Click HERE to read Jeff Weiss’s full article about the mixtape usage of a sample and the lawsuit that followed
Excerpt:
Dan Weisman, the manager of Washington, D.C.–based rapper Wale, whose Seinfeld-themed Mixtape About Nothingraised the bar for the genre upon its release earlier this year, thinks the case is more about a missed opportunity for Urband & Lazar. The company owned the rights to a song that saw a sudden and meteoric rise, but didn’t properly capitalize on it. Swanepoel’s “Once” was eventually released this May by Urband and Lazar’s label, U&L Records, but the window of opportunity had passed.

“I don’t think the song itself did anything for Wayne’s career other than to add to his vast, uncleared mixtape catalog,” says Weisman. “On Da Draught 3,he used the Prince sample from ‘Diamonds and Pearls,’ and who knows how much it filtered down? But Prince didn’t sue — and he’s the most aggressive copyright enforcer there is. A girl like Karma, who most people hadn’t heard of prior, shouldn’t have freaked out but rather thanked her lucky stars that the most popular rapper in the world wanted to sample her.” Weisman adds that the publishers missed the chance to turn Swanepoel into a 2007 version of Dido, who jump-started her career on the back of Eminem’s “Stan.”