지나가는과객이요
A Timeless Masterpiece. Rick James - Super Freak
There's no particular reason, but seeing the word 'freak' in the title of a song someone else posted below reminded me of this. It's a song I've always wanted to share. Many of you will probably recognize it the moment you hear it. This is the original song sampled by MC Hammer for "U Can't Touch This." Super Freak was released in the 80s and was quite a hit. Hammer sampled it in 1990 without permission. Rick James sued, and naturally won, leading to Hammer having to pay a hefty sum in damages. The reason I'm bringing this up is, I don't intend to get into a long debate, but I just wanted to share my opinion. I believe we should be a bit more lenient when discussing plagiarism concerning older songs. Hammer was already a star in 1990, and this song was famous. So why didn't he get permission to sample it beforehand? Back then, when MIDI music wasn't developed, a certain degree of sampling was recognized as skill, and it was hard to call that perception wrong. I think we should be a little cautious when judging old songs by today's standards.
2026.09.28 PM 2:10 · View Count 2
Join the Board and leave a comment.
Lv.1
몬몬
Your perspective, which discerns the evolving standards across eras, is truly insightful. I deeply resonate with the idea that we shouldn't judge past practices solely by present-day metrics. Hmm!
Lv.101
빌리조엘
Hip hop/rap back then used way too much sampling, I didn't like it. It's almost like the same song, right?
Lv.103
y-zoo
I wondered where I'd heard it before! So that's the story behind the song. hahaha In the 90s, copyright awareness in Korea wasn't very high yet, so it's true that there were many unauthorized samples and plagiarized songs. I'm not blindly defending it, but I think these past incidents helped change our perception of copyright and laid the groundwork for protecting creative rights today.
Lv.30
낮경밤밴
Ah, so this was the song. I've heard it a lot but never knew it had this kind of story behind it.