Watch David Byrne Cover Biz Markie's "Just a Friend"

Last night in New York, David Byrne was among a group of artists to perform at Le Poisson Rouge for a concert and rally organized by Content Creators Coalition-NYC. The goal was to raise awareness of and support for a terrestrial radio performance royalty—in the U.S., only the composers of songs get radio royalties, not the performers. (For example, Whitney Houston never got a royalty every time her cover of "I Will Always Love You" was played on the radio.) The organizers of the event are demanding Congressional action to change this.

To shine light on this issue, at last night's event, Byrne and others covered songs that were popularized by artists who were not the writers, and thus did not receive compensation for radio play. Byrne chose to perform Biz Markie's 1989 hip-hop hit "Just a Friend" (along with Tift Merritt and others). Watch below via Consequence of Sound. Byrne explained the choice in his newsletter:

Mr. Markie didn’t write that tune (although he did probably write the rap). The drum and keyboard loop was lifted from a Freddie Scott recording, but the song was written by Gamble and Huff, the great songwriting team that wrote for The O’Jays and The Spinners. So chances are Biz Markie didn’t see any royalties from all the radio play that song got.

Other artists who performed last night included Mike Mills of R.E.M., Marc Ribot, Cake's John McCrea, and more.

via Jenn Pelly