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Earlier this year, Donald Glover's "This Is America" exploded into the pop music landscape. The first single, a first for Glover, aka Childish Gambino, captivated viewers and launched a thousand pieces of reflection, thanks in large part to its provocative video and catchy catch.
Now, Glover is struck by allegations that he snatched "This Is America" from "American Pharaoh", a 2016 song by New York rapper Jase Harley. The charges have rallied enough on Reddit and social media that one of Glover's creative partners, Fam Rothstein, has replied in a tweet since deleted Monday morning.
According to Pitchfork, Rothstein co-produced the video for "This Is America" and is co-founder of Wolf and Rothstein, a creative agency composed of himself, Glover and Wolf Taylor.
From Pitchfork:
This morning, in response to a user who claimed that Glover "stole the song," tweeted Rothstein: "The Internet is a place without consequences, I hate that Toronto Akademiks / all white bloggers can say something like gospel and you take it." This song is 3 years old and we have Pro Tools files to prove it. "(The tweet has since been deleted.)
The date of the song is significant – if she was 3, she would be earlier than "American Pharaoh".
Listen to yourself. Here is the complete song "American Pharaoh" by Jase Harley:
And listening "side by side" of both:
The similarities are hard to deny. Not only do they work with the same concepts and the same themes (to be honest, rapper on the struggle of being a black man in America is not really new to hip-hop), but the keys are similar, as are the rappers' cadences. And both songs are based on a radical change of rap verses towards an evangelical / spiritual break.
It may not be a direct rip-off, but the songs do look familiar, as if they had the habit of playing ball in the same park or if they had the opportunity to know each other.
For what it's worth, Harley believes that his song "inspired" Glover, and says he's flattered by the idea.
As Pitchfork writes, when an Instagram user asked Harley his thoughts on the similarities of the songs, Harley replied, "I've always felt that my song inspired him since the first time I heard it.
And, says: "It's cool, but … they liked my song … it's all love."
Harley added that "a shout would be cool" and "all artists inspire others".
The rapper later developed his thoughts into his own IG message:
"I feel extremely humble to be recognized and labeled as one or [sic] the original inspirations for one of the most important pieces of music and visual art of our time, "wrote Harley, adding a plea that the controversy"[not] dilute the message that I and @childishgambino try to convey. "
"It's bigger than me and him and bigger than the music," he added. "Let's not lose sight of it."
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