Over the weekend, people on the internet started to notice that Childish Gambino’s wildly popular “This Is America” may have some creative overlap with another song from 2016. The song in question is Jase Harley’s “American Pharaoh.”
“American Pharaoh,” which is off Harley’s Free Pxrn: The Memoir Of An American Heathen album, shares similar elements with Gambino’s mega hit, including the chorus chanting, transitions between rapping and singing segments, flow, drum pattern, and subject matter.
As a result, people have been commenting on Harley’s latest Instagram post to give him props and see if he’ll take legal action. Harley has been replying, writing, “nah all artist get inspired by others.. artists being thirsty for bread is why ppl don’t wanna credit anyone for inspiration. It’s all love and support from me, glad if my record influenced his.”
He did mention he’d like a mention in some form or another (“lol word a shout out would be cool”) but he felt the inspiration was real from the start (“I always felt my song inspired it lol from the first time I heard it”). As of now, Harley isn’t credited in any form on “This Is America.”
Gambino’s manager Fam Udeorji took to Twitter to address the plagiarism claims, saying that “This Is America” has been in the works for three years and that he can prove it.
Childish Gambino hasn’t released a statement himself on the matter.
Since being released on May 6, “This Is America” has gone platinum, hit almost 300 million YouTube plays, and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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CG managers reply is super truth
No lie this has several similarities. Somebody stole from somebody and that’s word to my name
Good thing no one knows who the fuck you are
Can you read? My name is Truth..Idiot
Sounds like a bite to me.
Fam Rothstein seems pretty salty about it. When fake as frauds get pointed out like this. They always have petty ass reactions like this.
Why being racist about it?? Every white Blogger?? Really?? Dude is salty af that the got exposed.
Well……This IS america
best comment
Hahaha Best comment
Harley should slap the taste outta this bitch mouth. That even offended me and I don’t know how any of these bastards are. There’s a line and he crossed it talking about moms and unborn child.
Lecrae has a song called welcome to America that also sounds real similar
Glad the artist is not a vulture… every artist is inspired by others. A tune can pop in yr head…but it probably came from a melody you heard in the past. Nothing is completely original
I’d fire my manager if I was Gambino for that corny ass unprofessional response. It’s a bad look for him to be associated professionally with someone that flat out ignorant.
American Pharaoh is infinitely better than the derivative crap that is This is America…great lyrics bruh, song would’ve gone nowehere without the video. Glover has gotta be one of the most overrated human beings in the world right now.
He totally f’d up playing Lando in the Solo movie. Dude can’t act either
This is definitely the blueprint to binos joint.
So why hate the whites for ?
The “American Pharaoh” artist needs to be punched in the throat. He’s out here implying plagiarism by an artist whose track sounds nothing like his except for the African drums and brief moments of cadence. “But let me claim Gambino is a biter so people will listen to my obscure random song and make me money”. Because just by implying that Gambino stole his idea, he’ll get an influx of views and streams on his video. Remember when XXXtentacion (R.I.P) said drake stole his flow. X was a relatively unknown soundcloud rapper who benefited immensely from the sheep flocking to listen to his songs because they wanted to see if a plagiarism claim was true. XXX was a talented dude in his own right but that claim did help him pop. So here we have another unknown guy that has nothing to lose by saying one of the most talented people hip-hop, television and film stole his original idea because their records have similar elements. If that’s the case than anybody rapping over trap drums is a thief as well as anybody using a triplet flow. People really can’t think for themselves anymore. It’s kinda sad.
Donald Glover is a hipster ripping off other peoples creations. That’s what hipsters do
I agree go listen to that Meek track it’s fucking dope
Nas – America 08 (The Original Inspiration)
Nas – America ’08 birthed these shits!
the tunes sound similar bc theyre imitating everything else on the radio atm
We all know Nas, America 2008 started all of this