They got their music for free—is that why they didn’t care about a creator’s ownership? Was this what rap had done? Emer wondered. With its endless sampling having enacted finally the death of the argument over originality? Aside from the occasional multimillion-dollar lawsuit, who cares where that undeniable hook came from when it’s repurposed by Kanye, Kendrick, or Jay-Z? Wasn’t it stolen from the black man to begin with? Doesn’t everything belong to everyone? Isn’t that a positive, democratic trend? Could you write a check to the man who invented the blues?
