Tired of tweeting back and forth with Mac Miller about the situation, legendary New York DJ and producer, Lord Finesse released an official statement regarding his lawsuit against Miller for $10 million for credit and compensation of sampling (or beat jacking) his 1996 cut "Hip 2 Da Game".
Finesse and Mac had apparently spoken on the phone regarding the lawsuit, and Lord Finesse decided to continue to pursue legal action. Mac Miller then took to twitter to announce the lawsuit was going forward:
Looking to set the record straight, Lord Finesse took exception with Mac jumping straight to twitter to air the news, and decided to release an official statement in which he says he attempted to contact Miller's people to resolve the issue and was told he should be content that Mac Miller was keeping him relevant. Finesse takes the most exception with the way the song was "sampled", as the instrumental was used in its entirety and not re-worked as a sample.
“Permission was never given. A lot of money was made on my song,. At the end of the day, I only stepped to these people for proper credit and compensation. I have done a lot of great things in hip hop and I never wanted a lawsuit. Never. I made every attempt to resolve this. But, when I reached out to these people their attitude was I should be grateful Mac was using my music to sell out concerts because it keeps me relevant. How does it keep me relevant if I’m not being credited or compensated? You’ve heard Mac, you’ve heard a portion of it from me. The truth will come out in court.”
It will be interesting to see how this case is resolved, as the ruling could have serious ramifications on how producers and artists can sample material. (Hat tip to NahRight on the clip).
[Update: Mac Miller's label, Rostrum Records, issues statement]
"There have been a lot of misstatements online and in the press, so we thought it’d be best to make some brief comments. First and foremost, we stand by Mac Miller in this situation and we will fight the case together with him.
Mac never pretended that the “Hip 2 Da Game” beat was his, despite what’s being said in the suit. Lord Finesse was given credit on both the video and the mixtape from the very beginning. We’ve never distributed “Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza” for sale on iTunes and have consistently policed digital retailers and other sites to make sure that no pirates were ever illegally selling the song.
Lord Finesse has known about “Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza” for a long time and never objected to the use. For some reason, he has very recently changed his mind.
We look forward to resolving this issue soon, and we appreciate all of the support that we have been receiving from the entire music community."