Childish Gambino Collaborator Denies “This Is America” Plagiarism Allegations

One of Donald Glover’s creative partners has denied claims that Glover “stole” the music for his No. 1 single “This Is America” from a March 2016 song called “American Pharaoh” by New York rapper Jase Harley. Fam Rothstein is a co-principal of the creative agency Wolf + Rothstein (which is comprised of himself, Donald Glover, and Wolf Taylor), and he also co-produced the music video for “This Is America.”

This morning, in response to a user who claimed that Glover “stole the song,” Rothstein tweeted: “The internet is a place of no consequences. I hate that Toronto Akademiks/every white blogger can say something as gospel and y’all take it. This song is 3 yrs old, and we have Pro Tools files to prove it.” Find his tweet below.

Allegations of plagiarism against Glover surfaced on Reddit this past weekend, with Redditors citing comments on Jase Harley’s Instagram. Someone wrote to Harley, “People are saying Donald Glover bit your song ‘American Pharoah’ with ‘This Is America.’ What do you think?” Harley responded, “I always felt my song inspired it lol from the first time I heard it.”

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What say you ATS? did Childish Gambino steal his now famous and controversial song from another artist? It sure sounds like it to me. Have a listen!

I had to stop American pharaoh at 45seconds just to comment that, HOLY S***BALLS ITS THE SAME SONG!! Sorry I yelled... But it's like Glover didn't even try to hide the fact that he stole this.

From the intro 'Whoop' and other sounds, to the flow of the rap and sampling of "slave song" sounding music in the background... wow.

Now, is it possible this is a huge coincidence? Of course it is. But that'd be a brontasarus sized coincidence.

ETA: Now that I heard the whole thing, it just seems obvious. American pharaoh is about 1/3 social commentary and 2/3 "getting my money". The 1/3 is the better part of the song. The 'get dat money' is just the typical rapping about making money and wearing Gucci.

I wonder if Glover saw the potential here, scrapped the worse2/3 and made the whole thing social commentary.

Even the ending is so similar. When American pharaoh is fading out, there is a scream at the end. Watch this is America's ending synced with pharaohs music. Obvious plagiarism is obvious.

a reply to: GuidedKill

Childish Gambino stole music from someone else and tried to front like he came up with it all on his own? That's just.. childish

The original volume of "This Is America", a "Mondo" shock documentary, was released in 1977. It had several sequels during that period.


www.imdb.com...

Casino "Gambino"?

As in Gambino Crime Family?
en.wikipedia.org...

Dude doesnt look like he was raised on basghetti.

America is a racist country, stealing from a black man, so another can make money, is so Trump's Amer...what...Donald Glover is black and that makes it not racist....I am so confused

Break the man off a little bit of the money. He earned it, you liberated his song.

The lyrics are completely different. So Donald Glover did not steal those. As to the beat. Yeah the song definitely sounds like its inspired by American Pharaoh. Donald Glover(Childish Gambino/singer) and Ludwig Göransson(producer/guy who makes beats), maybe even sampled parts of the song. But it is a Hip Hop song. Taking other songs and making new songs out of them is nothing new. Been a part of Hip Hop since the beginning. Not only is sampling common but rappers outright rap over other artists beats on mixtapes all the time.

No Hip Hop artist can complain. Which is why the artist people are saying was plagiarized said this.

Harley added, “It’s cool tho.... Glad they liked my song. It’s all love.” He also wrote that “a shout out would be cool,” that it’s “dope [he] could’ve had some influence on the record,” and that “all artist get inspired by others.”

a reply to: karmicecstasy

It's true rappers sample others music and put out mixtape all the time. The difference is, you don't get paid for the songs on the mixtape unless all parties agree to your use of their music and get cut in on profits. (This is a very brief description but is essentially how the mixtape game works)

Now, they do get paid indirectly because of mixtapes if it garnishes enough popularity to sell merch or get you booked somewhere.

Donald Glover claiming this as solely his own is the problem here. He's making crazy money off it while the other guy gets absolutely nothing. I do admire Jase's attitude toward the situation. Definitely a class act.

a reply to: GuidedKill

I hate that Toronto Akademiks/every white blogger can say something as gospel and y’all take it.

What does race have to do with this? I don’t understand why some people have add race to every issue. Racist much?

a reply to: seaswine

Has Donald Glover claimed that though? OP's source has a quote from a business partner. Nothing from Donald Glover or Ludwig Göransson, the guy who would of actually put the beat together. Plus, although the songs have similar structure. They are not beat for beat equal.

I don't have the expertise to determine if the song was directly sampled or not. Or the legal knowledge to say who would win in a court case between the two if it went that far. The songs have similar intros, similar flows, and similar African sounding chorus. Using similar sounds in similar ways is not the same as taking a direct sample and manipulating it to fit a new song.

Either way if it turns out that This is America was an homage to another song. I think Donal Glover should acknowledge that in someway. I just don't understand why, if the guy who made American Pharaoh is not making a deal out of it, why should anyone else. At this point its between Jase and Donald.

originally posted by: SocratesJohnson
America is a racist country, stealing from a black man, so another can make money, is so Trump's Amer...what...Donald Glover is black and that makes it not racist....I am so confused
.

you really are confused....

,...................

the similarities are uncanny.... both idiotic.

a reply to: GuidedKill

thing is though its just people on reddit chiming in with their opinion and these days that makes the news.

Jase Harley is not bitching about it.

“I always felt my song inspired it lol from the first time I heard it.” Harley added, “It’s cool tho.... Glad they liked my song. It’s all love.” He also wrote that “a shout out would be cool,” that it’s “dope [he] could’ve had some influence on the record,” and that “all artist get inspired by others.” Find Harley’s Instagram post below.

i dont recall Donald Glover out there on the junkets saying "here is my new joint that i wrote all on my own and never sampled #"

cause he is not

i dont know when you are required to credit others or when paying someone to use their # comes in but it sure dont seem like it applies here for if no other reason Harley is not asking for his check.

as for me

i can hear it in there but its a totally different song

a reply to: karmicecstasy

I don't know if Glover has literally out loud said "This is mine and mine only", but I've seen him on a few interviews where the host says something like "your new single is really something, let's talk about that", and by Glover words and actions it sure seems like he claims it's his. A lie of ommision and all that..

I don't think he sampled Jase's song at all. Which in my opinion is much worse. When you sample anothers work, thats a shout out to them and shows respect for their original work. A near identical copy is just a slap to the face.

Im only irked because I really like Glover as a musician, actor, writer and seemingly good person.

Both songs coming in from the right side, wearing white jerseys...


They don't sound any more similar to me than any of a number of modern generic off-beat pop songs do, but that's probably because I don't particularly care for this style of music. Once the beat drops on "This is Ameroca," it's a little bit more listenable, but that cacaphony of noise with the choir singing makes the overall song painful to listen to.

a reply to: seaswine

But it is not near identical. It is nowhere near beat for beat the same. It is in that nebulous grey zone. In the Homage, inspired by, fair use zone. I am sure lawyers would love to argue over it. But the owner of American Pharaoh does not care. If he don't care. I don't care anymore either lol.

a reply to: GuidedKill

There's definite similarities. I like both. They don't compare to Run The Jewels, then again, I don't think anyone does for this genre.

They sounded like 2 completely different songs to me. I don't hear any sampling either, is there something specific that I should be listening for?

originally posted by: karmicecstasy
a reply to: seaswine

But it is not near identical. It is nowhere near beat for beat the same. It is in that nebulous grey zone. In the Homage, inspired by, fair use zone. I am sure lawyers would love to argue over it. But the owner of American Pharaoh does not care. If he don't care. I don't care anymore either lol.

Beat for beat doesn't matter. It's the overall structure of the song that makes it highly suspect.

I must concede though, that if Jase don't care, there's really no reason to argue about our differing opinions. Leave that crap to the lawyers

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
Both songs coming in from the right side, wearing white jerseys...

They don't sound any more similar to me than any of a number of modern generic off-beat pop songs do, but that's probably because I don't particularly care for this style of music. Once the beat drops on "This is Ameroca," it's a little bit more listenable, but that cacaphony of noise with the choir singing makes the overall song painful to listen to.

Very good point. Just about all music these days either sounds the same or is a remix of an older song...

Between cases like these and terrible youtube rappers what's hip hop coming to??

Not the Hip hop I grew up loving...then again I used to break dance on a piece of card board.

originally posted by: Sublimecraft
a reply to: GuidedKill

There's definite similarities. I like both. They don't compare to Run The Jewels, then again, I don't think anyone does for this genre.

I think they both were decent enough too......by today's standards that is.