“Fancy” & “Classic Man” Are Rip-offs, According To DJ Mustard
DJ Mustard has finally said what everyone already knew about Iggy Azalea‘s “Fancy” and, by extension, Jidenna‘s “Classic Man”: that they are blatant bites of his sound.
In a series of tweets posted Tuesday night (August 18), Mustard let out some frustration about other producers co-opting his style, singling out the two recent hits. “Fancy was a rip off …. Classic mans a rip off …. Str8 up !” he posted, before comparing the practice to stealing a bike and then selling it back to someone. He also pointed out that he hasn’t sued anybody “YET.”
Mustard’s brand of “ratchet music” rose to prominence thanks to the success of “Rack City.” First it came to define a new wave of West Coast hip-hop, but by the time “Fancy” came out in early 2014, it was one of the dominant sounds of hip-hop and, increasingly, pop. The Invisible Men and The Arcade produced “Fancy,” and they pretty clearly ended up with an imitation of the snappy, sparse Mustard sound. And then “Classic Man” came along this year and sounded so much like “Fancy” that at first it was reported that it sampled the Iggy hit, before Jidenna clarified Azalea was merely given a writing credit to avoid a “Blurred Lines” situation (though it seems like the producers would have a more a stake in the similar elements than Iggy, no?). So it’s a simulacrum of a simulacrum.
And Mustard has had enough. See his string of tweets below (screencaps by Complex).
As for all his claims about “Fancy”/”Classic Man” lawsuits, those are unconfirmed, but you get his point — there’s behind-the-scenes haggling over the sound of the two songs, despite Mustard’s claim that it’s his/his region’s sound to begin with.
