How The F*** Does Alchemist Dodge Sample Clearances?

[TheDarceKnight]

Some of his verses on the gangrene stuff are pretty dope.

Also Different Worlds is an all time Hip Hop classic. The concept and execution of that record was perfect.

No doubt. I always thought this was a good picture painting verse by any standard. You can actually picture what he’s talking about pretty vividly.

 

[Greenhornet]

What's up with cats sidestepping talking points lately... its the new trend of shyt happening
The post is about clearing samples, the only time you would need to clear samples is streaming
or distribution. We arent talking about "alternative ways to sample without making a profit" Alchemist is famous my nikka
he has classic shyt for years. The only way you are going to get radio spins or streams is if you are on that shyt.

80%-90% of his collabs are on streaming .. the question the thread starter asked is how? who cleared that shyt
cause either alchemist clears it, then charges you an outrageous price per beat. Or you pay to clear it... take for instance
the westsidedoom shyt ... who's paying to clear it, doom? griselda? When it releases it's going to be on streaming media
So who pays the crazy amount to clear every sample? same with prodigy shyt and everyone else. These cats would hardly
break even coming out of pocket to clear an album. That free non profit shyt is bullshyt because these albums are up and cleared
right now on all sites and apps. Everyone knows you can obviously hustle mixtapes and not clear shyt my dude, but thats not the case
at all with any of these projects... from Odd future mixtape to Action Bronson, all of this shyt had to be cleared.



nikkas eurostep talking points

this is the 4th time today that shyt happened. The logic behind dodging talking points can be stretched so far that its comical. Say you were right, fukk it then... lets never clear shyt and just drive around handing mixtapes out thats not reality. Had some dude say earlier "Why didnt the quarterback reach and get the first down".... this other dude said "Because there's chance he could fumble" nikka obviously, but the point is to get the first down. Might as well not throw the ball ever too cause it might get intercepted, might as well retire cause you could get a boo boo. Might as well not get out of bed because you might have a bad day shyt gets wild frustrating talking to people lately. Every time someone states the obvious, you can stretch that shyt for miles.

 

[fukkyalifestyle]

kanye west is def one of the greatest producers and we see how crazy he is so @TheDarceKnight has a great point. Actually pretty much every artist is weird but producers gotta be extra weird.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

What's up with cats sidestepping talking points lately... its the new trend of shyt happening
The post is about clearing samples, the only time you would need to clear samples is streaming
or distribution. We arent talking about "alternative ways to sample without making a profit" Alchemist is famous my nikka
he has classic shyt for years. The only way you are going to get radio spins or streams is if you are on that shyt.

80%-90% of his collabs are on streaming .. the question the thread starter asked is how? who cleared that shyt
cause either alchemist clears it, then charges you an outrageous price per beat. Or you pay to clear it... take for instance
the westsidedoom shyt ... who's paying to clear it, doom? griselda? When it releases it's going to be on streaming media
So who pays the crazy amount to clear every sample? same with prodigy shyt and everyone else. These cats would hardly
break even coming out of pocket to clear an album. That free non profit shyt is bullshyt because these albums are up and cleared
right now on all sites and apps. Everyone knows you can obviously hustle mixtapes and not clear shyt my dude, but thats not the case
at all with any of these projects... from Odd future mixtape to Action Bronson, all of this shyt had to be cleared.



nikkas eurostep talking points

this is the 4th time today that shyt happened. The logic behind dodging talking points can be stretched so far that its comical. Say you were right, fukk it then... lets never clear shyt and just drive around handing mixtapes out thats not reality. Had some dude say earlier "Why didnt the quarterback reach and get the first down".... this other dude said "Because there's chance he could fumble" nikka obviously, but the point is to get the first down. Might as well not throw the ball ever too cause it might get intercepted, might as well retire cause you could get a boo boo. Might as well not get out of bed because you might have a bad day shyt gets wild frustrating talking to people lately. Every time someone states the obvious, you can stretch that shyt for miles.

I spoke on this earlier. My bad. You do not have to clear samples just to post something up on Apple Music, Spotify, etc. We put a project up a couple years ago with no cleared samples on iTunes, all that.

But if you don’t cheat them you’re running a risk of people coming after you.

It’s not a barrier to get on most streaming platforms though.

Most of the stuff of his that gets cleared is not cleared by him personally (ie. TDE clears his work with Q or Kendrick). Usually that’s one or two peoples jobs.

Like with madgibbs on bandana. Someone at RCA was paid to handle all the clearances.

Most if not all of Al’s stuff currently on vinyl and streaming are not cleared. His stuff that was mostly all cleared prior to 2010 was cleared by labels like Koch, G-Unit, Loud, Atlantic, etc.

Edit: If you’re referring to me it’s a misunderstanding because I worked in the industry around some of the same circles and I’m not trying to dodge anything. I really want to help.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

@Greenhornet after you read my latest reply above....

One time we were working with 9th Wonder and the sample clearance person said “so what did you sample for this track?”

And he said “there’s no sample “

They said “ c’mon fam. We know there is.”

He said “ I said there’s no sample.”

So they said “ okay if you insist.”

Everyone knew it was a sample but it was a 1 bar loop from the most obscure shyt ever and a chop that will probably never be caught.

So you can also straight up lie about it. At this point if that sample did get discovered, the record it got put on is not selling anything in 2019, so the sample holders would not be likely to go after it...assuming the holding company even exists anymore.

A lot of sample rights fall through the cracks to where no one even owns that shyt anymore.

It gets even blurrier when producers buy drum kits or packs of pre-made, royalty-free music that’s made and sold with the intention to be sampled by beatmakers...and a lot of that music ironically has uncleared samples in it.


Again I feel like I might be making the waters muddier. I’m just trying to show how complicated this shyt gets, and there’s not really a concrete answer.

The simplest and most direct answer for how he avoids clearing samples is that he (Or anyone on his behalf) doesn’t clear 95% of them. The few times they do get paid the rapper/label pays, or sometimes Al pays out of his own pocket if it’s on his own imprint.

Koch (the same label we worked with for Chitlin Circuit 1.5 cleared maybe 1-2 samples on there, tops.) they released Al’s 1st Infantry album the year before, and I’m pretty sure the only 3 out of 18 joints on there that got cleared were the samples for Hold You Down, Tick Tock with Prodigy and Nas, and the B-Real/Cypress joint because it was a famous and well known Doobie Brothers chop.

I’m pretty sure Koch wouldn’t have tried to clear Hold You Down either of Soon You’ll Understand hadn’t been released on a major label. Everyone knew that sample already when Hold You Down dropped so they couldn’t get away with it.

Yo I mean Stones Throw and Rhymesayers are maybe the 2 biggest indie labels and they don’t even bother clearing everything.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

So last night I was wrong about the 1st Infantry got their samples cleared. I checked the liner notes from the vinyl this morning (ugliest album cover ever by the way). It looks like Tracy McNew handled the sample clearances and didn’t have much work to do

Hold You Down - Al Kooper sample
Bang Out - Doobie Brothers sample
Strength of Pain - The B. B. & Q. Band

That’s it.

Some of his verses on the gangrene stuff are pretty dope.

Also Different Worlds is an all time Hip Hop classic. The concept and execution of that record was perfect.

Just curious, which version you like better? I like the OG because it was given to my on vinyl and that's when I was just starting to understand how beats were made. It was one of the first times I was able to hear a producer from my era rap and explain their story. It also put me onto Twins. Anyways, I thought the OG vinyl version sounded more raw than the version that ended up on the 1st Infantry album.

Abd speaking of samples to this day I don’t think this one has been discovered.

Spoiler

 

[grazazaza]

He had this thing he did (especially on tracks with Prodigy, Havoc, Twins, and often with Oh No) where he sort of takes on this exaggerated violent crazy person persona. There’s often Looney Tunes levels of exaggerated violence and he uses a really fake ultra deep voice

LMAO you hit the bulls eye with this post! This the same way i feel when ALC is on that goofy violent rap shyt

 

[Calmye]

He pays his bills

 

[Dead End]

Timbo caught a case for Big Pimping and that was some obscure middle eastern record.

One of the most popular and most known rap songs in the world, and it only happened decades later once whoever owned the publishing realized they could make some money. Not the same as what Alc is doing

 

[EA]

One of the most popular and most known rap songs in the world, and it only happened decades later once whoever owned the publishing realized they could make some money. Not the same as what Alc is doing

I was just using Big Pimping as an example of songs on major labels not getting cleared. @TheDarceKnight explained it perfectly with how labels don’t clear samples (or producers straight up not declaring a sample). It all depends on what they think the reach will be.

 

[darealvelle]

@TheDarceKnight dropping gems on these cats.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

@TheDarceKnight dropping gems on these cats.

And for what it’s worth I honestly think the more interesting discussion is whether it’s ethical or not to release sampled music without clearing it first.

That’s an entirely different topic, and I’m actually not sure where I stand on it because I understand arguments on both sides.

But I am definitely happy to drop information and provide some trivia and fun facts whenever I can

 

[ShaDynasty]

One of the most popular and most known rap songs in the world, and it only happened decades later once whoever owned the publishing realized they could make some money. Not the same as what Alc is doing

And IIRC the claimant lost the case, the original track wasn't copyrighted in the US or Europe. It seems that they paid for a license to use it outside of Egypt, then the artists nephew wanted a pay cut.

I hate that, like the Robin Thicke lawsuit, what a complete load if nonsense that was. The song literally doesn't take any melody or sound from the Marvin record, and the people claiming were his estate What a bunch of lazy fukking chancers.

 

[Black Ball]

Yo this reminds me of this track

 

[Alvin]

Yo this reminds me of this track

same sample