Author note: This article contains a fair bit of profanity. Rather than censoring it, we’ll let you read it in its entirety and proceed with caution.
Detroit rapper Danny Brown has come under fire lately after a not-so-friendly encounter with a photographer.
First seen on the subreddit r/hiphopheads, the story begins at a concert of his in Melbourne. Photographer and radio host Michelle Grace Hunder captured an image of Brown performing on stage and posted it to Twitter.
Last night @xdannyxbrownx played a show in Melbourne and I took photos for @HowlandEchoes ! pic.twitter.com/tjRn5bIbLl
— MGH (@MichelleGHunder) April 27, 2016
After the concert, Brown took to Twitter to retweet the image. Where things went awry is when Brown then decided to take that image and post it to Instagram without any form of credit.
Hunder noticed her uncredited photo on Brown’s Instagram profile and somewhere along the line Nic Kelly, the content manager for Australian media brand Project U, heard of the uncredited image. Determined to help make things right, Kelly reached out to Brown and politely asked if Brown could properly credit the image.
The response was far from friendly, as you can see below:
Gross to see @xdannyxbrownx disrespecting music photographers on a major level. Tagging ain't hard bro. ? pic.twitter.com/WwV2mcpusf
— Nic Kelly (@nicwkelly) May 1, 2016
But that was only the beginning. After Kelly posted the conversation between him and Brown, Brown shared the following profane tweet.
Kelly followed up with a tweet calling out Brown and his management for terrible media practices:
@xdannyxbrownx HEY IDIOT, TELL YOUR MANAGEMENT TO TELL MEDIA THEY CANT SHOOT YOUR SET THEN. OTHERWISE YES YOU LITERALLY ARE ASKING FOR THEM.
— Nic Kelly (@nicwkelly) May 1, 2016
During much of the beef between Kelly and Brown, Hunder was asleep, missing most of the conversation. But during that time, Brown shared a series of tweets that has since been deleted, saying:
‘Did I ask for a muthafa to take my picture?? […] Well shut the f up then!!!!! Note to all photographers!!!! […] If u want credit for your pictures then don’t take any of me if I didn’t ask u to!!! […] F*** outta here!!’
When Kelly did wake up, she posted the following tweets, which range from explaining that the photo has since been deleted, but the problem left unsolved, to explaining to third parties why photographers shouldn’t have to watermark their images.
Photo is deleted now. All we asked for is a credit. I don't get it ??✌?️✌?
— MGH (@MichelleGHunder) May 1, 2016
Massively disappointed in the reporting by @triplejlinda on the Danny Brown story. This is about crediting artist, not stupid twitter beef.
— MGH (@MichelleGHunder) May 2, 2016
Its not "Nice" to give us credit. Its OUR work. its the law! @triplejlinda – Not really funny to those of us who does this as a profession.
— MGH (@MichelleGHunder) May 2, 2016
Does anyone know how we can regulate the music photography game? Like have an APRA or something for us? I'd love to know.
— MGH (@MichelleGHunder) May 2, 2016
Thats is 100% not true. Not for professionals anyway. https://t.co/YWgJd7y3p1
— MGH (@MichelleGHunder) May 2, 2016
All in all, it’s over, but the battle seems to be carrying on between Brown and Kelly to some degree. Under never got the official credit she deserved, but she has since had hundreds of fellow artists reach out and encourage her for taking a stand against copyright infringement.
Image credits: Danny Brown 3 by EWatson92 used under CC BY 2.0
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