Rapper T-Pain has been accused of plagiarising composer Mithoon’s ‘Tum Hi Ho’ from Aashiqui 2 (2013) for his latest single, ‘That’s Yo Money’. The rapper’s single, which was released on 13 December, has been pulled down from its official YouTube channel after accusations popped up over its similarities with Mithoon’s hit track. The rapper has tweeted that the music labels will get in touch to sort the issue out.
A report by tabloid Mumbai Mirror stated that the similarity between the two tracks was brought to Mithoon’s notice by his fans on Twitter. The composer soon took to Twitter to share his thoughts with T-Pain.
Soon the call was taken up by fans on Twitter who flooded T-Pain’s Twitter inbox with calls to remove his song, and accept the original credits.
The rapper, too, put up his answer on Twitter, suggesting that he had not produced the song, but the ‘labels’ will get in touch to sort out the details.
Woke up to getting dragged by brown twitter. Sooooo yea. I definitely didn’t produce this song. Had no idea that was a sample and have never heard the music before I got the beat from the producer. Easy thing to work out. The labels will be in contact. Thanx
— T-Pain (@TPAIN) December 15, 2018
The response, or at least its wordings, did not go down well with Indian musicians. Composers Salim Merchant and singer Palak Mucchal slammed T-Pain for using ‘brown Twitter’ as a term to describe Indians.
Mumbai Mirror quoted Mithoon as saying, “It was disappointing. If someone wanted to use the song, they could have done it the right way. I am glad to see the support we have been getting on social media.”
The report also quoted Aashiqui 2 (2013) director Mohit Suri saying that “Mithoon does not wish to capitalise on the issue, he only wants credit.”
It is suggested that the producers will seek to initiate legal action against the US-based rapper on the issue.