33 thoughts on “Kutiman’s ‘Found Video’ Arrangement Of ‘Give It Up’”

1. Quite a lot of mojo in these things.

2. kutiman does some great stuff , well done sir. captures emotion from around the world

3. At first I was like “Okay, decent sampling.” Then by the middle, I was like “whoa this is a great arrangement”. Then when that guy started playing the guitar I was like “YEAH!”. This is really good. If I were anyone in this video, but especially the woman singing or the guy ripping the guitar, I would be so super stoked by this.

4. Well thanks to this I discovered the incredible musical talent of Alma Deutscher – the little girl you see playing the piano at the beginning. Amazing!!

5. great vid, he should get in contact with all of them especially the singer and do a write up/ interview with them on his channel, a link to the original videos wouldn’t be enough if he had only sampled their audio so it should doubly not be enough for sampling the audio and video.
   he’s a good guy though so I’m sure he’ll do the right thing and not be swayed by people who say that all the artist should be content with the exposure they received through him.

6. That’s genius. Brilliant. Must have been so fiddley to execute.

7. I hope the singer really enjoys the remix, it does her great justice! Very cool!

8. Plagiarism, sorry. It isn’t 1988 anymore, not cool guys.

   1. Learn about fair use, CC and remix culture and you won’t come across as ill-informed in the future!

      1. Sorry, I will not go thru all. But at least the main vocal and piano parts are not CC. Remix culture is fine and dandy but credit -all- sources, and PAY them. Fair use is not applicable here.

         1. What do you mean ? All videos used in the mash are linked in the description.Most of them I know for sure are very aware of this remix.And why do you think he doesn’t pay them?It’s a standard Youtube license , so I doubt he is making money from the video.I would buy this track for sure.He even might be spitting the revenue with them if he does too ; and you will never know.

            1. Not all artists were credited, he does make money doing this, and does not pay for samples. He has justified it by saying “the whole is greater than the parts.” So I guess you think it’s okay for someone to steal your work, as long as they don’t think it’s very good.

               He is a major label artist and should know better.

   2. Just because its 2014 doesn’t mean you cant sample. Geez. This is exactly whats great about modern music because its not just polarized original music or djing and nothing in the middle. Now we have every grey area between remixing, djing, and composing filled in by people like this. Don’t devalue people’s creative output because its not the way music should be made. Thats like saying pop screen prints or collages aren’t art just because they utilize source material. He’s obviously paying respect to all the videos he’s using and not pulling crap like kanye and not paying respect or acknowledging the source material.

      1. The way you think* music should be made ^

   3. If I were anyone in that video, I’d be flattered. He took bits of creative output from a lot of people who otherwise would have never met, and made something new and beautiful out of it. That’s how music works. Everything truly is a remix, as the saying goes. If you are making music and it’s all about money and your precious ‘intellectual property’, then you are missing the point.

      1. That’s your view. The people in the video might not feel the same. Everyone owns the rights to their own work, that’s just the way it is.

         1. That’s not correct.

            There’s fair use, there’s creative transformation, there’s art – and you should be judging this on its artistry – not playing amateur lawyer!

            1. Fair use doesn’t cover people jacking samples for hip hop. Ask Vanilla Ice.

               The music itself is fine, I have no problem with sample based forms. But without permission it’s theft. Artists DO own the right to their own works, whether they have already filed for proof of copyright or not.

               1. Completely incorrect.

                  First off, Vanilla Ice got sued because he ripped of his main riff, he didn’t transform it, he didn’t give credit, he lied about the sampling to cover his ass and he made a lot of money off Ice, Ice Baby.

                  In this case, Kutiman openly credits his samples and makes clearly transformative use of them, which is a major factor in fair use.

                  Second, we really don’t know what clearance he may or may not have done, but that is a matter for him and the copyright holders, not a criteria we should speculatively judge his art on. It should be judged on its artistic merits, which are impressive.

                  Third, nothing in copyright law is cut and dry or you wouldn’t have intellectual property lawyers getting rich. Lawyers won’t waste their time suing if there’s no money to be made, but they’ll sue people that clearly have made fair use of copyrighted material, if there is.

                  Leave the legal bitching to the lawyers and copyright holders, or at least take the time to read up and be informed:

                  http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/#the_transformative_factor_the_purpose_and_character_of_your_use

                  1. Sorry but I highly doubt he got any clearance at all, since he doesn’t even remember where he got all his samples. I just hope that the producers reading here have more respect for their own works, and put in the time to do it right.

                  2. you guys keep detracting, nobody is judging this piece of art, basically everyone loves it, you guys are detracting from the truth because you’re not making sense, why else would you keep making an argument for a point of view that no one is arguing against with you? this is not about whether someone is making hiphop or not, I guess there are some people here who don’t like hiphop, that’s their right whatever, and I guess there are some people here who don’t like kanye west again their right whatever… but this is not about any of that. it’s simply about all of the artist involved are artist just like Kutiman and whether he’s giving credit or not is not the issue the issue is that all of the artist deserve credit and anything else that is coming to Kutiman in addition to the credit we’re all giving him for is contribution to the art form.
                     It’s really that simple.

   4. This isn’t plagiarism. He’s taking several elements to form a completely new composition. That’s like condemning Rembrandt’s work because he didn’t make the paint himself.

   5. closed mindedness isn’t cool either. its obvious what he is doing and he is manipulating it to create something new . its a audio video collage . are you that dumb?

9. The whole Sample/fair use/plagiarism thing…what a lark. Let’s take it that it is ‘totally illegal’ and ‘plagiarised’ for a moment….does this , or SHOULD this have any effect on the part of the listener? What…it’s like a ‘thought crime’ or something?Only if you have shit for ears. How can music…which is ephemeral…be ‘illegal’?! And if it IS labelled as such…can we not still enjoy it?It makes no difference. Amazing skills and a great ear in the making of this…

   1. I believe that the skills of the musicians have value, even if they are youtube unknowns. They should be paid, if he is, which is likely.

10. Kutiman never fails to impress. Dude is a genius.

11. Wonderful mix. Very creative. Beautiful.

12. Art should not be legal or not legal, because we should judge it by its merits, not on what lawyers have to say.

    And, no matter what lawyers might have to say, Kutman is an amazing craftsman and artist.

    If he sells his work, it moves into the realm of commerce, and other the other artists should get compensated, if they want to be.

13. i don’t get it. Kutiman is very talented as are the rest of the musicians in the song he produced, written and titled by the vocalist.
    why is almost every person in this thread acting like Kutiman deserves something that the group he produced doesn’t deserve. wtf is wrong with you?

    if you gave each and every one of those artist a survey with 2 questions on it the following would happen.

    1. do you have anything to say about Kutiman…. response: yes we appreciate the exposure he’s brought to us.
    2. do you believe that you should be compensated for your art?… respons: yes we believe that we should be compensated for our art and creativity.

    you lot are acting like being grateful for exposure and compensation art and creativity are mutually exclusive concepts. Thats retarded.

    an A&R rep goes out and finds talented creative people for the label, once they are together a producer produces songs they’ve written, after that the music gets broadcast and they become famous. There is nothing different here except that Kutiman is both A&R and Producer as well as Label. There is nothing confusing here, no grey area, nothing difficult to understand except your attitude towards someone saying that the artist involved deserve more than your pity and exposure for payment if monies can be made from the project.
    Don’t artist have the right to be grateful and expect compensation, don’t they even have the right not to be grateful for having their art used in someones project if it’s not what they wanted, by your standards if they don’t want Kutiman to use their art somethings wrong with them, and if they wanted compensation that’s even worse.
    Whats wrong with music is you.

    1. So you seem to be saying that you should ban art that doesn’t meet the standards that you’ve set or that the government has set or that other artists set, which is ludicrous and reprehensible.

       What Kutiman does is definitely art and also impressive craftsmanship. You can’t ban or legislate that or it becomes censorship.

       What you can and should regulate is if he makes money of it – others should get their fare share.

       1. ^^that isn’t what he said at all. also you are wrong, what about that art and craftsmanship you are wearing right now I’m sure you paid for it at the register with money and not a similar diatribe to the one above didn’t you? Well that art your wearing, that art you’re living in, and that art you drive everyday is legislated and paid for. no one said anything about banning anything.

    2. Nobody suggested he deserved to make money off of other people’s work, without their permission. None of us know if he is doing that – so it’s pointless to criticize him for it.

       But he doesn’t need anybody’s permission to make art and music with anything.

       If he’s selling it, he better cover his ass and have his samples cleared!

14. Cool video, boring comments