Lizzo has some robust emotions about sampling legal guidelines.
The 37-year-old appeared on Million Dollaz Worth of Gamethe place, amid discussing the launch of her newest mixtape, My Face Hurts from Smilingshe declared that the origins of sampling legal guidelines are “racist.”
“The first time people started sampling was who? It was rappers in the 80s and 90s,” she stated at round the 36:30 minute mark.
“They were sampling records because they didn’t have access to big studios. They didn’t grow up learning how to play bass and stuff like that. They created the genre of hip-hop through sampling records in their parents’ vinyls and stuff. There were no sampling laws back then.,” she added. “It was all a free-for-all. So, they was just outside, just like, ‘Okay, this is just what it is.’ And then hip-hop was born, and it was this beautiful thing.”
izzo then mistakenly cited Sir Mix-a-Lot as the first rapper to get sued for sampling music, when she might need been occupied with Biz Markie. In 1991, music writer Grand Upright Music sued him and his label, Warner Bros. Records, for a pattern he used on his I Need a Haircut album monitor, “Alone Again.” Rather than ask for royalties, Warner was directed to shelve Markie’s album till the music was eliminated.
Prior to that, in 1989, The Turtles sued De La Soul for a pattern used on the rap group’s album, 3 Feet High and Rising. The case was settled out of courtroom.
“I just feel like the theft of it all, putting theft on black culture, that’s the part that kind of turns me off,” Lizzo added. “Hip-hop’s medium was sampling. Sampling is a Black art that bred hip-hop. Hip-hop was born from sampling. And now sampling is synonymous with theft.”
She then clarified that she believes the “origins” of sampling legal guidelines had been “racially charged.”
“It was policing Black art,” she said. “I think now, of course, they had to regulate some sort of thing, and there’s certain things that are fair and unfair. I get it. But when you’re suing people off of a vibe, it’s like, man, that’s the vibe of my song.”
Lizzo has been beforehand outspoken about how racism has impacted her music, when she talked to Entertainment Weekly about the “racist origin” of pop music.
‘I feel if folks did any analysis they’d see that there was race music after which there was pop music,” she stated.