DEAN shuts down accusations by contacting producer of song he allegedly plagiarized

Another day, another baseless plagiarism accusation in K-pop shut down.

Prior to this I wasn’t actually aware this was a major thing, but DEAN had been accused of plagiarizing DJ Khaled‘s “I’m The One” on his track “Where” with Killagramz and Zico.

Honestly man, they don’t even sound similar to me.

DEAN responded to those accusations in a couple of Instagram posts.

In his initial post, which has since been deleted, Dean uploaded a video comparing “Where” with “I’m The One” stating, “What plagiarism. If using the synth bass is plagiarism then everything must be plagiarism. prod by me. I didn’t even use DJ Khaled’s song for reference.” He explained, “The chords and progression are all completely different, but if it’s because the mood is similar then all the songs in the world are plagiarized. Please don’t show off your ignorance. P.S send it to DJ Khaled and ask him if it’s plagiarism or not.” In a second post, which replaced his initial post, Dean gave a more in-depth explanation backing up his position. He said, ” First of all, “I’m The One” is in G while “Where” is in AB. The chord progression, key, drum pattern, and all other areas are different. What you all think is similar is the synth bass and instruments but many genres, not just hip-hop, use synth bass.” He continued, “If it’s plagiarism because of the instruments, then all similar songs made by other producers are plagiarized. This may be a show to some people, but for artists it is a product of a lot of time and energy and is our life.”

Silly DEAN, giving technical explanations.

Of course, that didn’t satisfy the masses, so he went to the source themselves instead. DEAN contacted Nic Nac, a producer of “I’m The One”, and asked him directly, also getting DaviDior, who was also involved on “I’m The One”, to chime in as well.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXuUcySllqG/

So yeah. Again, this is about as clear cut as it gets.

When will they stop trying unless it’s shamelessly blatant? Never, probably, but that doesn’t make it any smarter.