Illenium has issued an apology after playing a Bassnectar track during a set this past weekend at his Cancun festival, Ember Shores.
“I apologize guys,” the producer born Nick Miller wrote Sunday on Twitter. “I honestly didn’t know it was a BN song. I’m deleting it from my library. It was insensitive of me to not pay closer attention to detail. Lesson learned.”
The apology came after a video of Illenium playing the 2020 Bassnectar song “Nice & Easy” was posted to the Bassnectar Subreddit. The controversy stems from allegations of sexual misconduct against the bass music producer that came to light in July 2020, with a lawsuit including claims of sexual abuse, grooming, human trafficking and the manufacturing and possession of child pornography filed against Bassnectar (born Lorin Ashton) in April.
On Twitter, Illenium for support from his peers, with Chet Porter writing “i have endless tracks that i have no idea what they are or who made them, extremely common,” and DABIN writing, “real ones know you would never do anything like that maliciously. And coming from experience, I have so many tracks labeled incorrectly or just have track names, it’s easy to get mixed up.”
Diplo offered a similar apology this past February after he played his Morgan Wallen collaboration “Heartless” during a set in Florida only days after Wallen was caught on video using a racial slur. The producer pledged a donation to the NAACP, writing, “Im sorry, I didn’t mean to make anyone mad or offended by playing a song featuring Morgan. It was by no means a Political statement or a message.”
This past weekend, Dec. 3-5, in Cancun, Mexico, marked the debut of Illenium’s Ember Shores festival, which featured a lineup including Big Gigantic, Said The Sky, Ray Volpe, Wooli, Morgan Page, Elohim and four sets by Illenium. Last month, the producer also received his first Grammy nomination for his 2021 album Fallen Embers.
