Hitmaka has weighed in on the recent hot topic of artist publishing, recalling a time he had to fight with Mustard over getting the proper credit on a Meek Mill song he produced.
The topic came up earlier this week when songwriter Tiffany Red called out Beyoncé and other artists for taking songwriting credit where she claims it wasn’t deserved.
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When Hitmaka appeared on Angela Yee’s Way Up With Yee show on Thursday (February 22), he was asked about Red’s comments and added more insight.
“That happened to me one time, just being transparent,” he began. “I was working under DJ Mustard at some point in my career early in my career and I did a record and I gave it to Mustard; and me and Mustard ended up not working with each other anymore. But he went and re-produced the record, and it was a sample. So it was able for him to take my idea and hook and sell it to Meek Mill, which turned into ‘Whatever You Need’ featuring Chris Brown and Ty Dolla $ign.
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“But I didn’t have no leverage at the time, and I’m assuming that Tiffany probably felt like she didn’t have leverage in those situations. But I continued to work hard, and I’ll never forget it but we at the ASCAP Awards and I win for Meek Mill ‘Dangerous,’ and they’re like, “Meek, come back up here again. Whatever you need, we gotta give you this one.’ But at that point, I had the leverage so I just called Roc Nation and we ended up working it out.”
In a lengthy video posted online, Tiffany Red criticized a number of artists for taking songwriting credit where she claims it wasn’t deserved.
The Grammy-winning songwriter criticized the likes of Zendaya, Tamar Braxton and Sevyn Streeter for taking a percentage of publishing on songs they didn’t write or produce.
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Red then took aim at Beyoncé for similar practices.
“The reason I called out Beyoncé is because Beyoncé is the Michael Jackson of our generation,” she said. “I talked to somebody yesterday who’s the manager of somebody who’s a writer and producer on Renaissance. The record is one of y’all faves. The song was written six years before it got to Beyoncé. She got 25 percent of the song.
“I spoke to another writer who wrote and sang on one of y’all favorite songs. Credit not right, his business all fucked up. Beyoncé was on tour last year with that record with that person’s vocals.”
She also wrote on X: “My hope is that on Act ll @Beyonce will #PaySongwriters a songwriter fee and master points and not take publishing or songwriting credit on any songs she did not write.”
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HipHopDX reached out to Beyoncé’s team for comment but has not yet received a response.
