We deliver! Get curated industry news straight to your inbox. Subscribe to Adweek newsletters.
The beef between Madwell cofounders Chris Sojka and David Eisenman isn’t dead yet.
After the dramatic collapse last month of the Brooklyn-based ad agency—which faced mounting liquidity problems following a legal battle between its two cofounders—one of those cofounders, David Eisenman, announced earlier this week that he is launching his own ad agency.
Within hours of the news breaking, however, his former Madwell partner Chris Sojka, who helmed the agency solely from last fall until its closure, shared what appears to be a diss track taking aim at Eisenman and his new venture.
The song, called “Can You Not Really See (Cosmic Vapories),” produced under the name The Thankfully Living, appears to allude to the name of Eisenman’s new ad agency, Cosmic Charlie. The name, Eisenman told ADWEEK, comes from the Grateful Dead song by the same name.
Sojka shared a link to to the song in the caption of an Instagram post Tuesday evening, beneath a psychedelic art-style image of a constellation-embellished unicorn featuring the name of the track.
“Beware the poison, it lurks within. Don’t give in, don’t give in. A dove is just a pigeon,” a voice croons as the dreamy, folk-rock song opens. Another verse includes the lyrics: “It’s sad to see a falling star, it’s sad to me. But you can’t fight gravity.”
The lyrics were published in full alongside the audio track on music platform Disco. Beneath the lyrics is a trademark reading: ® Clawboy Records 2025. Clawboy is a known alias of Sojka’s.
Dana Vereen, co-founder of GeoSonic, a company that creates original songs and sounds for brands, has listened to the diss track and said it has a lot of similarities to music that can be generated through AI tools, like Suno AI.
“The first thing is how fast it was created,” she told ADWEEK, noting the diss track seemed to come out within 24 hours of Eisenman’s announcement.
Another tell is that there’s no depth to the song. Songs often have layers, Vereen said. “This one sounds flat,” she said. “Layers are elements like drums with a kick, snare, and hi-hat; a solid bassline; a strong melody; or added textures like snaps, claps, or crashes.”
She pointed out that music generated through AI tools, especially the free versions of those tools, are often not layered.
“When you lack depth, it loses texture and energy,” she said.
Sojka did not respond to a request for comment. Eisenman declined to comment.
It’s not the first time Sojka has shared ‘diss track’-style music about Eisenman. Late last year, Sojka sent two different tracks directly to Eisenman—one of which was produced under the name Clawboy—after the two settled their lawsuit over finances and control of Madwell. In one song, the menacing lyrics “take cover, because they are coming for you” can be heard. Both of these songs were reviewed by ADWEEK as part of a multiweek investigation into Madwell’s demise.
Sojka’s post, at the time of writing, has attracted six likes and one comment.
