James Blake Responds To Cub Sport After Being Accused Of Copying Music Video

Cub Sport shared a video on social media after fans approached them about James Blake’s new music video for Red Carpet. Fans claimed that it closely resembled the Brisbane band’s clip for the 2016 classic, Come On Mess Me Up.

“This is pretty crazy,” Cub Sport lead vocalist Tim Nelson began in a video on TikTok. “A bunch of people yesterday were sending me this new James Blake music video ‘cause it looks pretty similar to the Cub Sport Come On Mess Me Up music video.

“Like, concept, performance, I don’t know – is this coincidence or is this,” he continued, cutting himself off before uttering the word “plagiarism”.

The remainder of the clip plays the music videos for Red Carpet and Come On Mess Me Up back to back.

The video was posted online 16 hours ago. James Blake spotted it this morning and responded to the Aussie group. Writing that the inspiration for his video stemmed from the 1973 short film Three Transitions by director Peter Campus, Blake replied to Cub Sport’s video:

I didn’t come up with the idea, but I asked the guys who did, and they referred me to their reference, Peter Campus’ short film ‘Three Transitions’ from 1973.. predates both of us by 50 years 😂. Coulda just dmed me rather than making a TikTok about it and trying to spread a narrative that I steal ideas.

You can watch both music videos below.

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Over the last few weeks, James Blake has been unveiling videos to accompany his new album with Lil Yachty, Bad Cameo (with track numbers and titles—Red Carpet is track ten). The collaborative album follows Blake’s 2023 album Playing Robots Into Heaven.

In December, The Music named Cub Sport’s latest album, Jesus At The Gay Bar, one of the best Australian albums released in 2023. They also took home the Album of the Year award at this year’s Queensland Music Awards and, in November 2022, were The Music cover stars.