Lizzo isn’t holding back when it comes to her stance on sampling laws.
During an appearance on Million Dollaz Worth of Game, the 37-year-old spoke about her new mixtape My Face Hurts from Smiling and argued that the origins of sampling laws are rooted in racism.
“The first time people started sampling was who? It was rappers in the 80s and 90s,” she said around the 36:30 mark.
“They were sampling records because they didn’t have access to big studios. They didn’t grow up learning how to play bass and stuff like that. They created the genre of hip-hop through sampling records in their parents’ vinyls and stuff. There were no sampling laws back then. It was all a free-for-all. So, they was just outside, just like, ‘Okay, this is just what it is.’ And then hip-hop was born, and it was this beautiful thing.”
Lizzo mistakenly pointed to Sir Mix-a-Lot as the first rapper sued for sampling, though she was likely referring to Biz Markie. In 1991, Grand Upright Music sued Markie and Warner Bros. Records over a sample used in his I Need a Haircut track “Alone Again.” Instead of settling on royalties, a judge ordered Warner to pull the album until the track was removed.
Even before that, in 1989, The Turtles filed a lawsuit against De La Soul over a sample on their classic 3 Feet High and Rising album, which was eventually settled out of court.
“I just feel like the theft of it all, putting theft on Black culture, that’s the part that kind of turns me off,” Lizzo said. “Hip-hop’s medium was sampling. Sampling is a Black art that bred hip-hop. Hip-hop was born from sampling. And now sampling is synonymous with theft.”
She clarified that it’s the “origins” of these laws she takes issue with.
“It was policing Black art,” she explained. “I think now, of course, they had to regulate some sort of thing, and there’s certain things that are fair and unfair. I get it. But when you’re suing people off of a vibe, it’s like, man, that’s the vibe of my song.”
Lizzo has spoken out before about racism’s influence on music. In a past interview with Entertainment Weekly, she pointed to the “racist origin” of pop music:
“I think if people did any research they would see that there was race music and then there was pop music,” she said.
