S. Samuel
Interscope Records' head Jimmy Iovine made a major move recently as new reports claim the music mogul forced YouTube take down a song by UK artist Skepta for Grammy-winning rapper Eminem.
Details of what took place landed online this week.
Now here’s a crazy look into the world of major record labels, Interscope/Universal Records has used the YouTube DMCA policy to take down a song they wanted to buy for Eminem. The story starts with North London hip hop artist Skepta. A few weeks ago he released his new album Lights, Camera, Action online and uploaded the single “Dare To Dream” to his YouTube account. A few days later the video was taken down and replaced by a copyright infringement notice. Skepta had no idea why, but eventually found out last week. (Music Feeds)
Skepta later came forward and dished out what took place.
“Just got a f*%king CRAZY email. I don’t know if I should be angry or privileged. This explains why the f*%k YouTube took ‘Dare To Dream’ off,” he tweeted July 14th.
“Jimmy Iovine Interscope heard my new single ‘Dare To Dream’ and decided he wanted to sign it for Eminem hence Universal takin it off YouTube”
“I overly love the song but at the same time I do understand Eminem together with the ‘Dare To Dream’ chorus will be absolutely f*%king CRAZY”
“Being in an industry where money talks, everybody involved in the ‘Dare To Dream’ project came to a conclusion to sign it to Interscope..”
“So if you’ve already radio ripped my version of ‘Dare To Dream’ this will be the first time I say “WELL DONE” };) A new single coming soon..” (Skepta’s Twitter)
Although the record is now Interscope’s property, multiple versions of it have hit the Internet.
YouTube has been scrambling to expunge the track from the web, but new versions keep popping up. A cursory glance at the YouTube comments shows an overwhelming sense of disapproval from Skepta fans. Many of them think he should’ve kept the track for himself. (Rap About)
Along with rapping, Skepta is also a producer on the United Kingdom scene.
He is a producer and DJ commonly associated with the North London Grime scene, including Roll Deep and Boy Better Know. The name “Skepta” originated from the word Sceptre, a type of staff. He did not like the way it was spelt and felt that he wanted a unique stage name so ‘that he could type “Skepta” in YouTube and only he would come up’ and decided to change it as a result. (Wikipedia)
Check out “Dare to Dream” below:
