Swizz Beatz came looking for smoke with H&M, and he found it.
Cue the horns from Ruff Ryders’ “WWIII.” Producer Swizz Beatz is going to war. It’s no secret that Swedish fashion company H&M has been on a losing streak. First, their infamous “coolest monkey in the jungle” gaffe cost them the trust and favor of the hip-hop community. Now, their unsolicited use of a graffiti artist’s work thrust them into a copyright infringement lawsuit; while H&M initially attempted to nullify the artist’s rights due to the “illegal” nature of his work, the backlash from the artistic community proved too fearsome to ignore. In the wake of another brewing PR disaster, H&M released a statement attempting to make amends.
Unfortunately, Swizz Beatz abides by the old idiom of “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” The iconic producer rolled through H&M’s page looking for all the smoke. Swizzy dropped off a comment on H&M’s latest apology, writing “can you prove you completely dropped the case publically? Or are you only willing to drop the case if the artist complies with your stipulations and continues to work with you?” Ultimately, his thesis statement is simple: “creatives should get what they deserve.”
However, H&M was having none of it. Swizz soon realized that H&M banned him from the page, which prompted him to let off another rant. There’s no doubt that fighting for the rights of creatives is a noble cause. H&M will no doubt feel the wrath or the more right brained consumer. Yet one important question remains unanswered. What happened to that Swizz vs Timbaland beat battle?
