Is Zayn Malik not allowed to officially release solo music for another two years? That’s what British rapper Mic Righteous, who Malik collaborated with on a cover of Rae Sremmurd’s “No Type” that leaked online earlier this week, is claiming in a new Facebook post, as a means of justifying the leak.
Following the unofficial release of “No Type,” producer Naughty Boy — whom Malik has been working with ever since leaving One Direction in March — claimed on Twitter, “[T]hat had nothing to do with me or Zayn, something was stolen from the hard drive that had nothing to do with the rapper involved.”
Mic Righteous fired back with a long Facebook post on Tuesday morning saying that he “got fed up of waiting” for various labels to sign off on his material with Malik and “took matters into my own hands regardless of repercussions, leaking that song with Zayn was a way for me to set the fact that I’m doing this independently in stone.”
In another Facebook post, Mic Righteous elaborates on the leak: “Mental my own publisher gets my music removed from my souncloud lol, thats why i lost respect for them. Fuck stepping on egg shells cos i wanna keep the label happy.. I ain’t signed i can do me.. It just gets deep when they gotta lie like yutes to cover tracks.. I signed a deal with sony atv yrs ago and rejected a production deal off them around the same time cos of this exact reason. Zayn wants the tune out, he ask me to be on the song, shah (naughtyboy) told me that his label wont let him release any music for the next two yrs.. So you know what i did? I did it for him, for you. And at the end of the day they cant say no to me, i work for the people not the industry.”
Zayn Malik’s Solo Plans, One Direction’s Future Course: Inside the Band’s Sony Contract
Of course, the most interesting line in that post pertains to Malik’s inability to release “any music for the next two yrs.” Is the ex-1D member legally prohibited from dropping a solo album before 2017? A rep for Malik did not respond to Billboard’s request for comment.
For his part, Malik has remained mum on the “No Type” leak, which Billboard confirmed was the former boy bander singing. In late March, a demo of Malik singing a song called “I Won’t Mind” was released by Naughty Boy to much fanfare.