Mach-Hommy and Your Old Droog have been frequent collaborators and it may be because they have similar outlooks on things. Both of the underground rappers have decided to have the lyrics of their discographies removed from the music encyclopedia website, Genius.
Newark's Mach-Hommy cited copyright infringement in order to get his bars taken off the site. When reached by Pitchfork to comment on this decision, Mach-Hommy gave the brief and cryptic response: “The game is to be sold to you; not told to you.” The rapper has repeatedly made clear that he places a high value on his work, so it makes sense that he wouldn't want Genius to profit off his words if he wasn't receiving sufficient compensation for it. In 2017, Mach-Hommy charged $111.11 on Bandcamp for a digital copy of his album, Fete Des Morts AKA Dia De Las Muertos, and $1000 for a physical copy of another album that was mostly produced by Earl Sweatshirt. The majority of his projects aren't even available on streaming services.
A Genius spokesperson offered the following statement to Pitchfork:
"Our team received a [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] Notice from this artist and their team several months ago and fulfilled the request. It’s very important to us that artists and songwriters are compensated for the use of their lyrics, which is why Genius has licensing agreements in place with all the major music publishers as well as the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), which represents independent publishers. We can’t comment on conversations with specific artists, but in the rare case that an artist is not covered under these licensing agreements, we endeavor to work directly with their teams to get them under license."
Your Old Droog has not publicly commented on the situation yet.
