We’re really fucking happy about the response “Say the Name” has received. It look a long time, and a lot of work to get it to y’all

We wrote the song about three years ago now, although the outro (featuring @chukwudihodge) was recorded in spring 2019

When @NiaDaCosta’s Candyman movie was announced last year we were like shit, we gotta get our Candyman song out as soon as possible so it doesn’t look like corny bandwagon-hopping

The song was already old to us when we were arranging There Existed an Addiction to Blood, so we wanted it to be the 2nd single off that record

Then came the nightmare that was clearing that fucking “sample”

Which isn’t a sample, by the way. That’s Daveed’s voice quoting the Scarface line because no acapella of “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” was ever released

But it wasn’t Geto Boys that stood in our way. Their people were hella cool and Diggs even briefly FaceTimed with Scarface (on E-40’s phone)

We were more than happy to give them whatever they were due. They’re a major influence on us and “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” is one of the greatest rap songs of all time

But it turns out that the Isaac Hayes estate owns 66.67% of the publishing on that song and the only way we were allowed to release “Say the Name” was by giving them 23.33% of ours, plus a sampling fee

Those numbers were reached after months and months of slow, infuriating negotiations. We quoted nine words that were written by Scarface, and as a result, Isaac Hayes—a man who has been dead for 12 years—owns more of our song than any of the three of us do

If ‘Face has demanded that much of our publishing we wouldn’t have fought for one second. They’re his words, and we repeat them like 60 times in the song

And if we’d sampled “Hung Up On My Baby”—the song the Geto Boys originally sampled, also a masterpiece—we’d have been happy to share publishing with the Isaac Hayes estate

We’d also have been happy if the lawyers asked for a percentage that reasonably reflected how much of “Say the Name” Hayes is actually responsible for, having written the song over which Scarface first said those nine words we quoted

I don’t know what that percentage should be, but I don’t think it’s almost one quarter of the songwriting

Shit, the inspiration for the drum programming came from old Dance Mania tracks (DJ Deeon, Jammin the House Gerald, Topcat, etc) and the long outro was inspired by Nine Inch Nails. Those artists could argue greater authorship over “Say the Name” than Isaac Hayes

So could Clive Barker, right?

Anyway, after more than a year, we caved. The legal team at @subpop and our A&R both kicked ass for us, and the song is out

This is all to say three things. One: Sampling law doesn’t necessarily protect or help the artists, or even make any sense. Often it simply works to protect some investment portfolio

Two: We love the music of the Geto Boys, and Isaac Hayes (who fucking doesn’t?) and fully support giving credit where credit is due, and paying artists fairly for their work

And three (this is the main point): “Say the Name” wasn’t written to capitalize on the new Candyman movie. That would be corny as fuck