It’s not entirely accurate to describe deadman死人’s track ‘Omae Wa Mou’ as having disappeared: you can still easily find it on YouTube. But Rolling Stone has published an excellent analysis of the track’s TikTok-fuelled surge to top spot on Spotify’s Viral 50 chart, before being abruptly removed from the streaming service after a copyright-infringement claim.
It’s a tale of an 18 year-old musician called Noah Ryan Murphy hearing a song in an Instagram meme; tracking it down to Japanese bossa nova album ‘Toho Bossa Nova 2’ then slapping his own beat over it; releasing it as an instrumental under his deadman死人 alias via distributor Routenote; and then (courtesy of TikTokers somehow discovering his track and making more than 250k clips with it) going viral. Except there’s also the involvement of rapper Lil Boom, who bought Murphy’s beat and used it for his own track ‘Already Dead’, and now the copyright claim that’s taken ‘Omae Wa Mou’ off key streaming services.
“I’ve gotta get the sample cleared, but I don’t have a good way of reaching Shibayan Records, the person who made the song, because of the huge language barrier,” Murphy told Rolling Stone. This being 2019, he’s already fielding interest from major labels, eager to leap on what might be a next ‘Old Town Road’ – if that pesky sample can be cleared, of course.
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