Shanti Dope’s controversial song Amatz featured in Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Of all the songs that can be featured on one of the series of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Shanti Dope’s controversial song was the one to do it.

In 2019, Shanti Dope’s song, “Amatz” had caused controversy because of its alleged promotion of the illegal plant drug, Marijuana. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) was even involved in this. The song had drawn protest from the department because of how the government pursued a drug war. (which are just extrajudicial killings, in my opinion)

The rapper, on the other hand, said that the song should be taken in its full context. His management called on PDEA and told them to “listen to the whole song and not just take a few lines out of context.” They added:

To take apart a song and judge it based on certain lyrics that offend us is unfair to the songwriter. To presume that our reading of a song is the only valid one is offensive to an audience that might be more mature than we think.

The PDEA also asked for it to be banned from being released, which the people with the rapper said:

It is a dangerous precedent for creative and artistic freedom in the country when a drug enforcement agency can unilaterally decide on what a song is about, and call for its complete ban because it is presumed to go against government’s war on illegal drugs. This is a brazen use of power, and an affront to our right to think, write, create, and talk freely about the state of the nation.

Thea Gomez Pollisco, his manager, had an announcement about this on Friday. She said it was back in December when they received an email from Marvel Studios regarding the use of Shanti Dope’s song. She said:

This is the second international collab inquiry for Shanti Dope. The first one, Disney emailed us for Shanti’s collab with Sabrina Carpenter. Now Marvel naman at masaya kami dahil ‘Amatz’ song pa.

The post also included a short clip featuring the Filipino rap track. After a few minutes, Shanti Dope also shared a screengrab from the end credits of the show. It included “Amatz” and the creators behind it. It had a caption of, “God is the greatest”.

The song, “Amatz” was released in 2019, following the success of his hit song, “Nadarang”.