EST Gee – Why Ye Charged Him $70,000 for ‘Flashing Lights’ Sample
EST Gee has a bone to pick with Ye. The Louisville, Ky. rapper featured a sample of Ye’s classic “Flashing Lights” beat on the bonus edition of his new album, I Ain’t Feeling You. On the aptly titled song “Flash” featuring Chicago rapper Bloodhoud Q50, Gee delivers his point-blank bars over a flip of the soaring “Flashing Lights” beat. The price for using part of Ye and producer Eric Hudson’s original production? $70,000, according to EST Gee, who reveals the cost in XXL‘s new series No Filter, in which artists keep it real about what they’d say if they were in the room with certain well-known figures.
“Ye, why you charged $70,000 for that muhf**kin’ sample I got,” Gee says. “You just posted that you got $5 billion. I understand. I’m not the establishment though.” Don’t take Gee’s words like there’s some beef or something deeper here though. The 30-year-old MC says it all with a smile on his face, and still has nothing but respect for Ye. Some rappers have a mutual understanding with each other that they don’t charge for features, but with Ye, he’s putting business first to make a profit.
Crazy costs for samples are nothing new in hip-hop. Two years ago, Diddy confirmed that he pays Sting $5,000 per day for sampling The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” on the 1997 hit “I’ll Be Missing You,” a tribute to The Notorious B.I.G. That’s a whole other tax bracket right there.
Aside from Ye, EST Gee also has some words for President Donald Trump. Kodak Black and Lil Wayne received presidential pardons from Trump back in 2021. So Gee wants to look out for some friends who are currently locked up.
“Donald Trump, for an undisclosed amount of favor, how much undisclosed amount of favor, whatever type of object, would it be to get like 15 federal pardons for inmates already right now convicted,” Gee asks. “Let’s figure it out.”
Gee’s got a whole lot more to say to actor Tom Cruise regarding a Bobby Shmurda lyric, Lil Baby as a result of addressing people beneath him, former NFL player Michael Vick about a letter Gee wrote to him years ago and more. Check out EST Gee with no filter below.