Crush Accused of Plagiarizing Eric Bellinger's "Awkward" in New Track "Oasis"

Jul 15, 2015

Crush‘s new song “Oasis” has been criticized as being overly similar to hip hop artist Eric Bellinger‘s “Awkward,” not only by netizens but also by one of Korea’s top hip hop music critics.

Crush’s “Oasis” was released on July 9 along with a music video that has now reached almost a million views on YouTube. On July 15, editor of the hip hop magazine “Rhythmer” Kang Il Kwon took to his Twitter to comment on what he sees as the similarities between Crush’s song and “Awkward” by Eric Bellinger.

“Thanks to the ‘Show Me the Money’ lyrics controversy, it’s gone under the radar that Crush’s ‘Oasis’ copies American R&B musician Eric Bellinger’s ‘Awkward’ to the point that it’s practically a translated version of the song,” says Kang Il Kwon.

“I can’t use the term ‘plagiarism’ because there has not been a legal ruling made after a lawsuit from the original copyright holder,” he adds.

“Right now in the Korean popular music industry, there are too many musicians who are addicted to copying that is done under the mask of referencing,” he says. “There are even those who don’t know that this is wrong.”

Many netizens who listened to the two songs also agreed. They’ve posted comments such as, “It’s to the point that you could call it a translated song,” and “The two songs are similar down to their chord progression.” However, others have said “The feeling in the beginning is the only thing that’s the same, the rest is different,” and “Four bars have to be the same for it to be plagiarism, but they’re not in this case.”

On a video that compares the two songs, another netizen has written, “I’m very disappointed because it seems almost totally the same, from its BPM [Beats Per Minute] down to its chords.”

“Oasis” was composed and arranged by Crush and the production team Stay Tuned. The song also features Block B‘s Zico, who helped write the lyrics.

Do you think the songs are similar?

Eric Bellinger’s “Awkward”: