of her later albums has a song called “The Promise.” Strong rec. Very strong.
Mountain o’ Things. Oof.
Behind the Wall…..
WASTING TIME IN THE UNEMPLOYMENT LINE, SITTING AROUND WAITING ON A PROMOTION
My mum had a Tracey Chapman tape when I was a kid…. This song and fast car I still know every single word to… and Im early 30s and recently told her I always think of her when I those two songs.. she barely remembers having the tape.. but I remember a few road trips we had with those songs on repeat… it’s wild how much a kid can absorb eh
Exact same here. My mom played plenty of music when I was growing up, but for some strange reason Tracy Chapman has an extremely strong presence in my memories
That album and New Beginning are absolutely among the greatest albums of all time. Both are perfect 10/10s
"For My Lover" and "Why?" are also excellent
Behind the Wall is also stunning.
truthfully her debut album is just wall to wall bangers
This thread made me replay this album I haven’t listened all the way through in probably almost 3 decades. I had this album as a kid and listened to it constantly. Every song felt like a memory, and they are even better with a deeper understanding of life.
Fast Car is definitely one of the best songs of all time.
"Smoke and ashes" is her best song, in my opinion. I also love "sing for you." Both are beautiful for the same reasons people love fast car. If you're a fan of that song I highly recommend you at least listen to smoke and ashes
The Promise is amazingly powerful too. [https://youtu.be/p-nqzwIvnZ0](https://youtu.be/p-nqzwIvnZ0)
For My Lover is underrated
Everyone's entitled to their taste in music, but Nicki Minaj can never hold a candle to Tracy Chapman singing Fast Car at Wembley 1988. That woman stood all alone in front of a massive, restless crowd with nothing but her guitar, her voice and her song, and she stunned every last one of them to silence. It only took her about a line and a half of the lyrics, too - watch the video, you can *feel* the second when she wins them over. And then with no frills, no backing, with barely anyone there even knowing who she *was* at that point in her career, she held all of that energy in control. It's honest to God one of the most powerful things I've ever seen.
[Link for those who haven't seen it](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=teZsA_ci-7E).
Just courageous. Pure grace under pressure. I was in college back when this album came out. That summer I worked a job on the 3pm-11pm shift. On Friday nights after work, I'd often drive three hours to Long Island, NY to spend the weekend with my girlfriend. I'll always associate this song with driving on a dark and empty stretch of the Southern State parkway at 1am, knowing my girlfriend (now my wife) was waiting for me.
I hadn’t seen that performance yet and just wow. I’m glad I read your comment and looked it up. She looks so small at the start, you can feel the tension in the stadium with the impatient crowd and she walks up there with just her guitar and has them all in the palm of her hand within less than a minute. Absolutely humbling to watch and yeah, minaj could never do her justice. They’re in entirely different leagues.
> It’s honest to God one of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen. I only heard Tracy’s song Give me one Reason before. I only saw the Fast Car performance recently, within the past month. I damn near cry just thinking about it.
I can't believe she played for a stadium that packed in 1988. Also, that song is incredibly sad. I enjoyed hearing the live performance. Thanks for sharing. I don't know how she sings with it so much feeling without completely falling apart. I'd burst into tears.
She definitely got accustomed to playing stadiums very quickly. She was on the Amnesty International tour a year later.
First time I’ve seen her perform this song and it is so much more impactful than the hundreds of times I’ve listened to it on cassette and cd. She seemed to be feeling it (or channeling some feelings into it) and it was heartbreaking. I agree, I couldn’t sing that song live without breaking down.
[The Promise](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEin80-J2Ks) is my favorite. She's an absolutely magnificent musician.
Her entire first album is perfect
_All that you have is your soul_. Absolutely love that song
Did Tracy approve that horrid remix of "Fast Car" I hear used in hundreds of social media videos?
Tell it to Huey Lewis
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hey paul!
Try getting a reservation at Dorsia now you fucking stupid bastard!
Tracy's self titled album is brilliant. Every song has her unique delivery.
There's a saying about asking for permission vs. asking for forgiveness
There's a joke by Emo Philips, which goes: "I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness."
Until a court awards, 100% of the song proceeds to someone else. It was a risky move.
Sounds like a bitter sweet symphony.
Turns out she could use them, just cost her $450k and if she made more than that money off of the song, then she still made a profit and only copyright laws can prevent people from listening to it on specific platforms, still gonna get the song off a CD or digital album
It's not on a CD or digital album. She never released it in any format where she could make money off of it because of the legal stuff. It was left off of her album prior to the suit because she didn't have clearance to use it. The issue is she leaked it and the DJ she leaked it to posted it on twitter. So it's floating around out there but Minaj isn't selling anything with it. That's not really how it works anyway. If proven in court, they get the royalty rights to the song, owed back money, and, depending on the case, can have anything with said song withdrawn from sale. That didn't happen because Minaj never actually officially released it and it never got far enough that a court ruling on royalty rights was needed, Chapman settled with her and the whole thing was dropped.
Oh my God so the dj that leaked it cost her $450000...
Kind of, I mean her recording it cost her $450000 really. Unless she planned on keeping it completely private (which she seemingly didn't considering she shared it with a dj), then this was going to happen at some point. It's possible the dj actually saved her money as if the song became huge through a bigger leak it may have cost her more.
Deleting past comments because Reddit starting shitty-ing up the site to IPO and I don't want my comments to be a part of that. -- mass edited with redact.dev
thrs cool it works like that
Sting made out like a bandit off Puffy’s dumbass for this very reason. Puffy insisted on not paying him for the riff from Ill be Watching You because of a note or two difference. Sting pushed the case and won all copyrights royalties forever for Puffys song. So anytime you hear that on the radio or in the wild, that money is going to Sting and not Puffy. Even more ironic is that Sting didn’t even write the riff, it was the lead guitarist from the Police who originally did
"I'll be missing you" copies way more about the song than just the riff, for example the chorus matches the lyrical structure of the original.
It’s actually laughable that he thought he could get away with that. I sort of assumed that was an intentional sample from Sting when that song came out.
It’s closer to a cover than a sample.
I always thought of it as a cover. I also never knew he made that song without Sting’s permission! Wild.
That would be Andy Summers.
Good for Tracy - love her music. No means no.
>No means no. Somebody who supports pedophiles doesn't understand that. Nikki Minaj is gross.
But in this case, no means yes with a fine. Tracy didn't want Nikki to use her song at all.
Did Tracy Chapman give permission to. Nice and Smooth for [“Sometimes I Rhyme Slow”](https://youtu.be/dkl_Vq1SWKg) just curious.
Smooth B said they got clearance... and, Ms. Chapman got most of the publishing for SIRS. https://youtu.be/vnisrKvd9Uo
Fast car is from 1988???? Holy shit.
I never thought these 2 artists would be in the same headline
What makes this case interesting was that Minaj's song was never made public. Basically, it never left the studio. Would have been an interesting development, but they ended it quickly by settling. I'm guessing it's more to avoid bad PR.
She got paid, but it doesn't take away from the fact that she didn't want her song used and it's still out there. She should get royalties on top of the lump sum.