RIAA goes after mix-tapes

New York Times: "Now DJ Drama is yet another symbol of the music industry’s turmoil and confusion. On Tuesday night he was arrested with Don Cannon, a protege. The police, working with the Recording Industry Association of America, raided his office, at 147 Walker Street in Atlanta. The association makes no distinction between counterfeit CDs and unlicensed compilations like those that DJ Drama is known for. So the police confiscated 81,000 discs, four vehicles, recording gear, and “other assets that are proceeds of a pattern of illegal activity,” said Chief Jeffrey C. Baker, from the Morrow, Ga., police department, which participated in the raid."

"The compilations produced by DJ Drama and his protégés are known as mixtapes, though they appear on CDs, not cassettes. Mixtapes have become a vital part of the hip-hop world. They are often the only way for listeners to keep up with a genre that moves too quickly to be captured on albums."


Not sure what's more disturbing -- that the RIAA doesn't understand the influence of mixtapes in helping to 'make' the next hot hip-hop artists, or that swat teams are raiding homes in what should be a civil matter... Argh.