If rap icon Missy Elliott wasn’t clear enough when she said “copywritten, so don’t copy me” on “Get Ur Freak On,” she made herself even clearer on Thursday night. After successfully getting the majority of royalties for Bad Bunny’s hit song “Safarea,” which features elements of Missy’s 2001 banger, she took to Twitter to respond to one part of the Jowell and Randy reggaeton duo who threw some online heat.
“Fuck that!” Jowell wrote on Twitter in response to an Ariana Grande fan page accusing Jowell’s interview of inciting people to send hate to Missy Elliott. “Let them enjoy their money. Its [sic] not you and me enjoying it right? Let them be happy and talk about something else. Missy dont even care. Why would you?”
Fuck that! Let them enjoy their money. Its not you and me enjoying it right ? Let them be happy and talk about something else . Missy dont even care . Why would you ?
Last week, Jowell said in an interview that his royalties for Bad Buny’s “Safaera,” which he featured on, dropped from between 15 and 30 percent to just 1 percent. The interview led some fans to take sides online, claiming “Safaera” is an original Bad Bunny song and that Missy Elliott does not deserve the agreed-upon royalties.
On the whole Missy Elliot making royalties from Safaera y’all will be so loud in showing you don’t care about Black women. Good for Missy getting money for HER song being sampled. pic.twitter.com/frhSvXh95r
Missy Elliott, the active Twitter user she is, clapped back to Jowell’s tweet a few hours later.
@jowell1 sadly you mislead all these people to make them think I have 99%. Now I don’t talk business on line because that’s messy but now we are here I have 25% and there is 6 other samples & 15 other writers on this one song. They got percentage also…
Jowell ate his words, writing that what he had said had gotten “lost in translation,” and that he was “cool” with his 1 percent.
Missy, something got lost in translation cuz i never said u take 99% thats imposible there are a whole bunch of other peoples in there. Im cool with my 1% . Excuse me , Nothing but love from Puerto Rico to you. We are both in business. Let’s chill and enjoy what we have. Peace ✌?
But it didn’t end there. Missy then said she was glad he was clarifying that there were many writers and samples involved in the song, and deserve their due credit as well.
I’m glad that you now mention that there are many other samples/writers on this track that got their percentages that you hadn’t named. We both in the music business & know how we must clear someone else’s work? much love from VA#757?
Unlike her haters, Missy Elliott fans encouraged people to listen to “Safaera” so the rap queen “gets her coin.”
Me about to listen to Safaera so Missy gets her coin.
The Twitter saga ended with Jowell praising Missy and her work and saying he wanted to work with her on a project “from scratch.”
We should do something from scratch together, we've always admire you . My peoples down in PR ?? love how you reply my tweets ? All Love Miss ❤️
Given how much “Safaera” resonated with people across cultures and languages, an actual collaboration would be fire. But is it too late for this given what went down, or is a joint project the perfect opportunity to conclude a bitter misunderstanding? Only time will tell.
