oh snap

For New Yorkers:

NYC Record Store Mondo Kim's Raided by RIAA
Rob Kleckner & Ryan Schreiber report:
The rumors are true: Mondo Kim's, one of New York's best and highest regarded independent music and video stores, was raided by New York police Wednesday at approximately 1:00 p.m. EST for allegedly selling unsanctioned hip-hop DJ mixes featuring bootlegged tracks by RIAA artists.

Employees of Mondo Kim's and fellow NYC record store Other Music, speaking to Pitchfork on conditions of anonymity, confirmed yesterday that five of Mondo Kim's employees were arrested and taken to Manhattan Central Booking, where they spent the night of June 8. When asked why these five employees were singled out for arrest, the Kim's source told us that an undercover agent was allegedly sold a bootleg, and the arrests followed. After the sale, police produced a search warrant, fingered the arrestees, shut down the store for roughly five hours, and confiscated, according to the RIAA, "500 CD-Rs, 27 Music DVDs, Nine DVD burners, and a scanner," among other items, which include the computer containing the store's database and recent sales records.

The five employees who were arrested– all of whom were charged with trademark counterfeiting in the second degree– are Charles Bettis, 29; store manager Theo Frimpong, 39; Diana Kinscherf, 19; Donald Stahl, 26; and music manager Craig Willingham, 32.

"What I'm told actually brought them down," said a source at Other Music, "was that there was a CD DJ mix that a guy from Sony saw in the store, and it had a bunch of big-time Sony hip-hop artists on it. So he alerted the feds, and they showed up and arrested a bunch of clerks– not anyone who does any actual bootlegging."

The big question, of course, is what this means for the future of the mixtape industry– in which most of today's major-label hip-hop artists freely participate– and whether the RIAA will continue to attempt to wage war on it the way it is doing against file-sharing.

As for Mondo Kim's, Other Music dude didn't seem too concerned: "There've been a number of bootlegging busts at New York record stores over the past 10 years. A lot of places around here do live bootlegs and periodically the feds bust these places. It doesn't ever seem to affect the stores long-term, though; they get a fine and they're back in business. The manufacturers are the ones who really get in trouble, but the stores, you'd be amazed how quickly they bounce back, and how quickly they start selling bootlegs again."

And just when I thought I had heard it all:
A mashup of Usher and Requiem for a Dream
(for Mike espesh)