Back in April, Giacomo Turra found himself at the center of widespread plagiarism accusations.
As per accusations made by YouTuber Danny Sapko, original material by Jack Gardiner, Alex Hutchings, Tom Quayle, Marco Baldi, Travis Dykes, Jacob Collier, and Ben Romano – to name a few – was repurposed by Turra, who, in turn, allegedly passed it off as his own without due credit, even monetizing it in some cases.
Rick Beato also weighed in on the controversy, stating that the social media star was slated to appear on his channel, but, as he put it, “he couldn’t play well enough to put the video out."
Back then, D’Angelico, with whom he released a signature model, distanced itself from the guitarist, as did Andertons, who removed a YouTube video they recorded with him.
Fast forward a few months, and Turra is making a musical comeback with the release of Good Lovin' – a collaboration with bassist Alberto Rigoni. However, according to an allegation made by Sapko in a new video, “he's stealing again.”
“Now, I listened to his new song, and I thought I recognized a small part of it, and I knew where from,” he comments.
“So I went back to find Giacomo's clip of [him performing a cover of] Love Never Felt So Good, and found that it had been deleted, which I thought was strange, because he's not deleted any of his other clips. But I've found it because the internet never forgets.”
He continues, “And it wasn't until today that I realized just how cunning Giacomo had been, because this video [referring to the clip of Love Never Felt So Good] of him is made up entirely of different creators' licks. You can piece together all these other YouTuber's playing and make his one solo.”
Sapko doubles down with, “Every phrase stolen from someone else, every pattern, every bend, every note – same key, same tempo, not a second of originality.
“You're probably thinking that's terrible... but what's this got to do with his new song? All he had to do with his new comeback song and video was not steal anything from a smaller creator, but here it is.”
Sapko goes on to link to a video from 2018 of South Korean guitarist and creator Lee Jeong Hoon covering Love Never Felt So Good, and compares it to what Turra is playing in a social media clip promoting his new release.
“[He] probably thought a six-year-old video from a YouTuber with a few thousand views would never be found, but he's never met anyone like [me] before,” Sapko concludes.
In June, the players wronged by Turra collaborated on a diss track dubbed Slapocalypse Reborn, delivering a funk masterclass that aimed to reclaim the narrative after months of controversy.
Giacomo Turra didn't provide a comment in relation to these new accusations when approached by Guitar World, other than to promote his next single.
