In the wake of this past weekend’s learning of emcee Michael “Eyedea” Larsen’s untimely death, another Midwest emcee, Copywrite, provided HipHopDX and several other sites with a dedication. In the hours after that song, Copywrite asked that it be taken down after some listeners expressed concerns. Today (October 21) provided HipHopDX with the following letter:
“First of all, I would like to offer my deepest condolences and apologies to anyone who has taken the tribute song I did for Eyedea the wrong way. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and fans. In no way shape or form did I intend to make an opportunity for myself with the loss of Eyedea. Hopefully, once I explain my thoughts and actions you will understand where I was coming from and accept my apologies.
It is true that I never met Eyedea; and that is why I mentioned it in the song, however I knew his work and of his great reputation as an artist. I respected him as a fellow musician regardless of my musical tastes or opinions. Last summer a mutual acquaintance had relayed to me that Eyedea was going through some problems. I asked on twitter to get a contact for Eyedea but never was able to make a connection.
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Over the last two years I have gone through a lot of loss in my own life, starting with the loss of my longtime friend Camu [Tao], followed by the loss of my mother in May of 2009 and most recently the loss of my grandfather in April this year. I have been in a dark place and I am finally coming out of it now. I dealt with loss on my record that is coming out; in fact one song is a tribute to three musicians I have never met, Kurt Cobain, Biggie and my great-grandfather Skip Nelson. I have a song dedicated to Camu and to my mother on the record and I bring this up as an example of how I deal with loss.
Also, over the last couple of weeks I have been doing weekly freestyles on HipHopDX, I do them on Sundays so they can go up on Monday. While I was writing this last Sunday the news broke about Eyedea. Once I started thinking about it, I reflected on my own life, being close in age, same profession and having gone through similar problems. I also felt like I needed to do something, I do not have tons of money, but what I do have is talent for making songs.
I thought if I wrote a track for him as a tribute, to pay my respects and also post the link that his mom sent out for donations that I would be helping. Yet, I did not know this would be perceived as an “opportunity” on my part, as that was farthest thing from my mind. If I was trying to make “Candle in the Wind” and profit from someone’s loss, why would I rush the track on an already used beat and put up the song for free download next to the donation link his mother sent out?
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Again, I am truly sorry for any pain I have unintentionally caused anyone and please know that I was only trying to pay respects. When I found out the song had affected people and was being misconstrued the wrong way I asked HiphopDX and other outlets that had it posted to take it down.
Sincerely,
Peter Nelson
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a/k/a Copywrite”
