After The Smoke have a bone to pick with Yelawolf and UMG

As if we needed any more proof that corporations and major labels abuse power…

Independent rap group After The Smoke (producer Anthony X² and lyricist Whuzi) not only had their beat used by Yelawolf without credit, but the original was pulled after a copyright claim by UMG.

The group’s track “One In A Millon” (aka “OIAM”) — a track which features all original instrumentation and vocals, was released over a year ago, and is copyrighted by the group — had its beat used by rapper UMG/Interscope Yelawolf on a track entitled “Far From A Bitch” featuring rappers from Yela’s Slumerican imprint label. The track started circulating the rap blogs about a week ago without any acknowledgement of the original track.

When the group tried to upload their new video for the track yesterday they were faced with a notice from YouTube, citing a copyright claim from UMG.

We spoke with the group’s producer Anthony X² about the incident.

“Originally Yelawolf was supposed to do a verse on “One In A Million,” but he ended up doing his own song to the beat, with some guys from his Slumerican label. He had told us he would be down to collab and he took the beat for himself. So when the song came out, there was no credit to either me or After The Smoke as a group.”

“We intended on releasing the music video for “OIAM” today, but after a few hours of being up, it was removed and we got this email from YouTube:

Video removed – Copyright Infringement

We have disabled the following material as a result of a third-party notification from UMG claiming that this material is infringing:

After The Smoke – OIAM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBj2nmodCuA

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account.

”

It’s clear that UMG’s deal with YouTube is a clear abuse of power that without a doubt hurts independent artists. We see these acts by both the artist and label as deplorable and hope you will help us in speaking out against these actions.

After The Smoke – “One In A Millon”
After The Smoke – One In A Million by afterthesmoke

Yelawolf (Ft. Rittz, Young Struggle, Big HUD) – “Far From A Bitch”