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George “P-Funk” Clinton is hosting a press conference for international media, music executives and government officials for his #Flashlight2013 camapaign.
The news conference, which is set for 5:00 pm in Manhattan at BB King’s in Manhattan, will address the ongoing battle for unpaid royalties against Armen Boladian, owner of Bridgeport Music.
P-Funk is one of a group artists who are involved in an ongoing dispute with Boladian, and Bridgeport Music.
The artists claim Bridgeport has withheld important financial records and evidence that George Clinton believes will show Boladian has not been forthcoming in his royalty payments to artists associated with the company.
Clinton, who was once friends with Boladin, told Action 7 News in Detroit that he and Boladian were business partners initially, but now Boladian is taking money away from family members and band mates that helped make the music
“Yeah, I was partners with him…it was supposed to be fifty-fifty,” Clinton told Action 7 News.
“They look to me because that was my publishing company,” Clinton said of his band mates and family members. “Not only my family, my immediate family, but the band members.”
Having been one of the most sampled artists in Hip-Hop’s history to date, George Clinton estimates that he has been sampled between 300-400 times and has yet to receive royalties on many of the songs recorded and later sampled as the front man of Parliament/Funkadelic.
Many Hip-Hop fans will recall Parliament, Funkadelic and P Funk’s music being sampled in the works of Snoop Dogg, Dre, DPG, Warren G, and many other West-Coast artists from the G-Funk era of the 1990′s.
One anonymous attorney, who works in the music industry, gave 7 Action News more than 200 names of artists, or their surviving relatives, who are owed approximately $4.7 million in royalties.
“I ain’t crying because I lived my life, did what I did, but it’s still mine. I still wrote what I wrote, and I’m going to fight for that,” Clinton added.
Clinton started promoting the #Flashlight2013 campaign with a t-shirt he wore while performing with Kid Rock at Ford Field in Detroit last Thanksgiving Day.
While Clinton is seeking money that he is personally owed, he also stated that he would like to have greater impact on the heavily debated issues of intellectual property rights and copyrighted materials.
“I (George Clinton) want to be known as the man who brought to the attention of America the copyright issues. That’s what I would like my legacy to be, to have turned people on to the fact that they need to fight for their rights to their music. You have to fight a lot of people for your music. You have to fight the copyright companies, like BMI. You have to fight these record companies because they really want to take it all. Right now, it’s time for people to start getting their music back. From about 1978 to 2013 is the timeframe from which you’re allowed to start getting your music, made back then, returned to you. 2013, ….this will be the first time a lot of people are going to get their music back and I’m going to help them!”
