Rapper “Soulja Boy” Rips Off Death Note
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: May 27, 2010 18:07 JST
- Tags: Copyright, Death Note, Internet, Music, Plagiarism, USA, Video Gallery
Chart topping rapper “Soulja Boy” has been accused of flagrantly ripping off the Death Note OST in one of his latest releases, imaginatively called “Death Note.”
He is but the latest in a series of minor American celebrities caught plagiarising the works of Japanese artists with the evidently misplaced hope that nobody will notice, a practice since termed “Simmonsing” in honour of its foremost and most shameless practicioner
The track in question, “Long Journey,” which listeners should be warned is exceptionally bad even by contemporary rap standards:
Player 1
The track from the Death Note OST he is alleged to have flagrantly ripped off, the “Near Theme”:
Player 2
Whilst liberally “sampling” the music of others is an accepted staple of hiphop, generally it does not extend to stealing entire songs, series names and even fonts, all without credit.
Presumably the rapper, a barely literate 19-year-old who came to fame through such sites as YouTube, thought nobody would notice. He has previously been sued for allegedly stealing the name “Soulja Boy” from another performer, and even amongst other rappers has been dismissed as “garbage.”
As the album in question is merely a freely released “mixtape” it may escape any legal sanction, but this hardly makes it any less ethically dubious.
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Dimension W Spreads It Open
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Tsukihi Araragi BDSM Ero-Cosplay by Komugi Platinum Sexy
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Serene Horo Cosplay Pure Gold
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Cute Kashima Cosplay Full of Elegance
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Goddess of 2ch: “Pink & Soft All The Way!”
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Yes, I know. I'm late.
But could he be any more obvious about it?
And, besides that, can a person even honestly call that peice of crap a song? I wasn't even paying much attention to it, but I must've heard the word "nigger" about 5 times in half as many seconds.
Good god almighty, what has the world come to?
ya man this offends my ivory tower sensibilities too
*jacks off to large breasted 14 year olds*
anon 08:19 irony WIN!!!
White separatism NOW
Seriously when will rap music just die, it is a worthless genre.
yo fuck you, you don't know shit about rap, you just think rap is all that mainstream shit you hear everyday. you never listened to UK grime, of Redzor from Ireland, Outlaw Immortalz, Immortal Technique, nor Lowkey from England.
you have no respect for musicianship, what the fuck do you want, nothing but guitar riffs and drums all day, music evolves whether you like or not.
How is this guy popular? These lyrics... My god. Is this the message young black Americans are getting? This isn't music it's an insult to intelligence!
It sounds like fairly generic I'm-a-badass-because-I-can-shoot-people-and-I-sing-in-other-people's-songs rap to me; the difference is he didn't buy the rights to the song and isn't making a cent off it.
This is a lot like the endless streams of AMVs, which make up 4/5 of youtube.
FUCKING GRINGOS ALWAYS TRANSFORMING THE GOOD THINGS INTO SHIT!
Is he white? If not, wrong slur
Didn't Soulja Boy mention exclusively that he was a huge fan of Naruto, Bleach, Bebop and Deathnote on his twitter a while back? Rather than blatant plagiarizing, it's much more likely it was a homage to the anime.
Soulja Boy learn to be professional! Completely naming your mixtape Death Note isn't helping your garbage reputation. You'd think people in the music industry would have some kind of clue of ethics. Get permission from the creators or GTFO!
GOD! im black and i hate soldier boy! i hate him sooo much i refuse to spell his rap-name with a 'j'...im betting that was a mistake, he forgot how to spell soldier so he had to sound it out, and thats what he got...
Oh shit more rappers Simmonsing anime!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6xhI_skZ7Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCJ0-hyJ-YM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA2_NhtL1W4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkZ6VOneQpo
you guys are fucking behind the times.
yes... this is shit.
...would the reaction be different if say, Jay-Z or Lil Wayne or Kanye started ripping anime beats?
nope cus most of these people are weeaboos who hate rap for some reason this song isn't even that bad.
god. fucking. dammit.
I'm not defending this guy or anything, so disregarding him, what are the chances that there might be soundtracks (songs and music tracks) from two or more different sources that seem to be really way too similar to be mere coincidence and thus having one of them or more labeled off as plagiarism, even though there weren't at all intended to be from the beginning? Well, we being in the Information Age and all, and with the world population ever increasing, these "pure coincidences" not only seen in music and literary works are bound to become increasingly more prevalent I suppose. Although in the end, everything that we know (All our knowledge and accomplishments) is really a rip-off of someone else if we think it objectively.
rap incites bad thing, while theft of their idea is to standard ....
but what he technically had to limp, nothing makes rap listenable.
damn not even find their tempo was very pitiable.
I think all the hate is unnecessary. Even if you are famous (I'm taking your word for it), you should be allowed to make shit like this if you don't make money from it.
Unless his getting money off it, he's nothing more than the equilvalent of a english rapping nicosinger.
But if he is earning money he should get run over by a truck that reverses and drives back and forth over his dead body cos' the driver didn't know what he just ran over and is trying to feel it out.
Free hip-hop mixtapes sampling unlicensed beats from whoever and wherever are common; it's more common for rappers to take beats from other rappers as sort of a "community" thing, but sources outside of hip-hop aren't exactly unheard-of. And it's not like he's being subtle or sneaky about it, he would probably say that he got the 'beat' from Death Note if he was asked.
some1 RAPPe this guy!!
A crummy rapper ripping off a crummy anime.
Big shock there.
Only this website would care about this
Holy shit this is the grossest thing ever.
He's probably just a fan of the show so he rapped over the music in the show. This is more like a homage than plagiarizing. Charles Hamilton for example apparently is a Sonic fan so he has had sonic on the cover of his mixtapes and he rapped to the music from the game. btw I do not like soulja bot he sucks but you guys are just being stupid.
*Opens Death Note, and begins writing*
DeAndre Cortez
Saturday, May 29, 2010, 12:00 PM
DeAndre "Soulja Boy" Cortez will bring a megaphone, make a trip to the closest tall building, go to the roof, and proclaim "I am a talentless hack and a half-baked ripoff artist.", before doing a swan dive to his doom, dying from multiple head injuries.
*sigh*
If only.
LOL! stupid niggers trying to be chinese.
stupid trolls trying to be funny.
YOU RRoD RAP BETA TESTER FAGS SURE GOT TOLD!
Americans sure love using the N word don't they.
I can't believe how many closet people on this site is so quick to be racist, your all no better then the one's who call you people weird, ugly, fat, otaku, geeks, nerds, hikkis, psychotic, pedophiles etc.
Yes rap has gone bad, only if your listening to that commercial pop rap on the radio. It seems like whatever this guy post becomes fact for the trolls on this site to flame.
Yes lets kill the ni&&er with the death note for making music dumb crackers in numbers actually buy.
Fucking Weeboos.
So fucking agree!
Funny to see that avatar- I was just thinking that this song should be played on Boondocks unedited. It pretty much makes Aaron Mcgruder's point about the vapid ignorance of modern black America as well as the best Boondocks episodes do.
Did you even read what I said?
I'm pretty sure I left the part about white people being a superior race because they were all intelligent, intellectual people out.
And I think they should play it because it takes what the show expresses through sarcasm and wit and compresses it into two minutes of such concentrated ignorance that the song doesn't even need to be satirized; It makes fun of itself if you have any brains.
So in your mind white people are the superior race. Your comment was so one sided and peppered with hate. IF the song doesn't even need to be satirized why did you make your previous comment before?
Yeah I see right through you, there's a shitload of vapid ignorance in white america as well just not the same.
Don't try to change what you said, there's ignorance everywhere. And some people are just stupid and convince themselves one kind of people are better then another.
Yeah because there isn't ignorant white people in the world who listen to rap and act like gangbangers. Where do you think soulja mainly gets his money from??
The latest episode of season 3, seen it?
It explained even if black people groveled to white people and acted just like them and if they're were even racist to their own kind.
White people would still be racist to Black People.
Boondocks Quote - "Most rednecks are really fucking stupid and I mean really fucking stupid."
Ignorance is everywhere, you do not want to play this game with me.
BTW Boondocks plays real hiphop quality music so GTFO out here. They even made an episode making fun of soulja boy retard.
A black person? STEALING STUFF? oh my god, this is unheard of!!
A human? STEALING STUFF? oh my god, this is unheard of!!
This doesn't bother me.
Regarding the "Simmonising" works. Wouldn't it also be true for Kodomo no Jikan's 1st season ED song. The song is distingushable from The Offspring's song - One Fine Day
Well, there was a psychological experiment where scientists analyzed the personality of people who are fans of certain types of music, and Rap and Pop were among those who were listened to by the uncreative type.
Thanks for proving science, Soulja Boy. X3
Source or it didn't happen
I've heard of the study as well:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/classical-to-rap-music-lovers-have-much-more-in-common-than-you-would-think-919553.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1052606/Take-note-Fans-heavy-metal-classical-music-lot-common-study-finds.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2680987/Heavy-metal-and-classical-music-fans-share-personality-traits.html
The second link mentions that Pop, Disco, and one other style of music are listened by those who have little or no sense of creativity. Rap is rarely mentioned, but given today's rap music it would fall under the same thing as Pop music, needless to say.
I don't see lack of creativity as something that one should be ashamed of.
I shit a brick when i read this!! I am a huge Death Note fan, iv damn near made it my religion and seeing this....as a Death Note fan im pissed to the point of insanity,and as a otaku im just disgusted. And the fact that he'll most likely get away with it just adds fuel to the fire, hes worthless scum that needs to be "DELETED"
*extreme facepalm*
lol rappers would have to take songs from other things cuse they're soo "wack" and cant come up with their own shit since rap was fail since 2000
all in all, you cant spell crap without rap :)
lol your a faggot
I've seen Death Note. It's an interesting, well-executed series with a fairly novel premise, plot holes aside. That doesn't change the fact that it's hilarious how angry and delusional you pathetic anime nerds must be to actually believe that Soulja Boy releasing a Death Note-based mixtape somehow "ruins" Death Note, or that Soulja Boy deserves to have some terrible tragedy befall him for the crime of disrespecting your precious cartoons.
Its funny, because i remember that Death Note ripped off the theme of The Exorcist in one of his OST
This isn't any different than those fans who create AMVs and post 'em on YouTube. These fans use licensed shows and songs for their AMVs WITHOUT permission. Why do you think they're sometimes removed by YouTube?