After a painting commemorating music pioneer Ian Curtis was painted over with an advertisement for his album on Amazon Music, rapper Aitch said he felt like “Manchester’s most despised person.”
The advertisement for Close to Home was placed atop a 2020 mental health campaign piece by Akse P19 showing the Joy Division singer.
Aitch indicated that it was finally being reinstated, although he was “furious” over the error.
Amazon Music expressed regret to those who were “justifiably unhappy.”
For World Mental Health Day in 2020, a mural depicting the vocalist, who committed suicide at his house in 1980 shortly before the Salford band was scheduled to go on tour in the United States, was painted on Port Street in Manchester’s city center.
The painting over it was denounced by the artist, Curtis’s old bandmate Peter Hook, and the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.
The rapper from Manchester, whose real name is Harrison James Armstrong, told BBC Breakfast that he learned of the incident via social media and took swift action.
“I saw it on Twitter… when there was an outcry of ‘what is Aitch doing placing his album over Ian’s mural?’, and I was like ‘oh god, what is this?'” he remarked.
“I do not determine where to place my billboards or album promotion.
“Like everyone else, I merely wake up, drive by it, or see it on the internet.”
He stated that the scenario made him angry for two reasons.
He added, “I was seething for Ian, his people, and everything the mural represents, and I was fuming for myself because I was having such a nice week.”
“I was like, “The record is coming out in a few days, I can’t wait, everything is going so beautifully,” and then, for about forty minutes, I was the most despised person in Manchester.
“But it was out of my hands and there was nothing I could do other than put a stop to it and rectify it, which I’ve done, so I believe everyone is now my friend again.”
Amazon Music stated in a statement that it had commissioned an advertising agency to paint a mural in the rapper’s hometown, but “unbeknownst to us or Aitch, the wall the agency chose… already had a mural on it.
“As soon as we discovered this, we halted production and are working with Aitch to restore or replace the original,” a spokesman of the company stated.
We apologize to everyone who is rightfully upset.
Akse P19 wrote on Instagram that he had contacted the rapper’s management, the agency representing Amazon Music, and Manchester City Council, and that they were currently “working together to reinstate the Ian Curtis mural.
