I will assume that all of you people that selected DJ DRAMA as one of your artists in the cRap Music Fantasy League are excited about the points you earned with his arrest and indictment on Federal racketeering charges. From the gate, the case smelled like week old vomit sitting on a New Orleans sidewalk. The more I learn about DJ DRAMA’s operation the more I see the classic set up.
DRAMA and the record industry were getting high together and selling dope together as partners. I say that metaphorically although I’m sure that someone in the record industry was sniffing coke. Those people do that a lot. The record industry was giving DJ DRAMA the music that he put on his mixtape CD’s. The record industry needed DRAMA because of his strong influence and connection to the southern markets for urban music. Although CD sales for the entire industry are flagging no matter what genre, DRAMA and the Aphiliates were operating a thriving business. This is incredible news since the CD format and the current record industry model are broken beyond repair.
CD’s now are the equivalent of cassette tapes back in 1987. In five more years the format will be totally obsolete. The recording industry has failed to accept and cultivate a new model that the public seeks and now the chickens are coming home to roost. Products like DJ DRAMA’s CD mixtapes were the industry’s last gasp for life. They provided the consumer the best possible product within the CD format. They also served as a platform for the emergence of new artists. Without the mixtape market how would FISTY SCENT have created the demand for his major label release album? Mixtapes had become the new A & R system for the music industry and that alone was making money for labels because it was saving them the expense of grooming these artists with the traditional A & R protocol.
But all of that wasn’t enough to save DJ DRAMA from the public humiliation and the soon to follow legal costs that he will be saddled with. DJ DRAMA got into the bed with a snake and there really couldn’t be any other outcome. Let’s see what happens when the mainstream media starts kicking in the doors of bloggers because we have a better model for disseminating information to their communities.
