Fiona Apple Asks Lil Nas X ‘Where’s My Money?’ For Sampling Her Song
Fiona Apple is coming to collect. In a video, the singer addresses Lil Nas X sampling her 2012 song, “Every Single Night” on his (pre-“Old Town Road”) song “Kim Jong.” “One thing that the lovely Rachel Handler didn’t mention that I did say in the interview which I would just like to say now is that Lil Nas X you’re probably really great, but you used my song ‘Every Single Night,’ too,” Fiona said, referencing a recent interview with the New York Magazine writer. “You sampled that song, too, in a song called ‘Kim Jong Un,’ I think. And, um, hey, where’s my money, you cute little guy? Where’s my money?”
“Kim Jong” is no longer available on paid streaming services — Lil Nas X scrubbed much of his early efforts after getting signed to Columbia during the rise of “Old Town Road” — but appeared on a mixtape, Nasarati. Lil Nas X has a history of sampling on his most popular tracks and not necessarily knowing where the influence came from. On “Panini,” he interpolated Nirvana’s “In Bloom,” but admitted during an interview with Zane Lowe that he never listened to Nevermind. “The craziest thing about ‘Panini’ is it introduced me to Nirvana’s album Nevermind,” he revealed. “I always seen the cover, but I never actually listened to it.”
“Old Town Road” is also built on a sample of Nine Inch Nails’ “34 Ghosts IV,” which wasn’t cleared before release.”The song was nowhere near the real takeoff it was going to have,” Lil Nas told Billboard. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God — they find out about this, they’re going to get this taken down and I’m going to have to start all over.’ It was like a race against time.”
A rep for Lil Nas X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.