The Grey Album

So in efforts to compile information about our public topic - information from both sides of the fence. One relatively recent event that comes to mind was the controversy that erupted over the dissemination of the Grey Album.

The Grey Album was the project of Brian Joseph Burton (aka DangerMouse) in which Burton took a cappella tracks from Jay-Z's The Black Album and combined them with illegal instrumental samples from The Beatles' The White Album. Originally meant to be just an art project, Burton did not intend to commercialize the album and only planned to produce around 3000 copies for distribution. When the album was leaked onto the internet its popularity skyrocketed which caused Burton to appear on EMI's radar. Despite sending cease and desist letters and threatening legal action EMI gave up its campaign against Burton and the Grey Album because of substantial online protests. You can read about it here. The album is one of my favorites and provides an interesting example of a project that was caught up in the argument against legal control over creative production.