Twitter + Hip Hop = Not Always Bad?

Ive personally been in a bit of a twitter apathy mode.  It seems that is very bloated with spam accounts and it just increases everyday. However, this little tidbit reminded me of the power of twitter and social networking in itself.

While reading on mashable yesterday i came across this article about how Erykah Badu was trying to remove a lot of the middle man work while trying to get a sample cleared for her album.  As you can see in the article, she was able to, and got the sample cleared relatively easy.

Seeing that im a huge hiphop fan,  I know about the troubles and trials of getting sample clearances for songs.  For those who dont know, a producer of a song that samples any older music (that is copyrighted) has to get clearance to use that sample.  More detailed information can be found here.  It usually deals with going through a lot of lawyers and middle-men just to get something done.

However, thanks to twitter, Ms. Badu was able to ask for help on twitter, and through her following, she got in touch with Paul McCartney and got the sample cleared! Ive heard quite a few songs before sample clearance, and then, after not getting it cleared, the unfortunate remake of the same song.