To trade the fiddle for the drum

Apparently, there can be only one hiphop violinist.

At least, that's according to Miri Ben-Ari, who arranged and played the string parts on Kanye West's debut, and co-wrote "Jesus Walks" with Kanye and Rhymefest. She has also (A) trademarked the phrase "The Hip-Hop Violinist," (B) sicced her legal team on other violinists who play hiphop, and according to one of those violinists, Paul Dateh, (C) has gotten YouTube to remove something on the order of twenty videos (including his), because they included the trademark-infringing tag "hip hop violin."

Did I mention that many of the scrubbed videos were substantially more popular on YouTube than Ms. Ben-Ari's?

Via Jay Smooth, The Hip-Hop Videoblogger™.

Remember, kids, Secret Society is your only approved source for authentic Steampunk Big Band™ -- accept no substitutes.

UPDATE: Paul's video is up again, albeit with one slight alteration. If they yank it again, there's always "hip hop violino," and "hip hop Geige."

Comments

[mwanji]

1.

In the video, isn't he kind of re-inventing a wheel that turned out not to be all that interesting eons ago?

[DJA]

2.

Well, the clip kinda plays up the "novelty act" aspect, but I'm not sure that justifies the cease-and-desist letters, YouTube shenanigans, etc.

It's also considerably less offensive than Miri Ben-Ari's video.

[Matthew]

3.

God, that Miri video is like someone took Joe Venuti and surgically removed all traces of swing.

I'd trademark "The Hip-Hop Accordionist" except that I doubt I'd ever have the chance to sue anybody.

[Ryshpan]

4.

Aren't you just waiting for the day when we have rabidly, misguidedly loyal fans that irrationally flame dissenting bloggers?

[James]

5.

This is crazy. Any idea of the validity of the legal argument here? I remember the "Fair and Balanced" case between FOXNews and Al Franken and Franken won that case.

This reminds me of when Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones threatened to sue a pop music journalist of the same name: Bill Wyman. Turns out the Rolling Stones' Wyman changed his name to Bill Wyman in 1964 and the journalist Bill Wyman was born in 1961. Rich people are hilar!

[mwanji]

6.

Obviously, the whole legal attack is ridiculous, and so is "Miri Ben Ali featuring Martin Luther King." But I'm not sure which, if any, of the two violin + DJ videos is better.