I wanted to finish all my business in Denmark first before I went to Spain to meet with my boy Diego to strategize what to do next with my career. When I contacted Warner to get out of my contract, I was asked if I had any objection to the “Havana” video being removed from YouTube at the request of Pepe’s family because of certain scenes in it that they took issue with. Livid had already accepted, and so did I.
Warner told me that I owed them approximately 280,000 Danish Krone ($43,000). I only handed over some of the songs agreed upon in my contract, and because of the fourteen tracks Warner had brought over from Sony and prepaid for, 300,000 DKK ($46,000) had been used from that previous budget.
Warner didn’t want any more money from me and let me keep the remaining songs I either hadn’t delivered or finished yet. However, they chose to arrange with Kewan to use the work that he still owed them for me to instead be used for other Warner artists. This arrangement would leave me free and clear of any obligation to them, and all the demos and sketches I had were mine and mine alone. They let me go without obstacles. They treated me like a human being, and I will always have great respect for what they did because not everyone is that good to you in the industry. They treated me better than I had treated them.
I slipped off to Spain in mid-August and expected to return to Denmark before my fifth child’s due date, which was on October 4, 2018. That September, a DJ who ran an agency in Europe for international artists contacted me. He had heard my song “Mac 11,” which only contained one hook, and asked me if I would like to record it with American rapper 6ix9ine.
I thought about it for a long time because I had put my music on hold after Pepe’s death. I talked to my sister Sarah about it. She didn’t know 6ix9ine, but her daughters overheard the conversation in the background and shouted, “Do it, Uncle! Do it! He’s famous!” A big hit was what my career needed more than anything, so that swayed me.
A few days later, on the morning of September 24, 6ix9ine’s agents and I agreed to collaborate on “Mac 11.” However, our impending deal contained a catch: I had to fly to Milan, Italy, the same day to close the deal with $100,000 in cash.
I couldn’t get that money in such a short amount of time. However, Pepe’s friend wanted to be a partner in the song, so he gave me 24,000 euros ($27,000), while Livid and another investor Mike Lowrey each flew to Milan with 10,000 euros ($11,500) . Diego’s friend, C, and I flew to Milan with the 24,000 euros. It was the first time in several months I had spoken to Livid besides briefly seeing him at Pepe’s funeral. Despite everything that happened between Livid and me, I felt like he should be involved in this deal. He had been there since the beginning, so he deserved to be there for the end.
In Milan, we met 6ix9ine and his team after a Philipp Plein fashion show. We went to the Westin Hotel, signed the contracts, and gave them the 34,000 euros ($38,500) in cash while the rest was sent via bank transfer. We then went to a party in Milan, where 6ix9ine was to perform. His security guards asked us to help them keep the fans away from him because no one was allowed to go near him. C and I were fucking annoyed at having to become bodyguards for the night after agreeing to collaborate with 6ix9ine on a song. We had thought we were going to party and have fun. 6ix9ine also made us all wait over half an hour for his red Ferrari to pick him up in front of the hotel to go to the party.
At one point, DJ Pvnch told us that they were only supposed to be in Europe for fourteen days but were instead there for three weeks. They were next going to Dubai for fourteen days because 6ix9ine had problems with the FBI after a search of his apartment in New York City. DJ Pvnch lost his shoes on the European tour, but 6ix9ine didn’t want to buy new ones for him, so he ran around in flip-flops the whole trip. I was next told that the only reason 6ix9ine performed that night was to cover the 10,000 euro hotel bill at the Westin. It told me everything I needed to know about him.
We went up to his hotel room after the party, where they asked if 6ix9ine could rap my Danish hook for “Mac 11” in English. I thought, Why not? After a few hours, the song was done, and C and I traveled back to Spain with 6ix9ine’s song, which we also owned the rights to. Now I had a potential hit in the bag and was ready to return to Denmark and attend the birth of my child.
Later, Maria K from Universal Denmark, who had asked if I would enter a fifty-fifty collaboration between them and my company Probation, contacted me. Maria asked if I was able to make more deals with international artists, considering the contacts that I had. Next, my former collaborator, Gilli, came to Spain and showed up with C at a restaurant where Diego and I were eating. He asked, “Hey, don’t you think I should be on that 6ix9ine song? Sleiman, I have nothing against you. I’ve always only had respect for you.” I had promised C and Diego not to mention anything to Gilli about his lack of support for my music throughout my career, so I just replied, “Yes. Of course, bro.”
We recorded Gilli’s verse very quickly, and I went ahead with two new feature deals that I had agreed to with Maria. That turned into two more songs, one with Lacrim and one with Marwa Loud, both of whom were French artists. Those songs, including the 6ix9ine song, cost me a total of 220,000 euros ($250,000) in expenses and advances on royalties. I got the master rights for them, which I then had to share with Universal. Once the songs were recorded, I would release the 6ix9ine song first, which we renamed “R.E.D.” The song with Lacrim was called “Totorina,” and the remaining song with Marwa was titled “TIK TOK.”
I sent a bill to Maria for about 50,000 euros ($57,000) for half of the rights to “R.E.D” because I had paid for it all to begin with. Universal told me I couldn’t release the song because 6ix9ine had a deal with a sublabel under Universal USA, 10k Projects, which was owned by the son of the director of Universal USA. If I released the song, 10k would sue me. Instead, I chose to sue them with the help of Romano Law in New York City.
Universal Denmark then told me that I wasn’t allowed to release any of the other songs I had produced and owned the rights to, including “Totorina” and “TIK TOK.” Universal had sent me 300,000 DKK ($46,000), which they felt made them co-owners of the songs, so according to them, I wasn’t allowed to release them. They wanted to end the collaboration with me because I had sued a Universal artist in the United States. They were told by the director of Universal USA that Universal Denmark wasn’t allowed to continue working with me. They next demanded that I either return the 300,000 DKK or that they buy the songs back from me for 200,000 DKK ($30,460). I saw that as a mockery because those songs cost me all my money I had left to record. I felt robbed, and I recorded the conversation we had as evidence because it was a breach of contract, according to Danish law.
Universal Denmark didn’t keep our agreement because they knew from the start that I had made a song with 6ix9ine. After all, that was why they had contacted me in the first place. They had known for months that I was suing 6ix9ine and 10k, but it wasn’t until I wanted to release the songs that it became a problem. They knew that 6ix9ine was a Universal artist, as there was a previous conflict with Sony and Universal Denmark over another song that 6ix9ine had made with Jimilian.
In addition to all of this, there were another six songs made with six different artists from Europe that had been agreed to in the same manner. 10k and Universal USA must’ve known that 6ix9ine ran around Europe and made these kinds of one-off, money-grab deals. Difference being all the others had had their songs released because they had never asked for permission to do so. I did, and therefore, the door was shut on me.
At that moment, I lost everything. All my money was gone, and I was left with three useless songs and a bill of 220,000 euros ($250,000) for music I could never even release. In the end, I got Gilli removed from the song and hoped that the 6ix9ine team would accept it now that the song had gotten a lot shorter. They put me in touch with a producer, Wizard Lee, who was the producer on 6ix9ine’s album and was going to make the new version with me.
Prior to this, 6ix9ine had apologized to me via a Zoom call for the hell he knew he had put me through. He told me that if the song was included on his album TattleTales, that would be the best solution for me. It would be a win-win. However, when the album was finally released, my song wasn’t included. I was crushed. It was too close to the release date for Wizard to put it on the album. Eventually, my lawyers were promised that there would be an extended version of TattleTales that would include the song.
When the extended version of TattleTales was released, my song was indeed used. However, the album was a massive flop. My song was received even worse than it had been when I had initially released it myself. I had pinned all my hopes on an American rap star and European artists to give me crossover hits and riches, even though my pursuit of superstardom in music had come at the expense of my marriage and my family. It was over. I could now finally close that chapter of my life.