Beefs 2013: Baauer Sheds Light on "Harlem Shake" Feud with Azealia Banks

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Feb 18, 2013

The beef between rapper Azealia Banks and dance artist Baauer over "Harlem Shake" continues to sizzle, with both sides having recently sounded off about the debacle.

Following Baauer's decision to have a reportedly unsolicited remix of the viral hit featuring bars from Banks removed from the rapper's SoundCloud page, Banks hit back over the weekend by releasing an in-studio vid for the wobbly track. She also stirred the pot by tweeting, "I can post emails showing where u gave me permission to use Harlem shake," suggesting there was more to the story than we had initially thought.

Baauer has now weighed in to tell his side of the story, letting The Daily Beast know that he had initially partnered up with Banks for a collaboration on the song prior to it becoming an international meme, but he was left unhappy with Banks' verses and opted not to release it.

"She laid something on 'Harlem Shake' and it was so/so. Didn't love it," he explained. "And that was a little while ago, and since all this video stuff happened, our plans all changed. Because of that, we decided to just release the song on its own with no vocal version."

When Baauer's management had asked Banks to axe her version, the rapper refused.

He explained, "So we told her, 'Please don't release your version.' And she said, 'Well, I'm going to put it online anyway.' And we said, 'Please don't. We'd really like it if you didn't.' And she did."

Banks, meanwhile, has another theory as to why her version was scrubbed, tweeting, "@Diplo just sent me an email saying the reason they won't let my Harlem shake remix fly is because they'd rather have juicy j on it."

UPDATE: Stirring the pot a little more, Banks has posted an email allegedly from Baauer attempting to contradict his comments.

While Baauer's relationship with Banks has seemingly soured over the incident, Pitchfork reports that there are other collaborations on the way, with new songs apparently in the works with AlunaGeorge's Aluna Francis and Just Blaze on an upcoming EP, and it's rumoured that an A$AP Rocky tag-team is also on the way.

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