Drake’s 100 Gigs EP has been affected by sample cleanup issues, leading to “Blue Green Red” being removed from streaming services.
Over the past few weeks, Drizzy has been treating fans to various clips, unreleased material, and behind-the-scenes footage from throughout his career, but now may be running into some legal trouble.
“Blue Green Red,” which was released to streaming last month after initially being shared on Instagram, allegedly samples dancehall artist Tiger’s 1991 track without the permission of the musician and his producer, Cleveland “Clevie” Browne ’s hit single “When.”
Clevie outlined the problems with the sample to DancehallMag, saying: “SONY/EMI [his publishers] Friday called to say they were seeking permission for “When,” but they hadn’t sent the song. We can’t clear it without hearing the song.
“But Drake leaked this before. The label blocked Drake’s release and then released the song over the weekend without any permission from us. Because they did it beforehand, it’s possible means problem.
He added: “They only used the melody in one part and repeated it twice. So it was a clear infringement.
“Blue Green Red” has since been removed from the streaming service, with “Circadian Rhythm” from Drake’s 100 Gigs EP replacing it.
Clevie, one half of the duo Steely & Clevie, has been involved in a separate copyright dispute with the Toronto rapper and several other artists over claims Drizzy’s hit single “One Dance” stole his 1989 Elements of the song “Fish Market”.
Drake’s other recent release, his long-awaited “Buffalo Freestyle” collaboration with Benny The Butcher, was also recently removed from the streaming service without any explanation.
The song was released four years after it was leaked, but was pulled the same day it was released as part of Benny’s surprising three-song EP Buffalo Butch Vol. 1.
The Griselda rapper previously expressed his disappointment that the song wasn’t released during a chat with Joe Budden last year.
“I’m angry, I’m not going to lie. I’m angry, man,” he admitted. “This is Drake’s fucking record! It’s hands down my biggest record… and it’s in my pocket.
Benny added: “He’s the biggest artist in the world, so I know he might have a busy release schedule, or he might have someone say, ‘We can’t drop it now because we’re doing this.'”
“I understand that. He’s the name, but he represents a lot of people that he worked with and his actions impacted a lot of people, so I understand that.
