Controversy Surrounds Copywrite’s Eyedea Tribute Track

Written by Tyler Hakes. Published: Tuesday, October 19, 2010.

Copywrite recently released a tribute track for the late MC, Eyedea. Fans and other artists have begun to question his motives, some claiming that he created the track just for self-promotion purposes.Just a day after the unexpected passing of Minneapolis MC Eyedea, Copywrite released the latest installment of his HipHopDX freestyle series, a track titled “Numb” that he dedicated to the late Rhymesayers member. Since the track’s release on hip-hop blogs and websites, there has been some controversy surrounding the intentions of Ohio-native, leading some fans to claim that Copywrite is using Eyedea’s death as a promotional opportunity for his own career.

“This is why people who don’t know [artists] shouldn’t make songs about people they don’t know,” wrote one commenter on 2DopeBoyz.com. Others expressed similar concern about the connection that Copywrite had to Eyedea during his life, with one individual claiming that Copywrite had once dissed Eyedea on an online message board under a different pseudonym.

The track, titled “Numb”, seems to insinuate that Eyedea’s passing was somehow drug-related with lines like “I don’t blame you for staying numb from the everyday” and “I’m an addict myself, many drugs I’ve overused”. There are no reports at this time about any drugs being involved in the passing of Eyedea. In reports from the Star Tribune, police have said they’re still awaiting the toxicology results.

Eyedea’s Rhymesayers label-mate, Psalm One, and former label-mate, Mac Lethal, both seem to see the track as a misguided attempt by Copywrite.

“Don’t make songs about people you don’t know where you speculate on their cause of death,” wrote Mac Lethal on his twitter account, attributing it to Psalm One’s weekly RealTalkTuesday hashtag.

Mac Lethal’s tweet followed Psalm’s comment on the situation, where she tweeted, “If it’s really from the heart you wouldn’t care if it were on Twitter or not.”

Copywrite has refuted the claims that the track was created to gain personal attention.

“[When] I heard [about Eyedea going through] pain, I tried [to] reach out.[This] was maybe 4 months ago,” he tweeted, in reference to one of the negative comments left of HipHopDX. “We lost a GREAT person, [and] all u can do is [question] my connection [to] the man,” he continued.

The original track has since been removed from HipHopDX, along with many other sites that had posted it. Copywrite says that he’s asked these sites to take it down out of respect to the close friends and family of the late MC.

“I should have been more considerate to his family and friends,” he said to a fan on Twitter, “I have pulled the Eyedea tribute out of respect.”

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