This annotated bibliography serves to support that: "Most rap music as an art form intrinsically relies on music sampling to exist. Current copyright law as it relates to fair use of music sampling severely limits hip hop artists and composers, almost to the point of killing the genre. Specifically, the case of Bridgeport v. Dimension Films outlaws the use of any sampling without proper payment to the copyright owner. This decision has made it impossible for the non-wealthy to enter the public hip hop market and limits the creativity of those already in."

Wu, Tim. "Jay-Z Versus the Sample Troll" Slate November 16, 2006

In order to show that sampling lawsuits in rap music still exist, this article condemns Bridgeport Music for suing Jay-Z over sampling some notes from a Madonna song. This article references many of the others I have because Bridgeport has become notorious for capitalizing on the fact that they go after anyone who samples from any of the songs they own no matter how minimal and insignificant the sampling is. In fact, "Bridgeport launched nearly 500 counts of copyright infringement against more than 800 artists and labels." Bridgeport is also going after dead artists like Notorious B.I.G. and was able to recently cash in on his album Ready to Die, which is over a decade old, due to the illegal sampling that was on it. This is a direct result of hip hop booming within the last decade, which is sad because they are able to capitalize off an industry norm. This article shows the depth to which Bridgeport Music has gone in order to obtain more money, and with this many cases, is instrumental in the possible demise of rap music.

This article also brings up an interesting point of view in that, up until now I have written about Bridgeport being a money-grubbing corporation, but it could also be construed that its doing older artists justice by giving them their due off from today's popular songs. Though they might get some recognition from the lawsuits, Bridgeport ultimately keeps all of the money, so older artists don't really receive what they should. It also brings up a good point in that, thanks to Bridgeport's case against Dimension, many popular albums of the past would not be able to be created today, such as Public Enemy's, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. This supports the theory that as copyright law regarding sample continues, more and more restrictions are placed on rap artists.