After I came back from the inauguration, I compiled my pictures into a short video using Sam Cooke’s “A Chang is Gonna Come” (which I own on vinyl, cd, and digital via iTunes) and uploaded it to Facebook, and Youtube. A few days later, Facebook and Youtube yanked my video or yanked the music from my little slideshow due to copyright infringement. Note I “own” the song in three various forms. I was not giving the song away, but playing with some pictures to share with my friends. If that is copyright infringement to put a song in a slideshow for friends, it must be copyright infringement for me to play the same song in my house, at work or at a beach for my friends, right?

When you think of hip from California, specifically,Los Angeles, South Central and Compton what first crosses your mind? Dr. Dre, NWA, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube? Do you think of Cut Chemist, Chali 2na, or Abstract Rude? Well this new documentary entitled “This The Life: How the West Was One” aims to tell the other story of West Coast Hip Hop.

Here at Needledrop, we are big fans of music documentaries. We came across this documentary called “Say My Name” which will be premiering at SXSW. The film is about women lyrcists/mcs trying to find balance between life and their careers in the music industry.