Last year Megan Thee Stallion was accused of ripping off a 1999 track on her hit ‘Savage’. A lawsuit claimed that ‘Savage’ producer J White Did It had access to the earlier track via his manager. However, a judge ruled that there is insufficient evidence to prove that claim and dismissed the lawsuit.
A New York court has dismissed a song-theft lawsuit filed against Megan Thee Stallion last year over her 2020 hit ‘Savage’. The judge hearing the case was not convinced by the theory for how the rapper’s producer, J White Did It, got access to – and then ripped off – a track called ‘It’s About To Be On’, which was made 20 years earlier.
The creator of ‘It’s About To Be On’, James A Greene, said that White’s manager Klenord ‘Shaft’ Raphael was the connection between his track and the producer. However, judge Katherine Polk Failla concluded that, even when “generously construed”, Greene’s lawsuit did not provide “sufficient direct or circumstantial evidence” to support the claim that Megan Thee Stallion and her creative team had “reasonable access” to the earlier work.
To demonstrate that a new song has infringed the copyright in an old song you need to do two things: prove the artists behind the new song had access to the old song, and that the two songs are sufficiently similar to constitute infringement.
If you can show that the two songs are “so strikingly similar as to preclude the possibility of independent creation”, then a court might take access as a given, but that is hard to do. And, despite Greene’s best efforts, Polk Failla did not accept there was striking similarity between ‘It’s About To Be On’ and ‘Savage’.
Therefore Greene had to show White had access to his track. ‘It’s About To Be On’ isn’t well known. Indeed, it isn’t even on the streaming services, having been made when digital music was in its infancy and only subsequently posted to YouTube. Therefore Greene needed to provide to the court a convincing ‘chain of events’ to explain how White had access to his track
That’s where Raphael comes in. Greene claims that he first met Raphael in 2000 at a Lil Kim studio session and again in 2004 when he was playing some tracks to a Bad Boy Records assistant. In 2000, he says, he gave Raphael two CDs containing his work, and in 2004 he left another CD with the Bad Boy staff member.
In 2005, Raphael met White, and subsequently became the producer’s mentor and manager. In that role, Greene alleges, Raphael would “give White music created by other producers” as if it was his own and then encourage White to “reproduce” that music.
Basically, Greene says, White was encouraged to do what is known as ‘beat jacking’. That beat jacking created “the mechanism” via which White got access to ‘It’s About To Be On’, which he then copied when working on ‘Savage’ many years later.
It’s a good story, but not – reckons Polk Failla – a compelling explanation for how White had access to ‘It’s About To Be On’. And, given the similarity between ‘Savage and Greene’s track is not particularly striking, the lawsuit was duly dismissed.
News
Lucas Bravo breaks down resistance from studio before landing ‘Emily in Paris’
Lucas Bravo explains the hoops his ‘Emily in Paris’ creator went through with the studio. Lucas Bravo, who depicts the role of the handsome French chef Gabriel in Emily in Paris, talks about how he faced disappointment before landing a role…
Ashley Park Gets All the Juicy on Set Gossip While Filming Emily in Paris
Emily in Paris co-stars and real-life besties Ashley Park and Lily Collins see which of their answers match during “Le BFF Test.” Both ladies agree that Ashley is privy to all the best gossip happening on the set of their…
“Emily in Paris” Wins Costume Designers Guild Award
The 24th annual Costume Designers Guild Awards took place Wednesday, March 9. Within the TV categories, Patricia Field and Marylin Fitoussi won the Contemporary category for Netflix’s Emily in Paris. They took home the Excellence in Contemporary Television Awards, after…
Meet Thalia Besson – aka Genevieve from Emily in Paris – and the daughter of controversial film director Luc Besson
The 23-year-old appears to love Eminem and Givenchy and has appeared in 3 films – with director Barthélémy Grossmann declaring she’s anything but a nepo baby. We first met Emily Cooper during the height of the pandemic – just when…
‘Emily in Paris’ Star Samuel Arnold Reveals Season 5 Hopes & Julien’s True Feelings About Emily
Emily Cooper’s (Lily Collins) epic European journey will continue with Emily in Paris Season 5. Emily has a new job in Rome, and the rest of her cohorts are still stationed in Paris. Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) chose Emily to run Agence Grateau’s Rome…
Emily in Paris fans ‘distracted’ after spotting Lily Collins’ unusual habit
People around the world have been talking about Emily in Paris since the latest episodes landed on Netflix this month. Now eagle-eyed viewers have spotted something about Lily Collins. If you’re a fan of TV and watching Netflix, then you’ve probably…
End of content
No more pages to load