Geoff Barrow issues "proof" that The Weeknd plagiarised Portishead

05 May 2014, 15:36 | Written by Luke Morgan Britton

(News)

(The Weeknd) (Portishead)

Last summer, Portishead’s Geoff Barrow took to Twitter to vent his outrage at Canadian R&B star The Weeknd appearing to use a sample of his band without permission. Now, Barrow has taken to the social network again to exhibit a rather incriminating letter.

The post - embedded below - shows Abel Tesfaye’s label seemingly asking for sample clearance, something that was later denied by Barrow and co. This goes against Tesfaye’s previous denial that he samples “Machine Gun” at all on his track “Belong To The World”.

As Pitchfork note however, it could well be the case that Tesfaye simply recreated a sound very similar to the Portishead sample once permission was refused.

Check out the tweet in question below, along with the videos for both “Machine Gun” and “Belong To The World”:

Hey kids Part 1 of “No Infringement” @theweeknd pic.twitter.com/UWZqW193cS
— Geoff Barrow (@jetfury) May 5, 2014

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