ANTI-'PIRACY' LUNACY / WOUNDED BEASTY

Speaking of legal horseshit and the music biz - what DO you get in return for playing a key role in the marketing of the year's biggest-selling rap album (T.I.) and putting out a watershed mixtape (Weeeezy) by one of the best young rappers in the game?  Background here - pic via Smoking Section - 

Shit is baffling, I think/hope maybe Breihan's right on this:

I don't know if Kilgo was the one who actually spearheaded the raid, but he seems totally unaware that he's messing with an integral part of the music industry, that Drama has a major-label deal and a Rolodex full of label contacts, that he's standing behind T.I. on the cover of this month's XXL. This raid is the first time the RIAA has gone directly after a big-name mixtape DJ, and they've gone after probably the single biggest name in that world. So maybe I'm just being naive here, but I don't think the raid represents a sea change in the music industry's tolerance of mixtapes, mostly because the music industry doesn't employ any evil masterminds smart enough to orchestrate a sweeping change in policy like that. More likely, it's just another example of the industry's staggering incompetence and disorganization, a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. My guess is that Kilgo and his boss heard about the mixtape trade somewhere and decided to lash out against it without bothering to figure out how much the major labels depend on those mixtapes. Either Kilgo is doing an amazing acting job in that news broadcast or he has no idea that he's fucking with the mechanics of his industry...

We'll see.  The music industry is a mortally wounded beast, willing to lash out randomly at consumers, retailers, and now artists in its insane, utterly futile protracted death throes.  I'm sure this won't be the end of the ugliness, but rest assured that there is no hope at all for the RIAA in the long term.