We talk to the artist whose work got jacked by Diplo to promote his new remix
Artistic theft is never cool. And adding misogyny into the mix when you try to defend yourself? Even worse. So step forward Diplo, who has been accused of stealing a GIF from artist Rebecca Mock to promote his new remix of Jack Ü's "Take Ü There" featuring Missy Elliott.
Mock is an illustrator who also creates GIFs. She says she was first alerted to the theft when her friend, Chandler Moses, tweeted it to her on Wednesday. Diplo used her image as the background for his track preview on Snapchat. He also uploaded it to Instagram:
She later tweeted Diplo, telling him that her work wasn't his "clip art". Diplo eventually added the credit "gifbyrebeccamock" to his Instagram post, but not before he rightly received some flak from people on Twitter. Then this happened:
Heyyy girl why u so mad? I stole your artwork, didn't even offer to pay u, credited u without even linking to yr portfolio and now I'm gonna make a sexist joke out of the whole thing. Just chill, brah? I know I'm a 36-year-old father of two but even old guys can have fun too u know?!
Mock tells Dazed that Diplo's fans started harassing her, forcing her to leave Twitter. "I get panic attacks from certain triggers," she explained to us. Did Diplo or his label reach out to apologise, privately or not? "I was never contacted privately by him or any of his people."
I'm boycotting my twitter for now to avoid triggers. Friends plz email me if there's anything I need to know
— Rebecca Mock (@rebeccamock) February 11, 2015
This hasn't stopped Diplo from posting about the theft; he's Instagrammed a picture of himself smiling as he meets with PRs about "gif gate" and has been RTing messages of support from his fans. As noted by Pitchfork, he even found the time to call Portishead's Geoff Barrow "a salty asshole".
As of Friday morning, Rebecca Mock's work remains up on Diplo's Instagram page.
To all the gif artists out there.. Sorry for bumming you out .. .. pic.twitter.com/VETGgvUwFs
— Giflo (@diplo) February 12, 2015
Hey, Diplo? The answer is probably no.
UPDATE: Diplo has posted a sort-of apology on Twitlonger. He writes:
"i mean if had to credit every piece of art in my studio.. i would be crediting a Korean girl that made a pic for me, a illustration by Jean Andre, and a painting by Geof Darrow who did Shoalin cowboy .. Do i have time for every piece of art in my studio to be credited on every medium of social media.. actually i don't.. maybe i need an intern .. I'm sorry i have trollish tendencies on the internet and i like to fight with people .. if your friends and "supporters" hadn't attacked me we could have probably shared some correspondence maybe even worked on something together ... but when people attack me i tend to shit on each and every one of them because thats just what i do."
You can read the whole apology here.
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