/r/hiphopheads is not impressed when it's discovered Childish Gambino embraced his African heritage by stealing shit.

267  2018-06-25 by DeathByDragonDildo

150 comments

I'm not even sure what your point is. Yeah I'd rather sleep with a dakimakura of my waifu Renge-chan than with some random 3D slut but that doesn't mean I'm desperate, it's the opposite, it implies that I have standards.

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How dare artists be influenced by other artists.

I don't think anyone's saying that they're surprised that musicians influence each other, it's more that this song is obviously treading the line between influence and plagiarism. It's subjective but they definitely do sound quite similar to me.

It seems clear that it was an influence. It doesn't bother me. The great majority of artists working in any genre produce mostly derivative work. Artists imitate other artists.

If its subjective then its not plagiarism.

tbf it wasnt the influence the outrage was over but rather the lack of credit

artists sample stuff all the time, but they usually mention where they took it from or clear the samples at least before use

If they think that's bad, they're going to be really upset when they realise their untalented hero is nothing more than a generic media hack.

It's not a direct rip-off, but having listened to it, it seems very likely that D-glover or some intern at his record company heard the song and was inspired to make This is America off the back of it.

Everyone in that thread is arguing whether it's theft or not, but the real issue is that a massive star like him could borrow from some unknown soundcloud musician and not give the guy a shout-out. That's just a dick move.

happens all the time

Haha, this wasn't an intern.

To me, these near copies are the worst. The instrumentals on the verses have been changed just enough to give Glover legal cover, that's clear intent to both steal someone else work and deny them payment for it. The message is clear, "I stole your shit, you can't afford to sue me because there is a chance you might lose. Get fucked."

Haha, this wasn't an intern

Yep. Producers/Composers who churn out these hits know exactly what they're doing. Something like "This is America" is very carefully crafted.

They should have carefully crafted harder.

should have gotten more interns involved

dozens of interns

very carefully crafted

I'd say theye were too careful...

Lol why does every song get mashed with "call me maybe"?

and still sound good.

In most cases, it's because Call Me Maybe has a slavish devotion to a I-vi-IV-V chord progression, which is exceedingly compatible with anything in a major key. And it's 1 chord per measure, which is really easy to get mashed up with stuff. Everything sounds good with "Get Lucky" for basically the same reason.

In this case it's just because they build up every 4 measures, and they're both right at about 120 BPM, so the transitions in the video happen with the transitions in the song.

The instrumentals on the verses have been changed just enough to give Glover legal cover

And the best thing is how retards are defending him with "they're totally different songs, like theres no synth bro"

if Vanilla Ice can get away with it

He did not...

Did he?

IANAL and I've never had to sue someone for infringement or anything, but I'm like 99% sure you could find a decent lawyer who'd be willing to work on contingency for a case like that. Donglover's got some deep-ass pockets and convincing a mostly-white jury that those are the same song seems like an absolute slam dunk.

Odds are though the artist still loves Donglover and will take whatever his equivalent of the "sorry we killed your son, here's free tickets to skip the lines at Magic Kingdom" compensation is.

He didn't sample and you can't protect an idea.

Check out Avril 14th and Blame Game. Kanye just told Aphex Twin to go fuck himself and he had no protection because sheet music isn't protected by IP law and he has someone else play it.

The guy is fucked but I don't honestly see it.

Also, listen to the opening riff from from Spirit's Taurus. It's the same fucking lick from Stairway to Heaven. Jury cleared Led Zeppelin.

damn near all of Zeppelin’s songs were note-for-note copies of existing works lol

Didn't Robin Thicke have to pay out to Smokey Robinson's family?

*Marvin Gaye, and it's basically the same song (same beat and bass riff). Give it a listen. Even then, I was surprised they ruled this way. It's extremely difficult to win one of these suits, especially with how much rap relies on sampling.

Ah yeah, thanks for the correction, and I was surprised too.

Huey Lewis did it to Ray Parker jr, and I'd argue their two songs are much less similar.

"I stole your shit, you can't afford to sue me because there is a chance you might lose. Get fucked."

This is AmericaI'm sorry

To me, these near copies are the worst.

emulation is how artistic ideas are shared and expounded upon you philistine

you prolly think Mozart was a hack too

While I was in a Band and composed songs for us, I would also sit down and listen to a song i really like and think of how I would compose something similar. Yet even if you would listen to the songs side by side you couldn't really tell I was influenced by it that much unless I point out the parts which I tried to imitate.

what I am trying to say is that lots of musicians listen to something, feel inspired and think of a way to create something similar, but their own style influences it sometimes so much that it barely resembles the original.

Just admit that all of your songs were basically just variations of All Star by Smashmouth or Pachelbel's Canon in D and that your friends were just too polite to point it out.

Nope I took this song as inspiration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4GK-nlmebk

Suprised to find post-rock posted on r/drama of all places!

/u/Orsonius fucking roasted, now on keep yourself safe watch 🤣🤣🤣🤣

How is it a dick move? That's pretty much how inspiration works. No one creates and writes in a vacuum. It's also possible that it just happened to sound like it, trap music is pretty formulaic and doesn't lend itself to tons of options.

That's pretty much how inspiration works.

It's really not. You can also come up with your own shit. Listening to someone else's song and then figuring out how to copy it without getting in trouble is not inspired.

it’s called emulation and every musician does it to some extent

I loved his band The Theorem.

How is it a dick move?

well you seee son, stealing someone elses music and passing it off as your own, bathing in the accolades, and making lots of money off it...is a dick move

The dick move is an action, and/or inaction, in violation basic codes of decency with which a gentleman is expected to conduct himself. The dick move is typically selfish in nature, unkind, and/or treacherous, and affects one or more of said man’s friends in a negative way.

Like a dick, the dick move is flexible, and its use moderately subjective, but it is most properly used when concerned with matters entailing loyalty to one’s fellow man;

but they remade the music

no one wanted to pay money for the original version

intern?

fuck me i need to get some interns so i can have people to blame for everything that goes wrong

dead body in the close? fucking intern shenanigans again!

That was literally Peter Madsen's defense when they found murder porn on his computer.

Legit, after reading the comments I was expecting them to be WAY less similar.

The original is way better tbh.

What the fuck are you talking about, This is America was finished 3 years ago while the worked on the video. If anyone, Jase should thank DG for the inspiration on HIS track.

this is a triplet flow over a similar cadence

Hmmmmmm.....

Lol if a triplet flow over a trap beat is enough to constitute plagiarism then everyone on soundcloud is in big trouble.

people always talk about how much rappers have great rhythm in their raps.

its always triplets, or straight 8th notes.

motherfuckers need to listen to some john coltrane.

dont catch you slippin up 🕺🏽

Holy shit they're right. This song sounds just as shitty as This Is America.

Imagine having to steal a song that mediocre. I thought that it was going to be really good given the hype around it but it sounds exactly the same as the other garnage rappers have been churning out these past few years.

it’s music you gotta be able to touch and feel

let them touch these things

Rap fans have unbelievably bad taste. At least with other genres you can understand why a song is popular even if it sucks but I have no idea how rap fans judge things.

Like Kendrick Lamar is supposed to be the best shit around right now and he's the most boring generic shit I've ever heard.

I get that. I used to never listen to rap, and I still share that view of certain rappers just seeming to mumble or be as emotionless as possible (Drake for me, I don’t get him) .

After a friend introduced me to some 90’s rap and some newer artists I’ve found a niche of rap that I can enjoy. I agree with you honestly, it’s hard to listen to a lot of rap. The songs that get me are in the area of Joyner Lucas/Some of Eminem’s songs, where there’s a shit-ton of emotion and passion behind the lyrics.

It’s hard for me to identify with much else, but if there’s a story in the song other than “bitches, money, etc” I’m open to it.

please be a teenager

Yeah drake's popularity makes no sense to me. He's literally not good at anything.

You’re allowed to not like his music but saying he’s “literally not good at anything” is just flat-out retarded.

hm lets see what makes a good rap artist and if drake has any of those qualities

-good voice - nope

-clever wordplay - nope

-interesting stories - nope

-technically sophisticated rhymes - nope

-emotional resonance - nope

-catchy melodies - nope

-sick beats - occasionally when someone else makes them

drake a shit

I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this because it's all pretty stupid but I'll address them.

-good voice - nope

Subjective.

-emotional resonance - nope

Subjective.

-catchy melodies - nope

Subjective.

-sick beats - occasionally when someone else makes them

Subjective. And also yes, rappers in general don't tend to make their own beats.

-clever wordplay - nope

-interesting stories - nope

-technically sophisticated rhymes - nope

Yes, he has songs with these qualities, they're just not the hits you hear replayed on the radio.

Bye

Kendrick really blew up in status bc his 2013 BET cypher verse was shockingly good, then his next two releases had a super accessible, modern sound while treading then-hot politically territory

also come on Pimp a Butterfly ain’t generic, at least when it came out. it’s barely even rap

lol go listen to guitars nerd

The best rapper right now is Oliver Francis https://www.youtube.com/user/oliverxkites/videos?view=0

the kendrick circlejerk is insane

Can we go back to gettin' crunk in the 2000s off of weed and alcohol instead of all this opiate mumble rap shit?

Am I really the only one who heard almost nothing similar?

Yep - the flow was similar but like that's normal

The part from 00:33-00:51 in the Soundcloud rapper's song sounds extremely similar to the part from 00:51 to 01:22 in DongLover's song.

Then again, both parts are quite minimalist so could it have been subconscious plagiarism or just coincidence? Who the fuck knows dude. Every 12-bar blues-based song sounds extremely similar to all other 12-bar blues-based songs too. These plagiarism discussions are always a subjective-as-fuck shitfest.

B-B-BUT A LESS FAMOUS PERSON DID A SONG WITH SIMILAR FLOW

I thought I came up with an original melody the other day but it turns out it used the major scale, so I had to throw that one out. Twelve-tone tone rows are the only way to go now.

I was gonna make a song with a guitar but I realized every string on a guitar has been played so now I have to make my own instrument fml #musiciansstruggle

Soundwave-based music has died in the 20th century as far as I'm concerned. Braille or bust.

I'm pretty sure all the braille letters have been made... Where do we go next?

Lots of people in the HHH thread are saying the same thing, but as a songwriter I see a ton of similarities in the structure, the tone, the instruments. It's just all been changed enough to be deniable. That didn't save Robin Thicke though with the Blurred Lines lawsuit (even though that was bullshit imo).

Lol okay bud and I'm a lyrical specialist of west African chants ergo I can confirm none of this is copied

Yeah, I'm sure he's delighted that he put in all that time and effort into making a meaningful and legible song just to have some worthless hack mumble like a retard instead and become instant hot shit because he made an edgy film clip.

Uhh, you just don't get it... but why would you, cracker?

Oh look he called him a cracker. Excellent move asswipe.

I prefer honkey, myself.

"Mayo scum" is the correct slur tbh.

Call me a hick to my face, bitch!

I think only NW USA people know what a "hick" is though

Cracker has to be like, my favorite pejorative racial term. It’s just so offensive to black people, and yet if used as if it’s offensive to white people. It was originally used by black people about white people in reference to cracking whips, and not in reference to the color of edible crackers.

It was obviously nogs trying to say Quaker, but they dumb and shit.

But Quakers were the core of the anti-slavery movement? Why would "Quaker" become derogatory?

Pretty sure it came from the OG white trash Americans the Florida/Georgia crackers. And those dudes weren't whipping black people, they were way too poor to afford slaves.

I always thought it was a twist of Quaker

cracker

please do not use racial slurs in /r/drama, /r/drama is a subreddit of peace. Thanks, and keep yourself safe!

Shut up, mayo

That dude should have stuck with acting. He'd be good in Big Bang Theory

Hm I wonder where AFRICA Bambaata got that beat from.

Kid started yelling it when he was getting molested probably.

Most people in this thread didn't even listen to the other song lol

Shit I must've missed your twitter poll

I heard enough to know he stole it from that guy. Glover’s music career is finally over. He can now go back to doing comedies so I can enjoy him again.

implying this will do anything to impact Glover's music career

Make Community 2

i don't know, i don't think i want the new, openly pretentious Donald "I'm not making a TV show, I'm making an experience" Glover anywhere near...anything

That's just his rap persona making a tv show. The real-life Glover stars in movie prequels and NBC comedies.

Yeah he got really annoying all of a sudden.

i was going to watch Atlanta, but the more i heard about it the more it sounded insufferable, then he came out with that line and i completely wrote it off.

First season was pretty good, but the second was kinda boring.

[removed]

I literally can't hear any similarities other than the inflection in the chorus? They're literally just talking over a slow beat.

Yeah, but he says the word America in it!

So i checked it out just now, and while there are lots of similarities, I wouldn't call it a straight up rip off, more like, similar components taken as inspiration.

The flow is very similar, but so it is for 99% of modern rappers.

The african background chant is in theme the same but execution sounds very different.

And the topic isn't really unique either, lots of rappers rap about being black in america.

Generic half-time trap beat....generic triplet flows.....uhh

All rap music is derivative and trend-hopping

All rap music that plays at your local Walmart might be yes.

I am sure your taste in music is much better

U mad

any taste is better than mumble rap by default

This thread is really stereotypical reddity. Somehow I thought this sub wouldn't be embarrassing in that way

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I only listen to power metal about Lord of the Rings

yeh bruv

All rap music is derivative and trend-hopping

All popular music is.

Very disappointed in Gambino.... Afrika is not proud....

I can't believe this is what we call music now.

This sentence only betrays your irelevance.

How exactly do I "betray my irrelevance"? Those two words don't work together friend. You're saying that I am relevant?

You're now betraying your poor education. This is making me sadder.

He's using betrays to mean reveals, which is a valid use of the word betrays

Yeah you're right, it's just an odd term to use unless in a specific context.

This song still sucks by the way.

/u/fuzzydunlots is probably into that rap style where they regurgitate a lot of words and fancy phrases to look big brained, but its just word soup. I forget the term for it. Aesop Rock is a good example of that style, but done well.

I fuck your mama with no condom because raw doggin something that spawned something so common in the comment section puts a flop on my erection.

qwhat happened to pink floyd reeeeeeeeee

The song is terrible. It just straight up sounds like garbage. It's got that woke message though, so...

LOL @ continent-stealing mayos pointing accusatory fingers and muttering incoherently about other people "stealing shit"

What's a mayo?

downvoted for the truth smdh

read some more world history book than fucking your shitty world history you learned in highschool, you vapid fucking moron.

Fam Rothstein

Is this a joke?

Keep your eyes open and you will start noticing a lot of (((jokes)))

But is he really named Fam?

Short for Famalamadong

He’s not really named Rothstein. His name is Fam Udeorji.

Hip hop was built by Jewish record label moguls

Woah, calm down there Trevor Noah.

No it's our reality

Jews ROCK! RAP!

Yeah, it's pretty close. It's at least heavily inspired by the other track.

With music, it's very hard to know what constitutes theft or just inspiration.

The other issue is that hiphop from the very beginning has been about "sampling". It's a part of the culture to take and borrow freely.

The difference here is that this is a no-name artist and usually you sample well known artists and give them credit for it.

Still, there have been plenty of hit songs by hiphop artists who have coverer/sampled songs that I had no clue about.

Forro in Brazil has a similar culture of sampling. I know what you're talking about.

What means that the two genres of music I fucking hate have more in common than I thought.

Thats actually a really good song and its a shame that dude is pretty much doomed to obscurity as some nobody trying to sell his wares on soundcloud.

Does Donglover seriously have a black lawyer who calls himself Fam Rothstein? That's fucking hilarious

missing some parenthesis bro

Why is that sub's cursor the all-seeing eye?

having subreddit styling still on is a good signal to knwo that you are below 15 and a vapid, mouth breathing user.

You are smug and self-satisfying. You are the problem. There should be a "delete" button below your posts. Start clicking them after you post and you'll find that /r/drama starts to improve.

So many songs had the same subject matter as this is America before it came out, that song doesn’t sound very similar at all, I feel like people who don’t listen to that type of music see the obvious similarities, but they could’ve been shown so many similar songs and had the same reaction idk about any sort of copying when it comes to criticisms of being black in America

Man I've never heard a song about being black in America that 'goes hard bruh' this is clearly plagiarism

Who gives a fuck about this whack mainstream shit? I only listen to the real hip hop.

“stealing”? in hip-hop we call that “sampling”

lol that title

It's pop music, they've been reusing the same four chords for more than eighty years now. Everyone steals from everyone accidentally or not.

the idea that you can own a musical idea is some angloid nonsense

Led Zeppelin did nothing wrong, Kenji Yamamoto did nothing wrong, and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s crimes were completely unrelated to his unoriginality

and I haven’t bothered listening to this but I bet Donglover did nothing wrong either.

you know what? i shouldn’t even say “angloid.” Jamaicans are angloids too, and they give less of a fuck about it than anybody.

This is really good for dramacoin, reddits current darling is going to split the entire community in half because so many people are going to stay loyal and deny any wrongdoing while the contrarians are going to use this opportunity to completely shit on him.

Personally I never cared for the song and thought it was simplistic and sounded almost like a parody of shallow trap music. That being said I think to say he directly borrowed from that song is a stretch. The only thing I see similar is the triplet flow and chorus, along with the whole "Black in america" line. That's pretty vague and you can probably find a whole other mess of songs that sound similar.

Shit if we're going off of these standards, then the rock/metal/punk community are constantly "stealing" songs.

What the songs have in common:

Triplets

Trap

"America"

Frequent texture swaps

All of those things are common compositional elements. There's no evidence that Donald Glover has even heard "American Pharaoh."

Given that one of the compositional techniques they used was "frequent texture swaps," you would expect that brief sections of the two songs would sound very similar. But if you listen closer to 2 similar sections of the song it's clear that they went about achieving similar effects differently. At the very least, they both did their own work.