The NOTSOBAD story: how an imposter fooled London’s club scene with a stolen identity

An A-tier music producer spent 16 hours a day in the studio molding sound for the world’s superstars and secretly nurturing his personal side project. It has recently snowballed into a success, attracting millions of listeners per month: The NOTSOBAD. Then he discovered that an imposter was using his name and playing tracks live in London clubs.

Karolis Labanauskas is not a public persona but a producer and songwriter from Lithuania. He’s well known under the aliases NOTSOBAD and Embody and has a reputation as one of the most in-demand producers on the European house circuit.

Embody produced and co-wrote a US Dance chart-topping single for David Guetta, Galantis, and 5 Seconds Of Summer “Lighter” among many other hits. As an artist’s project, Embody grew into a huge success, amassing over 200 million plays on streaming platforms.

NOTSOBAD is his second project. It was launched in 2021 and already has 3.7 million monthly listeners on Spotify. For a while, the project was incognito until something unexpected happened.

“After all these years in a studio I decided to make my first performance last weekend,” a fake NOTSOBAD account shared on Instagram. It wasn’t Karolis.

During the peak of the fall season, fake NOTSOBAD had already performed several times in London clubs, including B London. He advertised shows in Portugal and was likely already working with other event organizers.

In one of the craziest identity thefts, the impersonator took the artist’s fame and was doing all the gigs himself.

Karolis shared that a random guy from Latvia, presenting himself as Ilya Grishkevich, approached producers and event organizers and got shows where he allegedly used stolen brands, visuals, and music. Online, he impersonated social media accounts and hijacked followers. Songwriters worked with him, thinking that he was NOTSOBAD. Everyone, including fans, was scammed.

Everything started with fake accounts

It took Karolis, the real NOTSOBAD, years to achieve success, and yet, the imposter soon became more influential than the original artist.

NOTSOBAD released his first track in January 2021, and the first fake Facebook account was created in April 2021. At the time of writing, the impersonator’s Instagram account had over 12,000 followers, while the original one had less than 1,000.

“On social media, he created Instagram, two Facebook accounts, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and Telegram accounts as far as I know. Apparently, he's already done around five or six performances at clubs in London. And he supposedly has a performance booked in Portugal as well,” Karolis said.

Karolis and his friend have tried reporting the imposter to Instagram and Facebook since the fake accounts appeared in 2021. In three years, Meta’s support has not reached out or helped, and the producer feels helpless in this situation. Cybernews reached out to Meta for clarification but has yet to receive a response.

“Nothing, absolutely no response at all. I even got my Embody account verified so I could get live support – still nothing,” Karolis said.

The imposter cloned the stories, reposted music, cover art, press shots – everything was copied and reposted, pretending it was his. He advanced his lies by pretending to be DJing in high-end hotels in Vilnius, Lithuania, even though those venues do not host such events.

Karolis attempted to report the impersonator via the UK agency but received a cold shoulder because he is not a UK citizen. He also filed a formal report to the Lithuanian police and is considering other options.

“The only thing he didn't post was my face because he didn’t know what I look like,” Karolis said. “One of my tracks collected 20 million plays, and he just ripped and reposted it, acting like it was his. Anytime a new track gets released, he reposts the video. He even used my name, the city I live in.”

NOTSOBAD was not intended to be a social media personality or a live-performing DJ. Karolis wanted to focus solely on music working peacefully in a studio. It’s common in the industry for musicians to have multiple projects, aliases, and alter egos associated with them, experimenting with different genres of music.

“It’s a different music genre, and generally you don’t want to mix,” he said.

“I wanted to keep NOTSOBAD a faceless project. I probably won't be able to avoid associating it with my face now.”

Event organizers and club visitors were deceived

One victim of this fraud is MNEEMO (Yaroslav Gorovoy), a London-based DJ, producer, and event organizer. He was the gateway for the impersonator to perform live on stage.

“I’ve met a DJ named NOTSOBAD through mutual connections. (Fake) NOTSOBAD positioned himself as a producer stepping out of the shadows to become the public face of the project. He’s claimed to be from the circle of producers associated with Lithuania HQ label with millions of Spotify listeners,” MNEEMO said.

“NOTSOBAD promised to help promote my music and connect me with labels. In exchange, he asked for performances at my events to establish his presence in London. He didn’t ask for any money, which felt unusual assuming the level of his Spotify profile.”

This seemed like a win-win situation. MNEEMO tried to look him up online and emailed Lithuania HQ for confirmation. Karolis’s name did not appear in the profiles and could only be found in the metadata. The imposter explained that Karolis was “just one of the producers of the team.”

Thus the partnership was born.

“What made this collaboration particularly exciting was the belief that we were making history. His first live appearances in London would mark the beginning of a new chapter for NOTSOBAD, an artist with an established Spotify following. I had the resources to make his debut a success – not only as a DJ and event host but also through my production company,” MNEEMO added.

However, some initial doubts quickly appeared – the alleged NOTSOBAD seemed to be actually quite bad.

“NOTSOBAD continued to share demos of his projects, but their quality was far below what you’d expect from someone truly affiliated with the original NOTSOBAD sound.”

He also avoided using clear photos of himself for promotional materials.

“He insisted on blurry or obscured images, often wearing sunglasses or turning his face away from the camera.”

It appeared that Ilya Grishkevich cared more about impressing people around him rather than achieving professional success.

The statistics of private Soundcloud links indicated that he didn’t keep his promise to send MNEEMO’s demos to producers – no one was opening them. The impersonator rather asked for help on his own demos and projects of dubious quality.

“Fake NOTSOBAD began introducing new projects he claimed would become hits. He strongly encouraged me to pivot toward Afro House as well, claiming it was the future of the industry. Trusting his vision, I began producing Afro House tracks and exploring collaborative opportunities,” MNEEMO said.

“He seemed to be exploring opportunities to build side projects using the connections he made.”

Some doubts started to appear when the actor was caught reusing royalty-free vocal samples in his music. Some of his tracks were flagged or removed due to copyright claims.

Eye-opening performance

The peak of the collaboration and a major turning point was the Afro House party on October 18th, at B London Club. Before the event, the fake NOTSOBAD acted strangely, clashed with partners, refused to provide a guest list, and threatened to cancel his performance.

“His DJ skills were mediocre at best, and I wasn’t seeing the value he initially promised to bring,” MNEEMO said.

“While fake NOTSOBAD continued to position himself as a star with major connections, his actions and the lack of follow-through on his promises painted a very different picture.”

During this event, MNEEMO met music producer Luke Power, also known as Badscandal. Badscandal was an industry professional and had mutual friends with the real NOTSOBAD in the industry. This helped to connect the dots.

“The imposter made his first big mistake when he started interacting with people who actually knew the real NOTSOBAD,” MNEEMO said.

While MNEEMO didn’t pay fake NOTSOBAD any money for any performances, he kept his end of the bargain while receiving nothing of value in return.

“The relationship with the imposter was never particularly serious. It was always casual, based on conversations through social media and occasional meetings during events. No financial transactions or obligations were involved, so I wasn’t fully invested in keeping tabs on everything he was doing.”

Badscandal: “It’s really horrible, to be honest”

Luke Power, or Badscandal, confirmed to Cybernews that he encountered the NOTSOBAD impersonator in early October. His friend May introduced the “successful artist from the Selected label” and presented an exciting opportunity for collaboration.

“I sent him a message myself and I said, hey, my friend is talking to you. And he said, yeah, I'm looking for a producer to work with me on a new project I have,” Badscandal recalls. “I thought, here’s an opportunity, it seems great. We, musicians, love to work with people who are easy to work with. And he came across as a really friendly guy.”

They quickly found the common ground – to make good music – and agreed to meet.

“So I went to his show and while here we were talking about music. He introduced me to MNEEMO, who was getting into Afro House and was helping NOTSOBAD get shows. In return, NOTSOBAD was going to help MNEEMO with his music,” Luke said.

“I only realized later that he was kind of pawning us off.”

Red flags started to appear during a technical conversation about music production, specifically regarding a granular synthesizer effect in the track “Let It Go.” Power inquiries were met with the imposter’s lack of expertise.

“He said ‘It’s got a very high attack.’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean it’s got a high attack?’ It's not how granular synths work. And he was like, ‘I don't really do the production, another guy mixes it, and another guy masters it,” Badscandal said. “He had no idea what he was talking about.”

This scheme completely unraveled when Karolis, the real NOTSOBAD, contacted Badscandal weeks later about someone impersonating him.

“Karolis named everybody that works at Selected pretty much instantly. When I checked the song credits, asked around, and looked through some Instagrams, I was like, ‘S***. Okay. So we got scammed.’”

“I couldn't believe it.”

Badscandal stopped talking to the impersonator immediately. He later received some more messages but didn’t answer. He hoped to confront the impersonator once the story went public.

“Music is a very competitive and really really difficult job to work at. You don’t know who your friends are. Seeing someone get screwed like this, it made me angry for Karolis, for me, and for MNEEMO,” Badscandal said.

“Karolis’s work was taken away from him, I was manipulated and so was MNEEMO under the idea that he (the imposter) was going to get a chance to do something. It’s really horrible, to be honest.”

Vocalist wasted her time working on the imposter’s music

May, an independent musician and vocalist, shared her story with Cybernews of being approached and scammed by fake NOTSOBAD. One day in early October, the fake NOTSOBAD reached out to her on Instagram.

“He said he wants a hit song, something commercial and pop-sounding. So I started putting together some demos to send his way. I was eager to collaborate with him – especially since I really loved the real NOTSOBAD music. It seemed like it would be a great experience, given how our music styles matched. Or so I thought. Only if I knew he wasn’t the real producer; then I wouldn’t have wasted so much time and energy on him.”

The imposter asked her to switch the conversation from Instagram to Telegram. The account had a blue check mark and appeared legitimate, and Grishkevich kept sending her songs.

“I was really surprised because it didn't sound anything close to what I’d heard on Spotify. That was the first major red flag. The songs he was sending me were not good at all.”

Disappointed, she no longer wanted to work with him. However, May felt that fake NOTSOBAD continued to pressure her to collaborate, messaging her daily, probably “so he could use the vocals.”

“I remember at one point the imposter annoyed me so much that I ended up removing all NOTSOBAD music from my favorites playlist. He was not the type of producer or person I’d feel comfortable collaborating with. Not only did he scam me, but what’s truly unfortunate is that, through his fraudulent behavior, he tried to tarnish the reputation and status of the real producer.”

Who is fake NOTSOBAD?

For Badscandal, MNEEMO, May, and others it became clear that the imposter had created a false identity to gain credibility and secure opportunities.

For the UK’s house music community, the impersonator is known as Latvian national Ilya Grishkevich (Ilja Griskevics). Cybernews couldn’t confirm his identity and tried reaching out to him for a comment. However, the phone number the impersonator used to communicate with others was out of service. He also did not respond to an email, SMS, or messages on Telegram or LinkedIn. Instead, he started deleting the accounts.

It appears that the impersonator’s scheme included a backup plan. Leveraging the platform and trust, the impersonator aimed to establish his own project as a legitimate brand and continue performing in the industry even after being exposed.

It appears that Grishkevich previously attempted to pursue a career as an artist under his own aliases and, according to public records, is the CEO of a small firm in the UK. Most of the social media profiles and websites of the previous personas have been deleted or made private.

“The unmasking of Ilya Grishkevich was both shocking and frustrating. It revealed the lengths he had gone to in manipulating those around him, exploiting their goodwill for personal gain,” MNEEMO said.

“This wasn’t just a personal betrayal – it was an exploitation of the music industry’s trust.”

All the participants in this story hope the public exposure will raise awareness and help protect other musicians and community members from falling into similar traps, especially when other fake NOTSOBAD bookings are happening elsewhere.

“This behavior spreads misinformation and involves many more individuals and brands than just himself,” said Karolis, the real NOTSOBAD.

“It was an emotional rollercoaster. At first, you start with anger. Then try to understand the person’s motivation. Then you start to think that maybe it will benefit you, as those fake accounts still drive people to your Spotify. The worst part is feeling powerless when Instagram and Facebook don’t help when you have the evidence but hit the wall.”

This story is still unfolding. The imposter artist may have started reaching out to other promoters and opportunities to be NOTSOBAD or someone else.