Desiigner at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards after winning Top Rap Song for "Panda."
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Menace, the producer behind Desiigner's smash hit "Panda," revealed in an interview with DJBooth that there might be legal trouble between the Brooklyn rapper and Future. The producer claimed that Future filed a copyright infringement claim against "Panda."
“There was a situation with Future putting [an infringement] claim in because apparently, he said that ‘Panda’ sounded like ‘Fuck Up Some Commas,'" the producer told DJBooth. Menace said that the claim has stalled any compensation he should be seeing from the song that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"We were just about to see the checks but there’s been a lot of delays so we won’t see anything until next year anyway,” Menace said. "The problem is that once someone puts a claim in, it just stops everything.”
Later in the interview, Menace claimed producer Mike Dean “put a claim in as well, saying that he did something to the beat and he never did.”
The FADER has reached out to representatives for Future, Mike Dean, and Desiigner for comment.
Update: June 20 05:41 a.m. Future has denied the claims made by Menace.
A rep for Future has confirmed to Pitchfork that Menace’s comments are “not true.”
Mike Dean, meanwhile, confirmed to XXL that he did pursue a claim before dropping it. “I let the claim go because I have better shit to do than fight with people over BS," he said.
Dean explained what led him to pursue the claim in the first place.
"The kid lost the stems to the beat. It had some samples in the original from a film. I recreated some of the stems enough to patch up the beat and remove the samples. I was gonna recreate the whole beat then I found a way to keep it. Major labels don’t play with samples not being cleared The song would never have come out or cleared legal at Def Jam. If that’s nothing, then he’s right. He should have better file management skills if he works at an electronics repair shop.
"He should get facts straight before he speaks on my name. ... Hope he enjoys the bread and appreciates what I did to help him make $$. That’s about it. Menace, put some respek on my name and thank god Mike Dean removed your samples, youngin. Should throw me a few points from his pocket my way, but I am doing ok with or without the 'Panda' bread."
Dean later tweeted, “I’m not mad at anyone. Just the producer was talking outta line about me in interview. Gimme a call. Be a man.”
I'm not mad at anyone. Just the producer was talking outta line about me in interview. Gimme a call. Be a man. https://t.co/ZDKGbIzDjA
— MIKE DEAN! #MWA (@therealmikedean) June 20, 2017
