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MegaUpload chief releases diss track against New Zealand MP

By | Published on Tuesday 8 May 2012

Kim Schmitz

Well, we knew that since being let out of jail, but with no MegaUpload empire left to run, Kim ‘Dotcom’ Schmitz had been spending some time in Neil Finn’s studio in Auckland working on a debut album, and now a track has surfaced online, though it’s not clear whether it will appear on the final record. Possibly not, as, in fine hip hop tradition, it’s more of a diss track.

The subject of the recording is New Zealand politician John Banks, who has been in the news in his home country recently after it was revealed he received a NZ$50,000 donation to his campaign funds from the controversial MegaUpload founder.

Now that the MegaUpload enterprise and its directors face criminal charges in the US, Banks has been busy trying to distance himself from the donation, which was made towards his unsuccessful 2010 campaign to be re-elected as mayor of Auckland. The donation was seemingly made in two halves so that it was under the amount where the source of the money has to be declared.

Since Schmitz told reporters about his past financial support for Banks, the politician, now a member of the New Zealand parliament, has denied he knew that the Mega chief was behind the 50 grand donation in 2010, a claim that Schtmitz says is untrue.

The diss track, called ‘Amnesia’, includes a sound bite of Banks saying “I don’t know who gave me money, I can’t remember now”, a female vocalist singing “That politician got amnesia again”, and Schmtiz’s artistic collaborator Printz Board rapping “He’s the majority, so he’s all right, He is John Banks, he got the vote, and that’s why Key keeps him afloat, on his cabbage boat?”

The Key referred to is New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, while the last line refers to a statement made by Banks along the lines of “I did not come up the river in a cabbage boat”, which it’s thought basically means “I wasn’t born yesterday”, though most New Zealand journalists say they’ve never heard the somewhat bizarre idiom before either.

Dotcom himself does not appear in the new song, though it is thought he will rap on many of the tracks he is creating for the promised album. The US government continues to go through the motions, of course, to try and extradite Schmitz to face charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering in relation to his role in running MegaUpload. Meanwhile, you can, erm, enjoy ‘Amnesia’ here:



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