A rap song celebrating Donald Trump has been removed from streaming services due to copyright infringement.
"Trump Trump Baby," a rap song by Trump supporter Forgiato Blow that played at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, was pulled from YouTube after a copyright claim by Sony Music, which recently purchased the publishing rights to Queen’s catalog.
The song closely resembles Vanilla Ice’s 1990 hit “Ice Ice Baby,” which itself samples Queen and David Bowie's 1981 classic “Under Pressure.”
A representative for Vanilla Ice confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that Forgiato Blow had submitted a request for sample clearance, but Sony removed the track.
The rep added that it’s unclear where the clearance process stands with all of the relevant songwriters.
Blow re-uploaded "Trump Trump Baby" to YouTube on Friday afternoon with the instrumental retooled to remove the “Under Pressure” bass line.
The music video also features Amber Rose, who spoke at the RNC on Monday night.
The pro-Trump rapper tells EW this isn't his first time sampling the song, but he only ran into trouble when he added the former president's name.
"I already did that song years ago with Rick Ross & Vanilla Ice. It’s called Vanilla Sprite Remix," Blow said in an email.
"For some reason, after 'Trump Trump Baby' was played at the RNC, it became a major problem. It’s illegal to put Trump's name in anything these days. The song is back up now."
Representatives for Sony Music did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.
Ice, Blow, and Ross collaborated on “Vanilla Sprite Remix” in 2020, which also features the “Under Pressure” sample.
However, since “Trump Trump Baby” is a new recording, Blow likely needed to clear the sample again, even if it had already been cleared for “Vanilla Sprite Remix.”
Blow elaborated in a follow-up email that he wasn't sure "who the call came from" to remove the song.
"I submitted the sample info and Sony didn’t seem like they even told the other writers. I sent the song to Vanilla Ice the day it came out," he wrote.
"Now, with this copyright claim, they are deleting all my music from my distro, so I will lose my entire catalogue over this. I’ve been banned endless times for supporting Trump; guess if I rapped about guns & drugs, they wouldn't care." (He did not specify what other songs had been taken down or from where.)
Blow posted about his latest song on social media earlier Friday.
“Patriots I Need Your Help !!!!!” he wrote. “Trump Trump Baby Was Taken Down After The RNC Played It. I’m Fighting A Culture War Against The Music Industry & Big Tech. Please Re-Download It Let’s Get It Back To The Top 10.”
Vanilla Ice told TMZ he did not give permission for "Ice Ice Baby" to be sampled in "Trump Trump Baby," and the publishing company that owns the song's rights also didn't clear its use in Blow's song.
Ice himself was once threatened with legal action over copyright infringement on "Under Pressure."
The matter was ultimately settled out of court, and all four members of Queen and David Bowie are now credited songwriters on "Ice Ice Baby."
In the original version of the song, archived by unauthorized users on social media, Forgiato Blow sings the chorus “We voting Donald Trump, baby/America needs saving/We voting Trump, Trump baby/November 5, we going crazy” in a cadence similar to the refrain in “Ice Ice Baby.”
The track also features the unmistakable bass line from Vanilla Ice’s song, which is virtually identical to the bass line from “Under Pressure” with one extra note.
Blow also previously collaborated with Ice on the 2021 track “All the Way In.”
Ice performed at a New Year’s Eve party at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in 2020.
However, he told TMZ that he would perform for Joe Biden too, and said that he's largely apolitical.
Blow’s song also features lyrics like “I pledge allegiance to vote for Trump/There’s a red wave comin’, you gon’ surf or what?/In God I trust to take the devil away/Lock Joe Biden up and throw the key away” and “Sleepy Joe is a fraud/End the bloodbath in the Oval Office/The media is the enemy of the peep.”
The musician discussed his song’s appearance at the RNC in a Fox News interview Friday.
“I’m the Donald Trump of rap,” he said in an interview on Fox & Friends First.
“Once I started really following him, I realized how corrupt it is against him, and I started going through the same thing — trying to take me down, ban me, take my social media…”
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