As Mzansi fans eagerly await the arrival and likely unforgettable performance of Chris Brown, the R&B star finds himself in hot water.
While these A-list celebs may be sitting on their millions, they’re not about to let anyone mess with their cash flow.
In the latest drama, the “Loyal” singer and world-renowned rapper Drake is back in the spotlight as they face a copyright infringement lawsuit over their 2019 hit “No Guidance”
As the lyrics say, "I don’t wanna play no games", but it looks like legal battles are the new game in town.
Just two years after a previous copyright suit regarding the song was dropped, artists Tykeiya Dore and Marc Stephens have slapped Brown and Drake, along with several other songwriters and music publishers, with a lawsuit.
They claim “No Guidance” ripped off their 2016 song “I Got It”.
The lawsuit is seeking at least $5 million (approximately R88 million) in damages.
The lawsuit also targets YouTube and its parent companies, Alphabet and Google, alleging “defamation” against Stephens in connection with a YouTube takedown notice dispute.
In a complaint filed with the US District Court for the District of New Jersey on October 25, Dore and Stephens argue that the writers of “No Guidance” borrowed a key lyric from “I Got It”, tweaking it to say, “You got it.”
The complaint states: “The chorus of … ‘No Guidance’ is a continuous use of the word[s] ‘you got it’, which uses the same chord progressions, tempo, pitch, key, melody, harmony, rhythm, structure, phrasing and lyrics as plaintiffs’ song, ‘I Got It’.”
The plaintiffs further allege that the defendants intentionally masked their use of the title “I Got It” by naming their track “No Guidance”, a title that doesn’t even appear in the chorus.
“It’s impossible not to hear that the two songs are substantially similar,” they claim, citing a comparison video that was posted on YouTube (and has since been removed) where commenter’s agreed the songs sounded alike.
The new lawsuit claims “I Got It” was published in 2016 and uploaded to YouTube in 2017, but the copyright wasn't registered until July 13, 2019, just weeks after “No Guidance” dropped.