Word: vanilla
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...Vanilla Ice Cream...
Marc E. Warner's editorial "Lies, Lies Baby" (January 7) misses the point completely with respect to musical "borrowing" of the type exhibited by M.C. Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Tone-Loc and other performers (mostly, though not exclusively, rappers). An injustice is not done to the public when these performers sample a riff or fill--rather, the injustice is done to the original artist. Thus, Vanilla Ice's stories about his ghetto youth are almost comical, while his blatantly false claims to writing the bass line to "Ice, Ice Baby" are chilling (his line differs by one half beat from...
...another way: if Vanilla Ice were a music major at Harvard, he would almost certainly be expelled for submitting the bass line to "Ice, Ice Baby" as his own work. I'm not suggesting that sampling of other artists' songs should be eliminated. But if the sample is a recognizable fragment of the other song, the sampler should seek written permission (and, if the original artist requests, pay something...
...whether or not that musical talent belongs to Vanilla or Milli Vanilli or someone never mentioned, is irrelevant. Because on that CD or tape, the sound you hear is the sound you get. Deception gets artists "in the door"--talent keeps them from getting thrown...
...whether it's on album wax or CD tracks, the music remains the same: music the public truly wants in an acceptable package. So what if the closest Vanilla Ice came to the Florida ghettos was watching reruns of "Miami Vice"? His CDs weren't bought to trace his life--they were bought for the music associated with the enigma called "Vanilla Ice." Likewise, Milli Vanilli albums weren't purchased for overgrown braids in biker shorts, but for the music associated with that image...