Super producer Bangladesh recently offered his take on beatmakers jacking his style and why he is often more offended than flattered by his sound getting abused.
For Bang, too much biting can hurt the music industry and drain his sound's popularity.
"They say imitation is a form of flattery, but I've got mixed emotions about it. It makes my job harder because you create something, now you have to think about it, change it and switch it up and every time you change it, they following you. You have to keep thinking of different poles to go through and paths to make, so the job is the hardest because you doing it first... (Laughs). So it's deeper than just what people see because when they bite, it just puts too much of that sound out there until it congests the market to where when I do it, I can't even do my own thing. 'Ahh, there he go again with that beat...' So I have to keep changing it, but I've been pretty alright with changing it up though." (Global Grind)
Last year, rapper Drake's producer 40 said Kanye West called him out over alleged swagger jacking.
"There are more similarities between me and Ye on 808s and So Far Gone than to Thank Me Later," 40 explained in an interview. "Ye cussed me out one day about jacking his sound. '40 I don't think you should be in the studio right now because you might just hear my new sh*t and subconsciously steal my new sh*t and it wouldn't even be your fault.' I can't even be mad at him because the last CD I listened to was 808s & Heartbreak before I started doing So Far Gone. I swear to God I haven't listened to a CD since other than Erykah Badu's new album which I love. That's it. I try not to listen to too much music because I don't want to be subconsciously influenced and he's 100% right about that." (Nodfactor)
In 2010, 40's friend/producer Boi-1da questioned Yeezy for calling out artists for stealing his sound.
"Lol @ Kanye West talking bout stealing swag, when hes made a career of sampling records SMDH #TheAudacity," Boi tweeted Friday (October 8).
"i mean dudes one of the greatest ever, but ... smh"
"@ChristianoHo no beef, just speaking my mind" (Boi-1da's Twitter)
Known for contributing beats to T.I. and Gucci Mane records, Bang previously told SOHH he had plans to work alongside Rick Ross and Plies.
"What I'm working on right now is Gucci Mane's next album and I just worked with Diddy the other day," Bang revealed to SOHH in summer 2010. "I just got on the phone with 50 Cent, so I'ma be sending him some music and we'll see how that goes. I have also been communicating with The Game, so we're working it in. We just dropped this R. Kelly and Ludacris new single, called 'Tongues.' That's currently on the Internet right now. I'm working with Shareefa on DTP and we got Rick Ross on that. I did some work with Jazmine Sullivan -- also put in some work with Plies. It didn't go on his album but he just reached back out to me because he wanted music. My main energy right now is with my own stuff, really trying to get Bangalesh Records off the ground."