Drake Accused Of Releasing “Blue Green Red” Without Clearing Sample

Drake has managed to drum up lots of excitement with his 100 Gigs releases. They have garnered millions of views on Instagram and Twitter. The problem is, the translation to streaming services has been hampered by sample problems. Ones that Drake’s OVO team have allegedly failed to resolve. The rapper’s song “Blue Green Red” samples Steely & Clevie’s “When,” but one half of the duo is claiming that Drake put the song out without properly clearing the sample.

Clevie sat down with Dancehall Magazine to discuss this alleged dispute. He said that Sony/EMI reached out to him with a clearance clearance request, but failed to include Drake’s new song in the request. “We can’t clear a song without hearing it,” Clevie noted. “But Drake went ahead and leaked it before.” He then said that the label put the song on streaming without getting the okay from him or Steely. It goes without saying that there’s a massive legal problem here if true. “Because they did this before the fact, that can mean problems,” the artist added.

The sample in question is during the post-chorus for “Blue Green Red.” Drake raps the bars “What the clock inna London? Yeah, Big Ben,” which is an interpolation of a similar line in Steely & Clevie’s “When.” Clevie notes that the line gets used twice in the song. “They used the melody just in a section, and it was repeated twice,” he asserted. “So this is a clear infringement.” Clevie acknowledges that sample issues are not always the fault of the artist, but notes that he deserves compensation for a lyrics and melody he helped create. “Efforts were made to get to us, but it is the record company’s responsibility to clear the song,” he concluded.