About a week and a half ago, experimental rapper JPEGMAFIA released his new album Experimental Rap. Like a lot of JPEGMAFIA records, it's full of samples, which have often been twisted and warped. Some of those samples are instantly recognizable, like Kanye West's "All Of The Lights" on "Lights" or Lil Scrappy's "Money In The Bank" on the single "¥ (Yen)." Some of them are less so. Because of a sample that fits into the latter category, JPEGMAFIA says that he's making a post-release change to Experimental Rap.
"Tsar Bomba," an aggressive and jittery Experimental Rap track that lasts for less than two minutes, definitely seems to sample "Personality Collector," a 2022 track from the relatively unknown Chicago screamo band We Weren't Invited. Shortly after the release of Experimental Rap, someone posted on the Hiphopheads subreddit about "Tsar Bomba," claiming to be a "friend" of We Weren't Invited and saying that JPEGMAFIA "ripped off" the band, giving them no credit or compensation. That Redditor later deleted their account.
On his Instagram story on Saturday, JPEGMAFIA posted what appears to be a screenshot from a licensing negotiation. It appears to show We Weren't Invited asking for $2,000 and for 20% of the song's net proceeds and copyright, as well as "appropriate song credit," against JPEGMAFIA's offer of $2,000 and 10% of the copyright. In that Instagram story post, JPEGMAFIA says that he's removing "Tsar Bomba" from the album after because he's "learned that they are attempting to push a narrative that I stole their song."
As I wrote this, "Tsar Bomba" has yet to be removed from streaming services. You can hear that song and We Weren't Invited's "Personality Collector" below.
More and more often, rap albums are coming out without production or songwriting credits in their metadata, even for records as big as the three that Drake released last month. This little saga shows why it's a good idea to get samples and credits sorted out before releasing something. The same day that he announced the removal of "Tsar Bomba," JPEGMAFIA deactivated his Twitter account. Before doing that, though, he addressed some of the discourse surrounding the album.
Experimental Rap is out now on AWAL.
