McLaren's appropriation of African musical material became one of the most consequential ethical scandals surrounding his fashion-and-music empire. Following a 1982 visit to Johannesburg, material from South African performers was incorporated into his recordings: Bow Wow Wow's 'See Jungle! (Jungle Boy)' had previously drawn on the Mahotella Queens' 'Umculo Kawupheli,' while McLaren's own 'Double Dutch' used material from the Boyoyo Boys' 'Puleng.' Other songs were traced to General M. D. Shirinda and the Gaza Sisters and to additional Mahotella Queens recordings. The source states that the original artists did not receive royalty payments at the time, even as their work was repackaged for British and international pop audiences.
The affected musicians later sued. A UK judge froze royalty payments owed to McLaren while the dispute proceeded, and the case was ultimately settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. The episode illustrates a wider pattern in which Western pop producers extracted rhythmic, melodic, and cultural material from African musicians without transparent credit or compensation, then marketed it as fashionable futurism. Although the settlement prevented a fully public accounting of the money involved, the court action established that McLaren's supposedly boundary-breaking sound had carried serious allegations of unpaid appropriation and cultural exploitation.
