Hip-Hopping Mad Over Beats and Hooks

Traditionally emcees have fought things out through their music. One of the most famous quarrels unfolded in 2001 between Jay-Z and Nas over who was the most original emcee. Jay-Z admitted to appropriating a Nas lyric about gun violence, then justified his actions by casting aspersions on Nas's talent. "So yeah, I sampled your voice, you was using it wrong. You made it a hot line, I made it a hot song."

Jay-Z is again the current target of plagiarism charges. Critics accuse him of "biting" lyrics from more than a dozen artists, including Dr. Dre, Tupac and his mentor Biggie Smalls, a.k.a the Notorious B.I.G., who died in a 1997 drive-by shooting. (Memo to classical music fans: Biting means ripping off another person's style.)

Jay-Z has offered his defense in his music. "I'm not a biter, I'm a writer for myself and others. If I say a 'BIG' verse, I'm just biggin' up my brother," he rapped on "The Black Album." Jay-Z considers his appropriation a tribute to rap's greats, without whose past creativity he could never have become a rap superstar.

Stealing from slain icons is one thing, but what about when living icons steal from little nobodies? Here, legal threats appear to be a new form of old behavior. In Virginia, a little-known emcee named Face Dirty is talking about filing a lawsuit and accusing Fat Joe of stealing the hook and melody for last summer's club hit "Lean Back." Mississippi artists Reese & Bigelow are threatening a suit against Bone Crusher for stealing "Never Scared."

If these cases are simply small artist attempts to extort money from established stars, the nobodies shouldn't hold their breath. Federal courts handling cases involving lyrics and beats have been applying copyright standards and setting some new precedents.

The first is that unknown artists should be wary of giving their demos to big names. In March, a court dismissed a lawsuit by Philadelphia songwriter Michael Lowe, who claimed that Dr. Dre and Xzibit plagiarized his beats on Xzibit's "Relentless" album. Lowe said he gave a demo recording of a beat to one of Dre's associates specifically so that the associate could pass it along to Dre. Dre got the copy, liked it and ended up using the track. While Lowe claimed that Dre and Xzibit needed to provide evidence that they had a copyright on the beat, the court ruled the opposite. It was Lowe who needed to show that he owned the copyright.

A second established precedent seems possible for lyrics and catch phrases. Similarities between different versions of identically titled songs may not be enough to imply a copyright violation. The precedent here may emerge from a 2005 ruling involving Cash Money artist Juvenile's hit "Back That Azz Up." Juvenile released the track in 1997, the same year that New Orleans DJ Jubilee released "Back That Ass Up." After Juvenile's version turned out to be a hit, Jubilee registered for a copyright and filed a lawsuit on the same day.

Despite the almost identical names, Jubilee was unable to prove that his version was significantly similar to Juvenile's. Jubilee's lawyers introduced newspaper articles commenting that the two songs were strongly alike. Juvenile's team, meanwhile, called musicologists to the stand claiming, among other things, that while Jubilee's hook was in the major key of A-flat, Juvenile's was in D minor. Ultimately, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled in favor of the differences. Jubilee's hook was a unique "Back That Ass Up," it said, while Juvenile's hook was actually a sample of the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back."

Ludacris and West might take heart from the Juvenile case, but whatever the legal outcome may be, hip-hop's courtroom rows separate this music from its cultural traditions. If emcees continue parsing the smallest differences between songs, they may foster a hazy legal compromise and extend a culture known for bending old creations in new ways. But it'll be a long way from the roots of this raw music. To see Ludacris and I.O.F. fight it out in court instead of a club puts to rest dreams of an old school renaissance. To bite an LL Cool J. line, don't call it a comeback.

Author's e-mail: jpbalz@hotmail.com