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Kelela & AraabMuzik claim new music was leaked without permission

Last week, Kelela‘s latest collaboration with araabMUZIK was released out into the world by Gustavo Guerra, an A&R guy at Distrolord. However, this was apparently not supposed to happen.

Final Hour is said to be a track from araabMUZIK’s upcoming album Dream World. However Kelela says that this song was taken without permission. araabMUZIK tweeted that he “never approved this song”. He also says that the album will not be released as he is “recording brand new music for the project.” 

Both Kelela and araab published a series of tweets in response. Among the tweets, Kelela also claims that sexism may be a factor in why this happened, saying, “The only reason why you think you can be so brazen and get away with it is cuz I’m a woman”

araabMuzik released a statement on his Facebook page, saying that “Araab himself or anyone affiliated with his current team had nothing to do with the release of Final Hour ft Kelela” and it was apparently the fault of his “previous management”.

Guerra responded to the claims made in a phone conversation with Pitchfork. He says the matter was discussed between himself and Kelela’s management, as well as Kelela herself.

“I met Kelela back at the CMJ showcase. She wanted to work with us. She gave me her email, I said “great.” I sent her over some tracks. I said, “We’re working on an album, we want you for our project.” She said, “Great, send me over the beats.” She selected the track, which is “Final Hour”. She sent me over a copy of the song and was like, “Here you go.” I was like, “Yo, this is dope. I respect this. This is the song, let’s use this for our project.” She was like, “Cool.” She was psyched about it.”

In terms of the sexism claims, he had this to say, “I was brought up by four women. I’ve got three sisters and a mother, so I don’t understand where this ‘woman’ thing came from. I put out a song. That’s what I do. This is a project that I’m working on—that I’ve been working on for a long time—and I put out the song.”

In the midst of the storm of accusations, the original video featuring the track has been set to private.