Kendrick Lamar‘s verse on Future and Metro Boomin‘s “Like That” record will forever go down in infamy for its shots aimed at Drake and J. Cole — but the guy behind one of the samples in the track, Rodney O, says it pains him to even hear it because he hasn’t been getting paid his royalties!!!
Rodney says he doesn’t really have much beef with Kendrick, Metro or Future, but blames Epic Records and the Estate of Barry White for his lack of royalties.
TMZ Hip Hop obtained legal docs filed by the “Everlasting Bass” rapper on Wednesday and spoke to him about his past year since K. Dot and the boys went super viral at Drake’s expense.
He says Epic reached out to negotiate a deal, but claims their reps never got full clearance to release the version of “Like That” that would blow up worldwide.
The song wound up being a popular diss track, and Rodney says they didn’t even give him the courtesy to see if he had a relationship with Drake before pushing the red button.
To add insult to injury, Rodney says they snubbed him out of his writing credits when the track was nominated for a Grammy last year.
Here’s where the situation gets dicey — we spoke to a rep for Metro Boomin, and they tell us the superproducer did get the necessary clearances for the sample, and even paid $50K to get signoff on the sample for Rodney’s song … and he says it’s not the first time he’s done so, either!!!
Metro’s rep says Rodney’s real beef is with Barry White’s estate, who he believes might be the one holding up the royalties … not him, Future, or even Epic!!!
Rodney claims he has no idea where White’s estate gets off … according to the suit, Kanye West‘s unsanctioned “Like That” remix is the only place the Barry sample occurs.
We reached out to Barry White’s estate and Epic Records to see where they stand … so far, no word back.
