Last week’s court ruling requiring artists to get licenses for clips they sample could have a big chilling effect on creativity. “In the long run, this will lead to mediocrity in the music. People may say, `Well, why is [Sean “P. Diddy” Combs] just sampling Rick James, that’s not very creative.’ But if you sit down and talk to him, he’ll break it down that he could have done more creative stuff — a Rick James riff, a James Brown beat — but it would have cost him an arm and a leg.”