By Dylan Moran
Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly has denied claims he ‘stole’ a sample from New Zealand band The Naked and Famous on his new EP.
The alternative Kiwi band yesterday took to the internet to express their outrage over ‘Half Naked & Almost Famous’, an MGK hit which heavily samples their track ‘Young Blood’.
“This guy… – This ‘artist’ has never once thanked, acknowledged or even asked our permission to use ‘Young Blood’,” the band wrote on their Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts.
The Naked and Famous made the claim after an MGK interview with Rolling Stone magazine while promoting new EP Half Naked & Almost Famous.
"I wrote this song after this crazy night on tour in Tempe, Arizona where we almost got arrested and ate by coyotes while we were drinking on a mountain we weren't supposed to be on, raged at a bunch of college parties we weren't invited to, and ran around in our boxers off this big rock into a hotel pool at 5am,” MGK said.
"We shot the video at 2011's SXSW and decided to release it after we won MTV's Breaking Woodie Award for 2012 because it kind of captures the whole 'chasing our dreams' experience from beginning to end.”
The band has since deleted all online posts referencing the scandal, but not before MGK responded with a series of tweets.
“The band The Naked and Famous are the ones who cleared the song I sampled. I was paying hommage [sic] to them, not stealing, u f**kin idiots,” Machine Gun Kelly stated on his Twitter account.
“@TNAF first and foremost, YOUR [sic] the ones who cleared the song in the first place. 2ndly [sic] I was referring to writing MY verses in that quote. I was actually a huge fan of yours and was paying hommage [sic] to yall by making a play off the name to describe my situation.
“@TNAF yall deleted your tweet? Someone mustve [sic] showed u the paperwork of yall APPROVING that sample. Now apologize for ur bitchassness.”
MGK’s ‘Half Naked & Almost Famous’ appeared in a promotional series he filmed during 2011’s SXSW festival and on October’s Rage Pack mixtape, which also features tracks sampling international acts such as Daft Punk and The Bloody Beetroots.
At the time of publishing, The Naked and Famous had not replied to the rapper.
3 News
source: newshub archive
