Hector will get what he deserves. We can turn around and stop that song. That’s a clear breaking of intellectual property rights.Javier Gómez, the manager of reggaeton artist Hector Delgado • Discussing the negotiations he’s involved in with the Mad Descent label over royalty payments for Baauer’s surprise hit “Harlem Shake.” The song, which became a YouTube staple last month, features an unlicensed sample of Delgado (under the name Hector El Father) using the phrase “Con los terroristas” at the beginning of the song. The song also used an unlicensed sample from rapper Hennessy Youngman (the guy who says the “Do the Harlem Shake” line) from a 2001 Plastic Little song. Youngman, born Jason Musson, is also working out payment details with the label, but is happier about the unexpected success than Delgado is.
Harlem Shake on a plane might be craziest yet, FAA investigating potential safety violations
The Harlem Shake is a global phenomenon that needs no introduction — the YouTube dance craze has practically been done to death — but a Colorado ultimate frisbee team’s high-flying hijinks have propelled the meme into the news yet again. On February 15th, Colorado College students on Frontier Airlines Flight 157 donned a banana suit and Abraham Lincoln mask, and shook their way to fame somewhere over the Grand Canyon.
“This is your captain speaking … we’re experiencing a little turbulence on this portion of the flight, and the stewartess tells me that it’s coming from inside the plane. WTF?”
This week the Billboard Hot 100, the magazine’s 55-year-old singles chart, takes a evolutionary step by incorporating YouTube plays into its formula. The move comes just in time for Baauer’s song “Harlem Shake,” the latest viral video phenomenon, which will make its debut at No. 1 this week thanks to the change.
“Harlem Shake,” a bass-heavy hip-hop track with no lyrics beyond a few samples, got little mainstream attention when it was released in May as a free download. But this month its popularity exploded on YouTube, as thousands of fans uploaded videos of themselves dancing — some might say simply flailing — along to the song. By last week more than 4,000 videos were going up each day.
Imagine: ”Chocolate Rain” topping the charts. If this policy had been implemented a few years ago … it could’ve happened. Also: As “Harlem Shake” was released on an independent label, it makes it the third independently-released song to top the charts in history, the second being the song it replaced: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop.” (ht Ethan Klapper)
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