This is Lil Louis. As you may have heard, I have released my album, an album that, along with the book, has taken me 13 years to complete, and the best album I feel I've ever created. To show my appreciation to my fans that came to my Christmas party in Chicago, I decided to give a copy of the book and new album with paid admission. I sent the download specifically to the people that paid for and attended the event. But it has now come to my attention that there are people who have illegally uploaded and downloaded my album, and it is being distributed across the internet, particularly on Deep House Page. I have friends and business affiliates who are enraged by this act, and I share in their sentiment, but it goes further.

In 1992, seventeen years ago, before Napster, burning, iTunes or the digital world, I released a song called "New Dance Beat." In the song I wrote, "They used to laugh at me, but I saw the future. Record company recession, dance floor boredom, and copy machines spit out song after song."

By then, my song French Kiss had been sampled and covered over 2,000 times by other artists. From a financial standpoint that was cool. But I knew if we didn't get back to being original artists, like Stevie, Donnie and Marvin, we would all eventually suffer. Now if the average dance artist sells a 1,000 copies, it's a phenomenon. A bigger problem looming now is downloading and stealing which, if not solved, will soon make dance artists as extinct as jazz. That is what has transpired with my new album.

Let me be clear, unless you paid admission into the party on Xmas night, you stole the album from me. And, combined with complacency and unoriginality, stealing, burning and downloading illegally will kill the industry. The quality of the music, as I'm sure you know, is the worst that it's ever been. That said, I put everything I had in making this album. I lived in the studio and slept three hours on average every day. I did that, to provide you with another classic that you could play forever. Most artists I have spoken with have said they don't put that kind of time in or hire all the live musicians and pay for the studio time like I did, because people are just going to steal it anyway.

This reminds me of the Martin Luther King riots. I was six years old and I watched how we destroyed our own neighborhoods. Whether you realize it or not, stealing this music is no different than black people looting their own stores and tearing up their own communities. You are only killing yourselves, and creating your own musical ghettos. We are a few downloads away from living in the Album projects. How many great albums have you heard lately?

Where most people might look at this as an adversity, I see an opportunity. An opportunity for us to band together and support each other. For the fans to support the artist who bleed, like I did, to make special music. And for the Artist, to up their standard of music, like I have, like Stevie and Marvin did. I ask every DJ and every fan to take part in saving this music. I would ask you to support my thirty-five years of being your musical servant and buy my CD. You can purchase my album at www.lil-louis.com.

I would also ask you to be my eyes and ears. If anyone steals my music, I would like for that person to be reported to my website. For the record, absolutely no one, besides myself, has any right to distribute my music in any way. They are breaking the law.

I saved my pennies for a rainy day, and God created the sun, so I will be fine. Music is as vital as water. Don't let your well run dry.

Musically yours,
Lil Louis