Prince “Creep” performance at Coachella

Not hip-hop related, but this adds an interesting twist to the digital copyrights debate.

The story goes that Prince covered Radiohead’s hit song “Creep” at Coachella to the amusement of many. This being the Internet age, a video of Prince’s performance soon flooded YouTube. But when Radiohead members rushed to YouTube for a peek they were met with that annoying “video no longer available” message, seeing as Prince’s label NPG had blocked it.

According to the Associated Press, Thom Yorke was surprised that Prince had blocked a video of their song: “Really? He’s blocked it? Surely we should block it. Hang on a moment. Well, tell him to unblock it. It’s our … song.” NPG’s argument that the video of Prince performing a Radiohead song, which was shot by a fan, had violated copyright laws makes you wonder who was doing the violating. Was Prince trying to take credit for adding his own touch to the song? Or was he trying to avoid any legal dust-off with Radiohead by deleting the videos?

When Yorke was finally able to see Prince’s “Creep” cover he found it “hilarious.” I didn’t. Prince’s version does nothing for me. He didn’t enhance the song in anyway. But that’s OK, he’s still a legend in my eyes.