Less than 24 hours ago, we dropped a post questioning DJ Snake's "Parisian version" of Mercer's remix of "Breathe" by The Prodigy, after being alerted to how similar it sounded to a trap remix for Mercer's remix that was done by Seattle producer Breaux. Overnight, DJ Snake caught wind of the storm that brewed regarding this remix, and while Breaux tweeted that he and Snake were on the same page, we definitely had to reach out to DJ Snake regarding this ordeal, especially after the number of tweets, Facebook posts, DMs, comments, texts, and emails we'd received or seen about this situation. Was it a misunderstanding? Did we get it wrong?
Honestly? We're not sure.
In speaking about this, Snake wanted to be real with us, and broke the situation down as such: he'd "heard Breaux's version four months ago on SoundCloud," and while he "loved his trap version on Mercer's remix," when he played it live, "it sounded terrible." This prompted him to hit up his friend Mercer for the stems, which he says he used to make his own version. He pointed out that, just like Breaux, he kept Mercer's melody and "added some 808s" to his Parisian version, which he then decided to drop on his SoundCloud "just for fun." When we asked him if his plan was to make an entirely different version of Mercer's remix, or if he was just trying to make Breaux's bang better in the club, he only replied that he didn't like Breaux's mix/master, so that's why he asked for Mercer's session and added his own drums.
We asked about the difference in time between Breaux's tweet about them being on the "same page" and his own tweets about the situation, and Snake said he was sleep while reiterating that Breaux was his boy and he'd never do that to him; he mentioned that "it was a mistake to drop it" on his SoundCloud, but when we asked why it was a mistake, we did not receive a reply; regardless, this "mistake" is why he took it down. Elektro says that Snake was never supposed to release this, but that's not what he told us. Some listeners pointed out that the vocal drops in both Breaux's remix and Snake's remix hit in the same places, and when we asked Snake about the similarities, his reply was "808's + Mercer drop." He also mentioned that Breaux being his ghost producer "makes no sense," citing his current hit "Turn Down For What" as proof. Snake did ultimately offer to have us to a studio session when he's back in the States; as we learned with the claims of Martin Garrix using a ghost producer on "Animals," an hour-long video explaining how you created the tune can go a long way...
So this begs the question: What, if anything, did DAD learn today? Well, aside from the fact that DJ Snake has an Essential Mix on the way, not much. We figured that Parisians Mercer and Snake were cool, considering it was nothing for Snake to ask Mercer for his stems. We did learn that Snake and Breaux are boys, although the extent (and length) of their friendship has not been relayed to us. We also learned that Snake says just wanted to make an edit of Breaux's remix of Mercer's remix of "Breathe," although how much of the inspiration he got from hearing Breaux's version played into his own version is questionable, depending on the listener (it seems). Ultimately, it was a "mistake" to post this on his SoundCloud, even if it was for fun, but we're still not sure what the mistake was. Did he mean to include Breaux's name on the credits for his "Parisian version," or is it that he should have mentioned to Breaux that he was posting this beforehand? We won't assume anything, but there seems to be a difference between what Snake said happened and how it looks.
Whatever the case may be, all we have is Snake's word, so that's all we can go by. And Breaux - you're winning right now. Hopefully your career as a producer turns all the way up in 2014. Hell, he's already got one known supporter:
Yo @DoAndroidsDance ... @breauxxmusic is a legend
— CARNAGE (@djcarnage) January 7, 2014
