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Timbaland Stole Chiptune, The Internet Stole It Back

For the past decade, chip music -- the process of re-purposing old console and computer sound chips to create music -- has occupied a precarious position between obscure subculture and mainstream trend. The history of "chiptheft," as it's called...
Janus Rose
New York, US

For the past decade, chip music — the process of re-purposing old console and computer sound chips to create music — has occupied a precarious position between obscure subculture and mainstream trend. The history of “chiptheft,” as it’s called, involves many stories where artists sample or outright steal the work of chip musicians without permission.

But perhaps the most famous example was in 2007 when award-winning producer and noted purveyor of excessive braggadocio Timbaland yanked a good deal of sounds for Nelly Furtado’s “Do It.” The sounds in question — melody, chord progression and all — came from “Acidjazzed Evening,” an original piece composed on an Amiga by demoscene musician Janne Suni, aka Tempest. Timbaland was unsurprisingly unapologetic, responding oh so eloquently by saying the “samples” were taken “from a video game, idiot.”

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Except they definitely weren’t.

Back in 2009, the Finnish label that released the original song announced that they had filed a lawsuit against Universal Music and Timbaland. We’ve been waiting ever since.

But in the meantime…

This shadowy figure appeared on YouTube to steal back Timbaland’s pilfered song, composing it on the Game Boy tracker LSDJ and playing it back using the Super Nintendo’s Super Game Boy emulator.

But it’s cool. It’s just a videogame. Right, Tim?