Baauer Yet To Be Paid For Harlem Shake

The news in that ‘Harlem Shake’ creator Baauer’s label Mad Decent was being sued for copyright infringement for featuring samples of material by reggaeton artist Hector “El Father” Delgado and rapper Jayson Musson without prior permission seems to have been particularly troublesome for the tracks produce after he sensationally revealed he is yet to personally “earn a cent” from the release.

Legal wranglings over unauthorized samples have prevented Baauer, real name Harry Rodrigues fom being granted any royalties from the viral smash hit which at its peak saw over 4000 videos of people performing the dance craze which accompanied the track on to youtube every day.

Delgado’s claim relates to his single ‘Maldades’ which is the original material from which Baauer sampled the vocal that can be heard in the opening bars of the track. With Baauer previously admitting he’d obtained the sample without permission stating “the dude in the beginning I got off the Internet, I don’t even know where” it looks like Mad Decent are going to have to pay out and that Delgado shall be playing hardball in regards to settlement; appearing fairly annoyed and claiming “It’s almost like they came on my land and built a house”.

The latter suit appears to be far more amicable with Jayson Musson having personally telephoned Baauer to congratulate him for “doing something useful with our annoying music” and simply seeking to get a compensation deal from Mad Decent which he’s described  Diplo’s imprint as being “cooperative” about.

For Baauer it was never a deliberate attempt to shortchange his fellow artists as the producer freely admits that he never envisioned the song to become such a global phenomenon stating “I didn’t clear the samples because I was in my f***ing bedroom on Grand Street. I wasn’t going to think to call up [Delgado], I didn’t even know who it was who did that [sample]; I knew the Jayson Musson [sample]. So I found myself in that f***ing pickle. Legal letters and s**t”

Lets hope it’s all resolved soon…