As a musician and an avid fan of Hip Hop, I have always been fascinated with the debate over royalties, what constitutes “music,” and when a song is a remake and when it is a travesty. Case in point, one of my all-time favorite bands, Steely Dan and the frequent use of their songs in Hip Hop.

While their music has been featured in some songs I’ve liked, such as “Peg” in De La Soul’s “Eye Know” and some I don’t, such as “Black Cow” in Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz’s “Deja Vu,” the soul of their music has never been truly captured. Until Kanye, that is. Yes, Mr. West, dared take a major chunk of a Steely track, “Kid Charlemagne” and did a first. He made the song better. Yes, I sheepishly admit it, being the purist snob that I am, that he (or more likely, he and his team) truly re-crafted and enhanced an already great track and gave it a fresh, modern spin, taking it up to another level. It’s really the first time that a Hip Hop artist has essentially done a true cover (or at the very least, improved on the original). In the past, I have been supremely annoyed with artists that play covers verbatim and don’t give them a new twist. It’s about the artist’s personality stepping in and reinterpreting the song, isn’t it?

(more…)