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George Clinton Wins Rights To Four Landmark Albums
George Clinton and his George Clinton Enterprises won a major victory last week, when a court granted Clinton complete rights and control of four influential albums, which he claimed were swindled from him.
On Thursday, United States District Court Judge Manuel L. Real returned rights and control to four albums produced: Hardcore Jollies, One Nation Under A Groove, Uncle Jam Wants You and The Electric Spanking of War Babies.
Clinton received the rights after a 15 year battle free and clear, with no obligations to any of the previous owners.
The judge ruled that Clinton was defrauded of his masters in a case of conspiracy involving former employees, his lawyers and a former manager.
In various lawsuits, the former employees claimed Clinton had signed the rights to his masters away.
Clinton denied signing any masters and a document expert supported his denial. Five documents that were alleged to be assignment papers were found to be cut-and-paste forgeries.
According to George Clinton Enterprises, the victory is the start of Clinton regaining control over his catalog and exposing the history of exploitation he has endured throughout his career, which spans 5 decades.
Clinton often encouraged rapper’s to sample his work despite not owning the rights to the catalog.
He produced two albums, Sample Some of Dis and Sample Some of Dat, which allowed artists to sample music without legal scrutiny.
Clinton spoke on the issue over 14 years ago in an interview with the Houston Press.
“I suspect that the industry again is trying to do to rap what they tried to do to funk, and that's kill it because it's got to much information, and spreading of information,” Clinton said in 1992. “So what we've done to keep them [the labels] from all this stupidity, like trying to sue, or saying that I'm suing people, is to put out a record called Sample Some of Dis and Sample Some of Dat - just samples from alot of the old songs, because I have some of the demos of those songs, which is not what the record company owns, so I can license those to be sampled. We have a pay schedule that's really easy to deal with - if they sell records, they pay, if they don't they can try again. We got to make sure that rap survives, because it's our only means of communication that gets past the gatekeepers.”
Here is a “sample” of the rappers who have incorporated material from just these four albums Clinton produced into their own material: DJ Quik, Dr Dre, EPMD, Ice Cube, LL Cool J, Steady B., Jeru tha Damaja, XClan, Too $hort, De La Soul, Geto Boys, Paris, Snoop Dogg, Tone Loc, Yo-Yo, Eric B. & Rakim, Slick Rick, etc.
Source: allhiphop.com
On Thursday, United States District Court Judge Manuel L. Real returned rights and control to four albums produced: Hardcore Jollies, One Nation Under A Groove, Uncle Jam Wants You and The Electric Spanking of War Babies.
Clinton received the rights after a 15 year battle free and clear, with no obligations to any of the previous owners.
The judge ruled that Clinton was defrauded of his masters in a case of conspiracy involving former employees, his lawyers and a former manager.
In various lawsuits, the former employees claimed Clinton had signed the rights to his masters away.
Clinton denied signing any masters and a document expert supported his denial. Five documents that were alleged to be assignment papers were found to be cut-and-paste forgeries.
According to George Clinton Enterprises, the victory is the start of Clinton regaining control over his catalog and exposing the history of exploitation he has endured throughout his career, which spans 5 decades.
Clinton often encouraged rapper’s to sample his work despite not owning the rights to the catalog.
He produced two albums, Sample Some of Dis and Sample Some of Dat, which allowed artists to sample music without legal scrutiny.
Clinton spoke on the issue over 14 years ago in an interview with the Houston Press.
“I suspect that the industry again is trying to do to rap what they tried to do to funk, and that's kill it because it's got to much information, and spreading of information,” Clinton said in 1992. “So what we've done to keep them [the labels] from all this stupidity, like trying to sue, or saying that I'm suing people, is to put out a record called Sample Some of Dis and Sample Some of Dat - just samples from alot of the old songs, because I have some of the demos of those songs, which is not what the record company owns, so I can license those to be sampled. We have a pay schedule that's really easy to deal with - if they sell records, they pay, if they don't they can try again. We got to make sure that rap survives, because it's our only means of communication that gets past the gatekeepers.”
Here is a “sample” of the rappers who have incorporated material from just these four albums Clinton produced into their own material: DJ Quik, Dr Dre, EPMD, Ice Cube, LL Cool J, Steady B., Jeru tha Damaja, XClan, Too $hort, De La Soul, Geto Boys, Paris, Snoop Dogg, Tone Loc, Yo-Yo, Eric B. & Rakim, Slick Rick, etc.
Source: allhiphop.com