On Friday, Justin Bieber released his new, highly-anticipated album Changes, and within 24 hours there was already controversy.
No, it had nothing to do with his desperate attempt at a number one single, it actually surrounded one of the songs on his new album. His new song, ‘Running Over’, which features Lil Dicky, started to do the rounds on Twitter all because of comments made by an unknown musician, Asher Monroe.
Speaking of music plagiarism, have you heard our chat on the Hot Chelle Rae, The 1975 and Maroon 5 beef on this episode of It’s Been A Big Day For…? You should check it out!
Asher Monroe uploaded a screenshot of his own Instagram story to Twitter, saying: Justin Bieber “jacked my swag”. Along with this comment, he placed an image of his own song “Synergy” next to Bieber’s new song. The internet then put two and two together and the comparative videos started to do the rounds.
Here, stan Twitter was shocked at the blatant plagiarism from the Biebs that the hate started to pour in.
But then, it wasn’t long until people noticed the instrumental also very similar to a song by the Korean band, Yumdda.
Then, the songwriter spoke up.
Laxcity, an American producer, came forward saying that he made the beat and released it on Splice (a sound library) for royalty-free use. Laxcity shut down Asher Monroe’s claims by saying “Look at this clown” and “Lol bro I made this melody, not you… you should chill out.”
So there you have it, no one plagiarised. All good, right? Wrong. Just as we thought the case was closed, the sad truth revealed itself. Because this producer made the beat for royalty-free use, he’s actually making no money off of the Bieber song.
Hopefully this talented producer gets the exposure he well and truly deserves and at least something will have come out of this dramatic saga.
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