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Straight Official Sit Downs: T Barz

T BARZ stopped by the Straight Official Headquarters for this edition of Straight Official Sit Downs. The official one-on-one with The Worldwide Fleet DJs. @klassikceo served up the questions and their vibe was indeed dope. Check it out down below and click here for more of the Straight Official Sit Downs.

Q&A WITH T BARZ

What is your Name? Where are you from and what first got you interested in the entertainment industry?

T Barz from Mobile, AL. I got started around 2013. I was writing poems & spoken word pieces but that quickly become half pleasing & me growing up watching/listening to Hip-Hop/R&B artists like Biggie, Missy, Common and MC Lyte. It was easy for me to determine I wanted to put my words to instrumentals & it started from there, not long after that I would get in contact with a local engineer & record in the studio.

Who and/or what inspires you to create?

Life inspires me to write, the experiences of myself & others around me. As long as I’m breathing I think I’ll have something to say even if I’m only saying “turn up” on a track I always got something to write or a story I can come up with & tell. 

How would you describe your sound?

My sound is early 90s Hip-Hop mixed with the now. Balanced. I like to think that wasn’t by mistake. I’m in between 2 generations to where I understand the older crowd but I also understand the young crowd in ways so that made me very versatile, I can create whatever sound I want. My beats can range from slow to fast to piano to guitars.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

What is your creative process like?

It differs, but mostly I let the instrumentals create the tracks for me. If you’re an artist or even have a strong love for music then you know music have moods/emotions attached to them if you listen. So for me it’s when I listen to a track it’s easy to tell if it’s going to be a conscious track or a party track or some “raw raw” (laughs). 

What artist(s) would you like to collaborate with?

To be honest, too many to name. J Cole, Common, Missy, Rick Ross, Kendrick Lamar, School Boy Q, The Game, Dave East, Lil Baby and Remy Ma.

T Barz
Photo Cred: The Hype Magazine

What is one message you would give to your supporters?

Always hold me accountable for the things I say. If I rap about pushing drugs in the hoods then I come on social media & talk a completely opposite game call it out. I don’t like when fans are so stuck on an artist they look over their wrongs & even make the wrong be right in their eyes knowing it’s not because it’s “their idol.”

SHIFTING GEARS 

What is the most talent/skill you have that most people don’t know about?

Dancing. Some people know but that was my first love. Self taught growing up watching MJ & Usher back in the day. Any artist that would choreograph dance back then in a music video I would be a little girl standing right in front of the TV learning every move doing exactly what I saw.

What would you be doing right now, if you weren’t doing music?

I would probably be an actress or in the criminal justice field.

Who are some artists/people you admire and why?

I admire artists like Queen Latifah & MC Lyte because they didn’t stop at music. They were able to cultivate every other talent they had & that’s what I want. I’m not just talented in one area so I want to be able to scratch on everything I can actually do.

T Barz
Photo Cred: Urban Bridgez

IN CONCLUSION

What is the best advice you’ve been given?

I’ve been giving such good wisdom in my life I don’t think I can narrow it down to the best because I needed ALL the wisdom I’ve ever gotten equally. I always say this quote sits with me always “A smart man learns from his mistakes but a wise man learns from the mistake of others” & in that he avoids more pains than the smart man. 

If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be? 

I would change the over-saturation. Needing talent isn’t the main thing or even needed anymore as an artist as long as you got popularity. I believe we’re missing out on great talented artists because for whatever reason they might not have the popularity or motion as one who is not as talented as them.

What’s next for you? Where would you like to see yourself next year?

On TV screens & radio stations all over the country. That’s my goal. To saturate every market me & my team possibly can with “T Barz”. The talent is there we just have to put the work in. 

FOLLOW T BARZ ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram/Twitter/YouTube- @Tbarzzzz Facebook – Facebook.com/OfficialTbarz 

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Spinrilla Shuts Down

R.I.P. TO SPINRILLA

SPINRILLA, the popular site that enabled users to create mixtapes of Hip-Hop tracks has shut down after agreeing to pay USD $50 million over copyright infringement.

A group that included record labels from all of the big three recording companies sued Spinrilla in 2017. Alleging that “a substantial amount of content uploaded to the website” belonged to the record companies.

Spinrilla Logo

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

In a judgment issued last Wednesday (May 3). US District Court judge Amy Totenberg, who sits on the bench for the northern district of Georgia, Atlanta division. Ordered Spinrilla and its founder, Jeffrey Copeland, to pay the record companies the $50 million fine. Giving Spinrilla five days to take its services offline.

The ruling also prohibited all employees of Spinrilla. As well as people who worked “in active concert or participation” with Spinrilla. From ever operating a service “that is substantively similar to the Spinrilla Service.”

The plaintiffs in the case were Warner Music Group’s Atlantic Records and Electra Records. Sony Music Entertainment’s LaFace Records. Arista Music, Zomba Records and Sony Music US Latin. As well as Universal Music Group’s Bad Boy Records and Capitol Records, along with Roc-A-Fella Records, Jay-Z’s now-defunct label.

Spinrilla & US Major Recording Companies

In its defense against the lawsuit. Spinrilla argued that it had been “cooperating for years in a variety of ways” with the record companies. “To successfully prevent and remove unauthorized music from Spinrilla.com.”

The company has invoked the “safe harbor” clause of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

However, in a 2020, Judge Totenberg rejected that defense, noting that Spinrilla hadn’t met the requirements for safe harbor. The company didn’t have the required policy towards repeat infringers.

WHAT WILL IT COST?

The Judge Totenberg, identified that 4,082 tracks have been uploaded and distributed without permission.

Under the DMCA, each violation carries a penalty of between $750 and $150,000. The ruling exposed Spinrilla and Copeland to a penalty between $3 million and $612 million.

Spinrilla and Copeland submitted an offer of judgment to the court. Under which the defendants agreed to a $50 million fine. Forced to shut down the service permanently.

Spinrilla had millions of users since its launch in 2013. The service’s Android app had more than 10 million downloads on the Google Play Store. Some 195,000 followers on its Twitter feed, which is still live, and a similar amount of followers on Facebook.

Spinrilla

The case has echoes of the fight between music streaming site Grooveshark and Universal Music Group. Which ended in 2015 when Grooveshark’s founders agreed to shutter the site in exchange for avoiding paying financial damages.

Grooveshark’s founders: Josh Greenberg and Sam Tarantino. Agreed they would pay $75 million if they were ever found infringing the majors’ copyrights again. (Greenberg was found dead two months after the settlement with UMG was agreed.)

In December 2015, streaming service Aurous – dubbed “the new Grooveshark”. Shut down and agreed to pay $3 million in damages to the major music companies.

Major DJ organizations like Fleet DJs has Mixtape Divisions which has members who utilize platforms such as Spinrilla. This instant shut-down leaves questions from the mixtape DJ communities.

The major label may have won their infringement case. The question is what about the DJ’s who’ve invested major money into their mixtape and uploaded legitimate projects? What about the independent artist who uses Spinrilla as an alternative distribution outlet? Where’s the music? What about the invested money as subscribers?

#GetSOM via @swag100 & check out more of his content right here.


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