There might not be an artist out there that the EDM community loves to hate more than Carnage these days. It seems like the negative impressions he’s left in the industry have been so lasting that it comes as no surprise that everyone was willing to believe the worst when it appeared that he had used a pirated copy of Sylenth.
Well, if a statement made by Carnage with an accompanying email screenshot is any indication, everyone might have jumped the gun.
In case you haven’t been following the story, Carnage teamed up with computer hardware manufacturer Razer on a tutorial video with that was universally maligned by just about everyone with even a rudimentary understanding of sound design. While Papi Gordo’s lack of eloquence might have proven a bad look for both parties, the real controversy began when a fan observed that he was using a pirated copy of Sylenth in the video – at which point Sylenth parent company Lennar Digital came into the picture by tweeting the following:
@djcarnage @atoms2k Hi, we’re happy to make it a matter. You do understand you don’t have any copyrights using illegal software?
— LennarDigital (@LD_Sylenth1) October 21, 2015
Razer famously ended its relationship with Carnage after catching word of his apparent wrongdoing. After letting it simmer for a few days, though, Carnage has made a statement to Billboard that, if true, absolves him of guilt – aside from being mildly unprepared for the video shoot.
The statement is as follows:
To whom it may concern,
I wanted to write this to set the record straight about Razer.
A couple months back Razer hit me up about a partnership opportunity which resulted in me participating in my now infamous “808 Tutorial.” My debut album, Papi Gordo comes out this Friday (Oct 30th), so I thought this was a great collaboration. In advance, they provided me a laptop and software and I agreed to prep the laptop with everything necessary for the day of the tutorial.
Fast forward to that day… I’d just returned home from a busy weekend of shows and to be honest I’d completely neglected to setup the laptop with the sessions I intended to use, as well as the necessary plugins. Needless to say I wasn’t totally prepared for the session. For that, I’ll assume full responsibility
Before getting to the studio, though, my management told the Razer team that I wasn’t exactly prepared but that I would still be there as planned and would essentially just sort something simple on the fly. The production company doing the shoot sent my manager a email confirming that they had a computer loaded with software on site (check out screenshot of the email below). When I got to the studio, we discussed attempting to quickly setup the laptop that Razer originally sent me, but this took a lot of time and there was an issue with Wi-fi in the studio so I couldn’t set the laptop up properly. And this is where the story begins
In order to get through the tutorial without it taking forever, one of the production staff handed me a laptop that was fully loaded with software. THIS LAPTOP, WHICH WAS NOT MY LAPTOP, BUT PROVIDED DIRECTLY BY THE VIDEO PRODUCTION CREW is what was used in the tutorial. From the USB, I loaded my project files onto the laptop they’d provided and my focus in the moment was to simply get through the tutorial. I paid no attention to the fact that the computer they gave me had cracked software!
The tutorial comes out and of course, everybody has something to say. People are critiquing everything from my production techniques, to the way I talk. This is something I’ve gotten used to over the past couple years. It comes with the territory. Fine, I’ll take it.
Then, out of nowhere comes the mention of me using a cracked version of Sylenth1.
For once, I actually decide to hold my tongue. I know what’s true so before saying anything publicly to disrespect Razer, I reach out to them and ask for them to issue a statement making things right. They knew what happened, and they decided to do nothing.
Prior to this, we’d both discussed the negativity surrounding the tutorial and agreed that for the sake of both of our brands it’d be best that the tutorial be taken down. That decision was made together. This was mutual…just to set the record straight.
At this point, I feel I’ve done my best to approach this situation in the most diplomatic way. If Razer isn’t willing to accurately address the issue, I have no choice but to defend myself. I didn’t get this to this place in my career by backing down to anybody and I damn sure am not going to start now. The truth is the truth. I gladly invite anyone from Razer or the production staff on the shoot to respond to or dispute any of this.
– PAPI GORDO
If proven authentic, the screenshot provided could shift the blame from Carnage to Razer – especially considering that no Razer employees came clean while he was the subject of a media circus. In the most stilted legal jargon they could muster, Razer responded to Carnage’s claims with a statement of their own: “The current disposition of our relationship with Carnage was altogether due to feedback we received from the video and nothing else.”
Check back for more developments on the dispute between Carnage, Razer and Lennar Digital as any of the three parties make them available.