My bugaboo with Led Zep revolves around Abel Ferrara's 1992 film "Bad Lieutenant". A critical element in the film is Schooly D's song "The Signifying Rapper". The song is from 1988 and it sampled LZ's "Kashmir", but it did so without getting clearance from LZ's publisher. Everybody knows how the band outright stole whole songs from other artist, but LZ had the nerve to go after the film and the rapper. Every copy of the movie with "The Signifying Rapper" had to be destroyed. Legally they were fully within their rights, but I think, particularly with their own legal history, it reflects poorly upon them.
Ferrara re-edited the movie to remove the song, but he thought the film was ruined. He said:
Ferrara re-edited the movie to remove the song, but he thought the film was ruined. He said:
"Signifying Rapper" was out for five years, and there wasn't a problem. Then the film had already been out for two years and they start bitching about it. [...] It cost Schoolly like $50,000. It was a nightmare. And meanwhile, "Signifying Rapper" is 50 million times better than "Kashmir" ever thought of being. [...] Why sue? You should be happy that somebody is paying homage to your work.To some extent you have to separate the artist as people from the art. I may not be the biggest, but I have always been a fan of Led Zeppelin. My problem with the band is "I'm talkin' about character. I'm talkin' about - hell...I ain't embarrassed to use the word - I'm talkin' about ethics."