Rostrum Records Responds to Lord Finesse’s Lawsuit

Last week, news broke that legendary producer Lord Finesse was suing Mac Miller, Rostrum Records, and DatPiff for the Pittsburgh rapper's use of one of Finesse's instrumentals on his K.I.D.S. mixtape from 2010. Mac took to Twitter to comment on the situation last week, and he and Finesse later spoke. Now, his label home, Rostrum Records, has released a statement regarding the suit:

There have been a lot of misstatements online and in the press, so we thought it'd be best to make some brief comments. First and foremost, we stand by Mac Miller in this situation and we will fight the case together with him.

Mac never pretended that the "Hip 2 Da Game" beat was his, despite what's being said in the suit. Lord Finesse was given credit on both the video and the mixtape from the very beginning. We've never distributed "Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza" for sale on iTunes and have consistently policed digital retailers and other sites to make sure that no pirates were ever illegally selling the song.

Lord Finesse has known about "Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza" for a long time and never objected to the use. For some reason, he has very recently changed his mind.

We look forward to resolving this issue soon, and we appreciate all of the support that we have been receiving from the entire music community.

Thank you,
Rostrum Records

Mac had already voiced his opinion on the suit, posting multiple comments on Twitter. “1. I made that record and video as nothing more than an 18 year old kid who wanted to rhyme and pay homage, no other intentions,” he wrote. “2. Finesse and I spoke on the phone for an hour after he heard the record and cleared the air. 3. We even planned to work on music together. 3. All I wanted to do is shed light on a generation that inspired me. 4. When I heard there was a problem, I reached out to him to try and solve it. No response. 5. Finesse never cleared the Oscar Peterson sample on the original record. I did nothing wrong. We spoke on the phone had a good conversation, he was cool with the record. It’s all love tho. I ain’t even mad at dude. He still a legend. Lord Finesse, thank you for what u did for hip hop. Thank you for bringing my favorite rapper into the game. I should just drop some new music.”

The lawsuit alleges “copyright infringement, unfair competition, unjust enrichment, interference,” amongst several other claims, and was filed in a New York federal court on July 9. —Adam Fleischer (@AdamXXL)