Riding the success and momentum of "Magnolia,"Playboi Carti has made quite a name for himself this year. Not everyone has been a fan of his meteoric rise to the top, however, and Carti has even had to deal with accusations that he has refused to pay a producer for beats.
The Atlanta native has finally come out and addressed those allegations. During an interview with DJ Akademiks through Instagram DM's, Carti forcefully denied the allegations, and says anyone trying to call him a thief is just out for attention.
"They trying to get clout. I only rap on Pierre [Bourne] beats," said Carti. "So the old producers sick. I promise, I don't do janky business ... I don't owe him shit, I don't steal beats." He would go on to explain that his accuser, MilanMakesBeats, is just "mad [because] I stop [sic] rapping on his beats."
Though that gets Carti's thoughts on the matter on the record, it doesn't exactly cover for the entirety of MilanMakesBeats' complaints. In his interview with DJ Akademiks, Milan claimed he reached out to Carti years ago when he heard a snippet of the song that became "VLONE Thug" playing during an Ian Connor livestream. Once it morphed into the real thing, Milan says he started getting in Carti's ear.
"I started hitting them like, 'That's my beat,'" Milan said. "I didn't really care how they got it. I just wanted to get paid."
After establishing a working relationship with Carti, Milan claims he ended up producing quite a few songs for him, including "On Go" and "Butterfly Coupe." But Milan told Akademiks that in many cases, Carti refused to credit him with his full producer name, let alone pay him, an act he feels was intentional.
"I started noticing anytime he did mention my name he would put 'Milan Beats' and I've corrected him before," said Milan. "So I think he's doing that on purpose." He also claims he received "not even a penny" in return for "VLONE Thug."
It's always hard to know who to trust in these situations because you can see either version of events being true. Rappers on the come-up don't always have extensive production budgets, yet at the same time, with Carti's star on the rise, anyone carrying even a minor grievance with Carti knows they'll get a ton of attention.
You'll have to decide for yourself who you believe. Check out the video from Akademiks up top, where he shares the DMs from Carti himself around the 2:10 mark.
