Drake‘s 100 Gigs EP has been hit with sample clearance issues, leading to the removal of “Blue Green Red” from streaming services.
Drizzy has spent the last few weeks treating fans to various outtakes, unreleased material and behind-the-scenes footage from throughout his career, but has now potentially run into some legal issues.
“Blue Green Red,” which was released on streaming last month after initially being shared on Instagram, allegedly samples dancehall artist Tiger’s 1991 hit “When” without permission of the musician and its producer Cleveland “Clevie” Browne.
Clevie outlined the issues with the sample to DancehallMag, saying: “SONY/EMI [his publishers] called on Friday and said they were seeking clearance for ‘When’ but they did not send the song. We can’t clear a song without hearing it.
“But Drake went ahead and leaked it before. The record company blocked Drake’s release and then went ahead and released the song over the weekend without us giving any clearance. Because they did this before the fact, that can mean problems.”
He added: “They used the melody just in a section, and it was repeated twice. So this is a clear infringement.”
“Blue Green Red” has since been removed from streaming services, with “Circadian Rhythm” replacing it on Drake’s 100 Gigs EP.
Clevie, who is one-half of the duo Steely & Clevie, is already in a separate copyright battle with the Toronto rapper and various other artists over claims that Drizzy’s number one hit “One Dance” stole elements from his 1989 song “Fish Market.”
Another recent Drake release, his long-awaited Benny The Butcher collaboration “Buffalo Freestyle,” was also recently removed from streaming services without explanation.
The song was released four years after being leaked but was taken the down the same day it dropped as part of Benny’s surprise three-track EP Buffalo Butch Vol. 1.
The Griselda rapper previously expressed his frustration over the song not being released during a chat with Joe Budden last year.
“I was pissed, I’m not gonna lie. I was pissed, man,” he admitted. “It’s a fucking Drake record! It was surely my biggest record … And the record’s just sitting in my pocket.”
Benny added: “That’s the biggest artist in the world so I understand his release schedule might be hectic or he might have people that be like, ‘We can’t drop that right now because we doing this.’
“I understand that. He’s the name, but he represents a lot of people that he works with and his moves affect a lot of people, so I understand that part.”
