How Interscope Acquired Skepta's 'Dare to Dream' for Eminem

Here's an interesting account of how Interscope acquired a song for Eminem on YouTube: The record company submitted a DMCA takedown claim even if they didn't own the rights to the song! When they got the songwriter's attention (Skepta), they offered him money he couldn't refuse. That's the point of posting your stuff in YouTube anyway for many people -- to get the attention of the big labels.

I originally had this on draft a couple of weeks ago, with an embedded video of Skepta's original song someone still has on YouTube -- but unfortunately, that video has also been blocked.

So shady Jimmy Iovine! DMCA abuse, smh.

From TorrentFreak:

“Just got a f*%king CRAZY email,” Skepta tweeted last Thursday.

“I don’t know if I should be angry or privileged. This explains why the f*%k YouTube took ‘Dare To Dream’ off.”

It happened like this.

After “Dare to Dream” was put up on YouTube one of its early listeners was Jimmy Iovine, founder of Interscope records. Recognizing quality, Iovine had plans in his mind for Skepta’s track so, with help from parent company Universal, they had YouTube remove the song on copyright grounds.

Armed with cash Interscope approached Boy Better Known, a group and record label founded in 2005 by Skepta and the team behind Dare to Dream.

“Being in an industry where money talks, everybody involved in the ‘Dare To Dream’ project came to a conclusion to sign it to Interscope,” says Skepta.

So who is the lucky recipient of the track? None other than Interscope giant Eminem.

“I overly love the song but at the same time I do understand Eminem together with the ‘Dare To Dream’ chorus will be absolutely f*%king CRAZY,” says Skepta.