(AllHipHop News) Days after he was accused of stealing a sample to help catapult his career, Mac Miller’s label reps have come forward with comments regarding the $10 million suit filed against him in a New York federal court by Lord Finesse.
The suit, filed against Mac Miller, Rostrum Records, and DatPiff.com, alleges “copyright infringement, unfair competition, unjust enrichment, interference, deceptive trade practices, and a number of related state law claims,” for Mac Miller’s sampling of Lord Finesse’s 1995 track, “Hip 2 The Game”.
The track was sampled on Mac Miller’s “Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza” song from his popular K.I.D.S. mixtape.
The following is an official statement Rostrum Records on behalf of Mac Miller:
“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.”
Prior to the statement’s release, Mac Miller took to Twitter to express his thoughts on the dispute, saying in part, “1. I made that record and video as nothing more than an 18 year old kid who wanted to rhyme and pay homage, no other intentions. 2. Finesse and I spoke on the phone for an hour after he heard the record and cleared the air. We even planned to work on music together.”
To the contrary, in the suit, Lord Finesse alleges that the sample was stolen in a strategic effort to help Mac Miller build his fanbase.