On Sunday, social media was full of speculation that Childish Gambino's smash hit "This Is America" had plagiarized a 2016 song called "American Pharaoh" by rapper Jase Harley from his album Free Pxrn: The Memoir of an American Heathen (listen to it above). Fam Rothstein of Donald Glover's management team Wolf + Rothstein strongly denied the accusations in a tweet posted on Monday morning. "this song is 3 yrs old, and we have pro tools files to prove it," he wrote.
Harley has responded to the controversy on Instagram, as Reddit points out. "I always felt my song inspired it lol from the first time I heard it," adding "artists being thirsty for bread is why ppl don’t wanna credit anyone for inspiration. It’s all love and support from me, glad if my record influenced his 🙏🏾" Read the comments on Instagram.
Watch the video for "This Is America" below.
