NJ Bloodline have come out with accusations that their merch was recently being bootlegged by a Shopify site either being run by, or at least affiliated with, Joe “Hardcore” McKay, founder of the annual ‘This Is Hardcore Fest‘ fame and vocalist of Shattered Realm. NJ Bloodline began their search to unmask who was behind the bootlegged print being offered by the ‘Die With Your Boots On’ shop on January 03rd, taking to their social media as follows:
“Livebytheboot Instagram page and their bootlegging ass website “die with your boots on” still has the fake ass Tiger Style t shirt on their site.
Do not buy from these grifters. You aren’t supporting NJBL by buying from them.”
The band’s hunt continued, as they documented the matter via their socials, with the band managing to get the shirt removed from the aforementioned Shopify store, stating on January 04th:
“The bootleg Tiger Style tshirt has been removed from the “die with your boots on” website.
It’s never cool to bootleg IP from artists. Don’t buy bootleg shit.
Bootleggers… you are parasites that devalue art. “
This past Tuesday, January 06th, the band then went on to publicly accuse McKay of being involved with the bootlegging, stating:
“As it turns out, the bootlegger of our Tiger Style shirt is non other than Joe “Hardcore” McKay.
After finally talking with him he says this is normal in the scene today. He blamed us for not making our own merch. His friends run the site and do the printing. We got him to pull the thumbnail on the homepage but the shirt page is still active.
He’s avoiding us now and won’t respond to repeated texts and calls to remove the shirt.
Do not support Joe Hardcore, as he is a lying grifter. This is as unhardcore as it gets.
The band further presented their case as follows:
“Joe hardcore is a bootlegger.
If he had nothing to do with it, then he wouldn’t be able to get the thumbnail on the homepage of the fraud site pulled down.
We had an agreement that he would pull it down on Sunday before 6pm.
Judge for yourself on whether not he is a lying grifter.
They went on to add:
“Proof Joe clowncore is a bootlegger. How can you have the site remove the shirt by an agreed upon time if you ain’t involved? Shady bitch #joehardcore #thisishardcore #njbloodline #njhc #bootleggers”
Thus far McKay doesn’t appear to have publicly responded to the allegations put forth against him by the band.
[via Lambgoat]
