The Producer of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s track ‘Bongos’ has moved to clear the air on the controversy over the perceived similarity between the recent rap release and Lincoln 3Dot’s ‘Bang’.
In a SLEEK exclusive, ‘Bongos’ producer Breyan Isaac dismissed any notion of copying or pulling inspiration from any existing content for the record, including the 2021 ‘Track Starr’-produced ‘Bang’ by deejay Lincoln 3Dot.
Isaac is a noted songwriter and producer and has credits with a plethora of industry heavyweights such as Kesha, Flo Rida, Pitbull, Damion Marley, and J. Balvin, to name a few.
Shortly after the world premiere of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s collab last Friday, many online users, including ‘Bang’ artiste Lincoln, expressed curiosity over the similarity in beats between both records.
Despite ‘Bongos’ being released after ‘Bang’ Isaac shared that the instrumental for the single, including the current beat pattern and melody, was in fact created in 2018.
“The song was originally recorded around the beginning of Oct 2018. I produced the existing version after trying a few different productions at the end of Oct (same year). I started sending around to different people around 2019 so it’s been in conversation for a while.”
On the matter of sampling, which appears to be the main source of scrutiny between the tracks, the producer categorically stated that it’s his own voice being used for the vocal sample “Bongos,” which is heard in the beat. He added that the phrase was taken from a larger pre-recorded audio, which was also originally conceptualised in 2018.
“I loved a hook that bongos got the name from that I had a voice memo of,” he shared, adding that he “was trying to just find the right feel to place the hook. The bong is just a chopped version of me saying bongos in the hook. The original bounce from the drums and vocal chops you hear in the beginning are me.”
Breyan shared that the beat was picked up in 2020 by Dizzy Clean Face and his label We Good, who helped to fine-tune and produce out the finished record alongside DJ Swanqo before it’s eventual release this year as another Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion banger.
An audio file with the corresponding meta data was also played to further support his claim.
Despite both tracks seemingly possessing similar elements, it appears to be a case of production coincidence as opposed to any form of interpolation.
In the meantime, Isaac commended the producer, Track Starr and expressed no ill-will, but reaffirmed that “Bongos” was an original concept that predated the release of ‘Bang’.
‘Bongos’, which marks the second joint project between both Cardi and Meg, has racked up more than 9.4 million streams in its first four days.
