The controversy around Doja Cat’s album art might not be her fault
The "Paint The Town Red" singer recently changed her album art, likely because it was identical to a German metal band
Music News Doja Cat
If Grimes steps in and defends you, you’re definitely one of the most controversial acts in town. Such is the case with Doja Cat, who really just seems to love antagonizing her own fanbase for some reason. First it was the whole don’t call yourselves “Kittenz” thing. Then she told fans she wouldn’t say she loved them. Recently, she responded to a mass Instagram unfollowing by posting that it felt like she “defeated a large beast that’s been holding me down for so long.” In short, “Doja did something that pissed people off” isn’t much of a headline anymore. What is news is that this one doesn’t seem to be her fault—or intentional, at the very least.
On Tuesday, Doja posted the cover art for her upcoming album Scarlet on Instagram—a magenta spider staring at a drop of blood on a white background. But something was amiss. It soon came out that the cover art was almost identical to an upcoming album by German metal band Chaver. Their album is due out on September 22—the exact same day as Doja.
Both covers were made by Portland, OR-based artist Dusty Ray, who defines his style as “rudely animalistic, the meaty red stuff on the inside as representation of the animal exterior.” While Dusty Ray has not publicly addressed the similarity, he did repost Doja Cat’s original announcement on his Instagram story.
While Doja clearly has a much larger following, Chaver posted the artwork first in an LP announcement at the end of July and seems to be sticking with it. Doja Cat, on the other hand, quietly deleted her original post and “announced” the new album and its artwork for a second time on Thursday with a slightly new caption: “SCARLET 9.22 (updated cover).” The new art was also created by Dusty Ray.
It’s unclear exactly what went down between Doja, Dusty Ray, and Chaver to result in this whole kerfuffle; as of this writing, none of the parties involved have indicated if anyone actually acted in bad faith or if this was all just a misunderstanding. There doesn’t seem to be any bad blood between Doja and Dusty Ray, at least, because the artist again reposted the singer’s album art announcement with three white heart emojis on Thursday, per Entertainment Weekly.
Doja, in typical fashion, seems only to have responded to the whole situation with one cheeky comment on her post. In response to a fan suggesting that she might have changed the cover because it looked similar to Nicki Minaj’s The Pinkprint, she answered “oh sweetie that’s not why.” While there are still some unanswered questions, knowing Doja’s track record there’s a non-zero chance all of this will be aired out more publicly somewhere down the line.
12 Comments
A misunderstanding? This is what they call “phoning it in”.
That or “Oh shit the deadline’s tomorrow” panicking. Or both!
So how is this not the artist selling the same image to two artists and hoping no one would notice since one’s a German metal band?
We need to pretend this is somehow more interesting to help drive traffic to floundering media companies.
Can we talk about how Jim Steinman sold “Total Eclipse of the Heart” to Bonnie Tyler and then “Making Love Out of Nothing At All” to Air Supply in 1982, and then tried to sell both to Meatloaf?
Were people saying it was her fault? The first article I read said that Dusty Ray guy sold them the same artwork, seems like the blame was always on him. Does the German band even care? “unanswered questions” lol like what
Yeah; the first paragraph especially sets up this whole “Doja Cat is terrible in general” premise which 1) I wasn’t aware of 2) isn’t relevant to this mild mixup.
On the ‘Doja is terrible‘ thing… well she’s going full Kanye.
You never go full Kanye.
Right? Usually someone selling rights to their work will have some kind of exclusivity in the sale, or the buyer would insist on exclusive rights “worldwide, and in perpetuity”.
It’s not really the same artwork though. The blood drop is a different shape and there are minor differences in the spider‘s legs and coloration.Don’t get me wrong, I’d be pissed if I was one of the licensees,* but whether the artist did anything legally wrong would be up to one judge’s interpretation of the specific terms of any formal agreement.*Unless of course I was in on it, because no one seems to have been harmed, Doja Cat gets a modicum more publicity, and a German metal band none of us had heard of before is suddenly in everyone’s news feed.
Clearly AI art is to blame
Just use AI art to do it. Wheres the problem? Fits her style best.