Ex-member of the Dogg Pound, rapper Daz Dillinger, has demanded that Rockstar recall all unsold copies of Grand Theft Auto V and have them destroyed.
TMZ are reporting that a cease and desist letter has been sent to Take-Two Interactive Software and Rockstar Games as the tunes “C-Walk” and “Nothin’ But the Cavi Hit” are used in the game without permission.
The rapper says he turned down Rockstar’s “offensively low offer of $4,271.00 for both songs.”
Mr Dillinger has told TMZ that the case is about “respecting an artist’s work. Rockstar didn’t do that here and I can’t let them get away with it,” and has given Take Two fourteen days to comply with the order – or make the rapper a rather more generous offer for the use of his music.
If the tunes have been used without permission then Rockstar are in a rather tricky situation and it could prove to be rather expensive.
Source: TMZ
3shirts
While I fully respect his right to take action if Rockstar did use the track without necessary permission, telling them to destroy the game is not going to do you any favours. All it will do is turn fans of the game (and sales would suggest there are A LOT of those) against you.
Just demand proper payment or take them to court and stop trying to use sensationalist threats to get your way.
Avenger
Not really. This situation seems less about the politics of his and Rockstar’s image and more about the principle of respect and permission. Why should Rockstar continue to make money without the necessary rightful permissions of another person.
Although there is perhaps a little bit of power play in the sense that Rockstar’s best choice would be to make a payout.
jimmy-google
I think it will turn people against Rockstar rather than the other way around. This sort of thing is unlikely a simple mistake like the map used in a Last of Us.
Rockstar earn a lot of money off a game like GTAV and should be paying for content they haven’t made. There really isn’t an excuse for using content like this which they haven’t paid for.
ghag07
Easiest option, one patch that removes the song……done
Youles
True, although people could play without the patch installed.
IF this is true, then their original offer – given their budget and large revenue – seems pretty insulting to be fair. They obviously liked the tracks enough to have them included, but only wanted to pay peanuts for them.
jimmy-google
Assuming GTAV sells 10mil globally (suggestion is it’s already hit 15mil and GTAIV hit 25mil) that would mean they offered 0.04 cents per copy to include both songs. I can understand why the offer was rejected.
hannes_truce
@Jimmy – that’s more than Spotify pay…
Ed the Penguin
It would be a pretty large patch I’d expect as it’d be built into one lengthy “radio station” track.
Amphlett
After listening to the tracks I’d say that Rockstar’s initial $4k offer was too much.
Taylor Made
You joking right or you just don’t listen to rap
Amphlett
On the contrary my friend, I am Hip Hop to the core. I’ve seen Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Public Enemy, Run DMC, Hijack, EPMD, Stetsasonic, Eric B & Rakim, LL Cool J, etc., etc. Too many to mention here.
The C-Walk track by Daz (very street!) is a very weak track. The music itself is a quite simple thinly layered synthed loop. The lyrics show little to no imagination or talent and are delivered in a manner which sounds like he’s disinterested in the output. There are no other layers or tricks to pull my interest in to the track, it’s just weak, though I expect Daz to think that Crips V Bloods gangster threats make it really hard.
Forrest_01
Yeah, i agree with Amphlett to be fair. C-Walk is one of the worst tracks on the Kuruption album – No idea why they chose that.
& Nothin’ But the Cavi Hit is just ‘ok’.
With the extensive hip hop discography they could have gone for, the GTA V soundtrack could have been a lot better.
Taylor Made
Amp & Forrest, easy though didn’t take u lot for the hip hop listeners but I’m guessing you the old school type of hip hop listeners.
Tbh Daz songs that are on GTA are better than the rest of the playlist I don’t listen to so either way it is most welcomed, I feel like the west coast classic is heavily NWA, ice cube, no tupac etc
double-o-dave
I’m with Amphlett on this one. In fact if I could afford it, I’d pay Rockstar $4,271.00 to make me a patch so I can delete the 2 tracks from my copy of the game.
Bilbo_bobbins
ha ha ha.
Tarbun84
$4k is a silly amount to offer but Rockstar need to nip this is the bud quickly before the situation escalates. Offer some dosh
gaffers101
“Destroy all unsold copies”
If I was Rockstar I’d send him 100 copies of the game and say “that’s all the unsold copies, do what you want with them!!”
CrawFail
There’s probably more to this than initially laid out on the Internet. He probably doesn’t own any rights for his music and has a publishing company acting (and collecting royalties) on his behalf. He could quite possibly owe an old label a lot of money from a previous contract and they are first in line for any monies made from the song.
Just because he is the writer of a song and performed it it doesn’t mean he necessarily owns any rights against it so the decision could be out of his hands.
The music industry is a horrid business. I’m sure if Rockstar really wanted the song on their game they would have pursued the legitimate route and paid the appropriate party for the right to use it.
This story smell like that one where that rapper got angry at Rockstar for “using his likeness” in San Andreas. Basically a poor, no longer relevant musician trying to claw back some success and money. No doubt this story breaking has earned him a few hits on Spotify and a few album sales to further line his pocket.
I might be wrong. Let’s see what happens.
arrybags
This is pretty much what i thought when reading it through.
Potentially no different to Sir Paul McCartney not having the rights to Beatles songs and having to pay royalties if he sings them.
Tuffcub
The letter was sent by his lawyers so I assume they know what they are doing and he does own the music.
Tuffcub
Oh and a “Few hits on spotify” will earn him 0.00000001 dollars.
CrawFail
$0.001 per play, not that ridiculous number that’s been banded about for the past few month. It’s still not much of course but if 500,000 people think “Oh that’s a decent tune” and search for it it’s not a bad earner. Still probably more than he’s earned for the last 10 years too!
And his lawyers are more than likely fighting for his voice being used in the game without his permission. He probably said no but his label (or whoever owns his music) bypassed his decision. Pretty shitty for the guy but I very VERY much doubt Rockstar would overlook any detail which might land them in trouble, considering the controversy the game garners off its own back. They’re cheap, evidently..but not criminal.
colmshan1990
If this is true, it’s monumental stupidity from Rockstar.
Damages paid for stealing an artist’s work in a commercial product are usually much more than what it would cost to license it.
They’d better settle the case fast if true.
double-o-dave
It’s probably more to do with the embarrassment of knowing, however many people have bought the game can associate him with such horrific noises apparently combined to make something called music. The least people who know, the better – Therefore destroy all copies and try and protect whatever dignity remains.
bunimomike
“Dogg Pound, rapper Daz Dillinger”
Dignity? Ha! :D
double-o-dave
Good point. To be fare, Dignity is probably the name of his sister or pet Guinea pig or AK47.
Starman
Never heard of him. Sounds like a publicity stunt. If they’ve offered the same to all artists then fair enough.
bunimomike
Well… it rhymes with “stunt”.
hol
There’s also the chance some who’ve never heard of him actually liked his music enough to buy it? Can’t buy that kind of promotion on such a massive selling title.