Fabrice Epstein (E05): ‘Trials involving black music reflect the progress in civil rights’

Lawyer Fabrice Epstein (E05) has published Black Music Justice (published by La Manufacture de livres), the sequel to his first work, Rock’n’Roll Justice (La Manufacture de livres). He offers a legal history of blues, soul, jazz and rap, punctuated by tales of appropriation, plagiarism, assault or drugs involving the greatest stars of the 20th century. Interview. 

ESSEC Alumni: What is Black Music Justice about? 

Fabrice Epstein: In Rock’n’Roll Justice, I delved into a broad legal history of rock, the music of my childhood, with The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, The Doors, Bob Dylan, or Leonard Cohen…all these artists drew their inspiration from blues and jazz. With this latest opus, I decided to explore these connections and musical sources from a legal perspective. 

EA: What exactly is ‘black music’?

F. Epstein: I left this question to the end of the book, not to avoid it, but to prevent myself from becoming trapped in an overly-generic definition, because ‘great black music’ can include Stevie Wonder, Cesaria Evora, Billie Holiday and Fela Kuti in the same group. So we’re really talking about a form, or forms of music originating in the Americas and Africa, the banners of fights and social struggles, and components of a genuine identity. Seen from this angle, they have all grappled with justice and injustice.

EA: Among the cases you examined, which ones struck you in particular? 

F. Esptein: The notion of cultural appropriation was particularly compelling. We use this term to describe white artists’ takeover of blues tracks. These artists sometimes quash the reference and find themselves on trial for spoliation. Others, such as the Stones, pay tribute to their source of inspiration. In all cases, this is a controversial practice. 

EA: You also focused on Michael Jackson...

F. Esptein: A star of this scale constitutes a legal challenge in his own right. When you reach this level of artistic and financial success, you are permanently faced with accusations, sometimes true, sometimes false and defamatory, and you need to adopt a specific strategy to handle the volume of business, its financial implications, public nature and impact on image. It is difficult to determine the least damaging option when you have to juggle with all these aspects. If an unknown individual accuses you of plagiarism, is it better to negotiate or take the matter to the courts? And what about more serious allegations involving the integrity of a third party?

EA: What about rap, where court cases are legion?

F. Esptein: It’s true that the book devotes a lot of space to rap. In the USA, the history of legal rulings involving rap narrate the progress in civil rights and reflect society’s subconscious, particularly the White vision of Black people. Black music bothers people because it is a social marker. This is nothing new; the blues sang of slavery, jazz the quest for freedom, and soul of hope. Rap is now self-assured; it represents a sort of ultimate stage. As a result, many white Americans try to criminalise this counter-culture. As we speak, Young Thug is under accusation in Atlanta on the grounds of a federal law, known as RICO, which served in the past to sentence members of New York’s mafia. The prosecutor is accusing the rapper of a long list of offences and is using the lyrics of his songs as evidence. It makes you wonder if the USA has really changed since the era when the jazz musician Norman Grant created a scandal by refusing to have his orchestra play for a segregated audience...  

EA: And in France?

F. Esptein: We can see the same form of suspicion with the Orelsan affair, or in cases involving lyrics which may offend beliefs, or at least those of certain groups within a polarised population. Judges do not hesitate to qualify rap as inherently violent music, which supposedly focuses the ambitions of a young generation in search of its bearings. 

EA: Is ‘black music’ thus marked by its own specific legal challenges? Or do rock and other genres face the same issues?

F. Esptein: We’ve been speaking about the specific issues around ‘black music’. Other issues are common to all types of music, in the sense that the music world as a whole is subject to money-grabbing managers, often naive artists, and judges reticent to this sphere and what it represents.

EA: How did you lead your research? 

F. Esptein: In France and the US, I based my research mainly on legal rulings, statements by lawyers (who I sometimes contacted directly), and on past or present-day press articles which provided enough detail. It’s interesting to note the difference between the two countries. Americans tend to provide lots of details and context in a more literary, even philosophical language, while the French generally stick to the legal aspect and are more arid. 

EA: Why did you not explore other countries?

F. Esptein: That’s a good question! I preferred to limit my research to my target-reader countries at this stage. That’s not to say that other rulings across the world do not merit our attention. In Germany, for example, the electro band Kraftwerk fought for many years against the pop starlet Sabrina Setlur, who they accused of stealing two seconds of drum beat.

Interview by Louis Armengaud Wurmser (E10), Content Manager at ESSEC Alumni

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Image : @ Pascal Ito