...and we say that with our tongues planted firmly in our cheeks.
In a recent Pitchfork piece that featured Baauer mentioning that he's working on his debut album that will be a "highly collaborative" project, with a wishlist of artists he'd like to work with, including A$AP Ferg, Cashmere Cat, Arca, and Ryan Hemsworth. That's all well and good, but we're wondering why Pitchfork would legit ask if Baauer's made "a lot of money" off of "Harlem Shake," like record sales are where he'd even be getting paid from in 2013:
Pitchfork: Have you made a lot of money from it?
B: I still don’t know. I haven’t seen any money from it.
Pitchfork: Why is that?
B: I’m meeting with my lawyer tomorrow for lunch, so I’m gonna find that out. I think it’s mostly because of all the legal shit. ["Harlem Shake" contains vocal samples of Plastic Little rapper Jayson Musson and reggaeton artist Hector Delgado.] I didn’t clear the samples because I was in my fucking bedroom on Grand Street. I wasn't going to think to call up [Delgado], I didn’t even know who it was who did that [sample]; I knew the Jayson Musson [sample]. So I found myself in that fucking pickle. Legal letters and shit. Ugh. Lawyers. So exposure-wise it was fantastic, but everything else...
Well, you know, "Harlem Shake" helped save Mad Decent from going under, but at the cost of Diplo having to clear up the legal disputes that resulted from the success of "Harlem Shake." Hell, Baauer should've answered "yeah, you don't even want to know what my asking price is these days!"
Just saying, while Baauer might not have caked up (or whatever the 2013 version of caking up) off of "Harlem Shake," he's been on the road and knocking out remixes for the better part of 2013. Plus he did a track with Just Blaze; we'd say he's fine.
