In an interview with TMZ, rapper Juvenile revealed that he's perfectly fine with Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign interpolating his hit track "Back That Azz Up" on "Do It" from Vultures 1.
Juvenile was asked for his stance on the interpolation due to some of the issues other artists have taken regarding seemingly unauthorized usage of their music, whether it be Backstreet Boys and Black Sabbath samples or Donna Summer's estate filing a lawsuit against the artists for an "unauthorized interpolation." When asked specifically about his approach in contrast to Ozzy Osborne, who is not happy about the situation due to Ye's anti-Semitism, Juvenile said, "I give everybody a chance, man, and Kanye is a good dude."
Juvenile added that Ye has "showed a whole lot of support" to him throughout his career, and he's "kind of flattered" by the interpolation, for which he is not credited in the album's writing credits. "It's how you look at you know, with me I try to keep things on the positive," he continued. "Especially with the new artists and the ones that came after me. I'm flattered. Drake done sampled my music, too, and I treated him the same way. It's all love with it."
As for whether Ye's controversies, especially as of late, might have impacted his stance on the usage of "Back That Azz Up," Juvenile said he's not paying attention to all that. "I don't get into what everybody else get into," he said. "I kind of, like, stay in my own world and stay out the way, man."
Last month, Juvenile celebrated the 25th anniversary of the 400 Degreez classic in several posts on social media. "Y’all really been backing that azz up for a quarter century," Juvenile wrote. "I gotta hand it to the azzes. Y’all did yalls thang." He performed a medley of hits for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert last year, including "Back That Azz Up."
Juvenile's take is considerably different to that of Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osborne, who took great issue with an early version of the Vultures 1 track "Carnival." The song originally sampled a live version of "Iron Man," which is something Osborne said he never agreed to.
In a tweet in all caps, Osborne wrote, "Kanye West asked permission to sample a section of a 1983 live performance of 'IroN man' from the US Festival without vocals and was refused permission because he is an anti-Semite and has caused untold heartache to many. He went ahead and used the sample anyway at his album listening party last night. I want no association with this man!"
If all goes according to plan, Ye and Ty Dolla Sign are set to release the second volume of Vultures on March 8.
