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What Unholy Torments Does Jamie xx Deserve for His Song Theft? A Blog Investigation

His "former" "song of the summer" may have "unapologetically stolen" a part from a Persuasions song.

On May 20 2015, Jamie XX, Young Thug, and Popcaan released the song of the summer: "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)." It had everything you could ever want for a mammoth pop song; very chill production, a fun and upbeat attitude, and killer rhymes by Thug. We were all ready to fully back this in our tweets and DJ nights. That was, until we found out that Jamie xx may be guilty of the worst crime possible in music: sampling. Jamie xx's song features a sample of The Persuasions 1972 song "Good Times." In a recent Billboard article, original member and defacto manager for The Persuasions, Jimmy Hayes, he revealed that he wasn't notified of the song's usage of a sample from their song "Good Times." Hayes says, "I don't want to think that these people just went on their own to sample our music without any notification to us."

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A couple solutions have been proposed for the crime. The resolution will likely be to let it slide; Hayes mentioned he wanted to meet the guy and he enjoyed listening to the song, implying he had no interest in pursing the matter. In regards to the issue, Hayes says "It doesn't bother me that they wanted to sample, but the thing is we have to sit down with management and make sure that everything is recognized and on the up-and-up." Another option would be for one of the other members of the band to seek legal action, making back some of the royalties from the song. It seems fair that the band be compensated for their original work, if they so choose to proceed in the matter. However, we're going to propose a third option: Kill Jamie xx in the streets for his crimes against music, integrity, and mankind.

Even though a rep said that "the sample has been cleared," we need to take action. That's right folks, the only real punishment to fit Jamie xx's crime of "voiding any notion of artistic integrity" and "not making music on a guitar like a real music man" would be a good ol' sendoff into the River Styx. We can either sit around and pretend nothing happened—like the song is fine and this stuff happens all the time and the guy sounds like he's pretty cool with it anyways—or we can fashion a giant X made of rusty bicycle frames on Bedford Ave and North 6th in Brooklyn, and crucify him for his sins, all while the original song blasts out of every available speaker. In front of his lank, crucified body, the original stone slabs holding the Ten Commandments will be presented while Marcus Mumford will scrawl out a new 11th Commandment: "Thou shalt not sample songs." In order to cement the sanctity of real music being made on real music things like guitars and french horns, it's about time we take this knob-tweaker and murder him for the good of real music.

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Nirvana front man Kenneth "Curt" Nowell Cobain once said "if you stand for nothing, you'll fall for everything," and thus this is a very valid third option for all to take.

But in all seriousness, the song is really great and hopefully this all gets settled amicably.

UPDATE: It turns out that Jimmy Hayes forgot. Looks like Jamie xx can live…for now.

John Hill is just asking questions. Follow him on Twitter - @JohnxHill