With recent press from Huffington Post, The FADER and High Snobiety over accusations of British rapper SKEPTA plagiarising Ilyes Griyeb’s work for his new clothing line campaign, there’s no denying the serious implications put forward by the Moroccan photographer. MAINS, launched in June this year, have used Ilyes’ images without asking permission or rightfully crediting the photographer, with SKEPTA reposting two of Ilyes’ images with the MAINS logo branded on them. “I contacted him the first day he posted the images, via someone from his entourage. My friends tried to contact his manager on social media. No success there either. I was told I'd be contacted but this hasn't happened since last November” Ilyes told Huffington Post earlier this month.
Furthermore, the accompanying lookbook for the campaign shot by Dexter Navy “completely hijacked” his original project “Moroccan Youth” (a series shot back in 2013 by Ilyes focusing on the youths of Meknes) he told The FADER.
‘‘More than plagiarism, this is a personal matter: This work I've done in Morocco is about some family members and their struggle to succeed in a third-world country. It's a real issue. Not just a cool group of people wearing cool clothes on a roof.” said Ilyes in a statement to The FADER.
8 months on and it seems SKEPTA and his entourage are still ignoring Ilyes’ numerous requests for crediting and acknowledgment.
“I’m trying to get as much press as possible to get the recognition he didn’t give me.“ Ilyes told us here at Splash & Grab.
Ilyes recently did a takeover on Splash & Grab’s instagram with images from his Moroccan Youth series. You can see more of Ilyes’ work here and follow him on instagram.
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