Following his public issue with Azealia Banks earlier this week, producer Munchi has released a second statement about what happened with the Harlem vocalist and his track
Banks used – now, it emerges, without permission – a track of Munchi’s titled ‘Esta Noche’, on her recent mixtape Fantasea. Given that Fantasea was a free release, this sort of thing is usually fair game (and given that the track revolves around an obvious Montell Jordan sample, for Munchi to release it for direct profit would have been tricky), but the issue came when Banks announced that the track would be released as a standalone single and video, without consulting Munch.
As FACT wrote on Monday, “Munchi took to Twitter to blast Azealia Banks and her representatives, who allegedly prepped the track for release before reaching out to him. He also says they offered $25,000 and a public apology in exchange for his cooperation, to which he tweeted “Tell your camp the deal is off I don’t want your fucking $25.000. Fuck off. Go be a puppet bitch to someone else.” Later, he continued his anti-music business rant and called out Banks for “bitch behaviour.”
Banks, attempting to look the bigger party for possibly the first time in her musical career, refused to directly respond to Munchi, Tweeting that she was still shooting the video and that she was “cracking up right now.”
Munchi then attempted to explain the situation in more detail on Facebook, and has since released a longer statement on what happened. It reads thus [via Pigeons & Planes]:
“Damn yo, I have nothing to hide and I do not have a team of people backing me to calculate the best way to portray my words. I just have my mind, my words and the facts.
I feel extremely bad for Montell Jordan, Claudja Berry and all of the people at Interscope and Polydor who were very helpful in trying to make a solution to this shit, but if you get disrespected 11 times over a course of a couple of months -more than half being in 1 day- things will get extremely difficult.
Especially when the artist in question starts a Twitter beef by saying that it’s my fault that the release is not going through, while she is the one who put out a cover and a statement that it was going to be released the next day. This when nothing was confirmed yet.
I have been extremely patient and willing to solve this problem over time, but there is a limit. If she wants to be a spoiled brat about it, don’t be surprised if I will get difficult towards her as well.
Matter of fact – everything was done backwards, instead of having the decency to contact me about it first, they did everything they had to do and contacted me last.
Expecting that I would go for the money right away – the way of the industry. Even when all of the things were said on Twitter by Azealia, the label was doing everything to solve the situation – it was too late to solve though.
I have been extremely patient and willing to solve this problem over time, but there is a limit. If she wants to be a spoiled brat about it, don’t be surprised if I will get difficult towards her as well.
In regards to the sample of Claudja and Montell:
It’s very simple, I made a remix of one of my favorite tracks in the world and put it out in 2010.
I did not want to release it, because I did not want to disrespect the artists – it was just my interpetation of this track made for the club. It was supported by a lot of big names back then including Skrillex and a staple in the Moombahton genre.
Now the issue comes that I noticed Azealia using the track in her Fantasea mixtape in which the beats were being selected by Diplo and her. Nobody told me anything prior to the release. My intention was never to make this an actual release and I did not like what she did to it.
The only thing I would’ve asked for is proper credits and a say in the creative process – something taboo, but I have to have it clear what I want to affiliate my name with and with what not.
It is common in this music business to get fucked over and a lot of people are afraid to talk out. It is uncommon to speak out and say the reality of situation.
I also saw claims that it was the same beat as the original sample. I can make it very simple – why does she have to use my version?
She can make the track on the original of Clauja Berry/Montell Jordan. There is no need to hop on the Moombahton hype so bad? Is it because she wants hipster credibility? I do not know.
Her and her camp were the ones who wanted the track, for me it was absolutely not necessary.
This is not to way to handle such a request. I don’t need their money, fame or success for the price of my integrity.It is common in this music business to get fucked over and a lot of people are afraid to talk out. It is uncommon to speak out and say the reality of situation.
Azealia’s fans I do not and cannot blame – they have been misinformed and it is useless to blame them for something the person they idolize has been doing time after time. Stealing tracks and causing unnecessary drama. T.I., Jim Jones, Iggy and Nicky [sic] Minaj were before me. Shit man, all this bullshit could’ve been avoided. Seems to me that there is definitely something going wrong over there.”
This isn’t the first time a producer’s not got credit for one of Azealia’s tracks, of course: her past single ‘Fuck Up the Fun’, which also featured on Fantasea, caused a stir earlier in the year when the beat was credited to Diplo – despite sounding close-to-identical to a past track by Dutch producer DJ Master-D, titled ‘Mad Drumz’. The track has since been credited as a collaboration between the two parties.
