Is it too late to say “Sorry”? Via The Hollywood Reporter, Nicki Minaj has agreed to pay Tracy Chapman $450,000 to settle a copyright lawsuit over Minaj’s “Sorry”, which sampled Chapman’s “Baby Can I Hold You” without permission. Minaj wrote the song with Nas for her 2018 album Queen. Initially, Her Pinkness didn’t know she had interpolated “Baby Can I Hold You”, only finding out shortly before the album’s release that, like a Russian nesting doll, one of her samples had itself sampled Chapman. Minaj pleaded with Chapman to clear the song over Twitter, to no avail. Ultimately, Queen dropped without the offending track, and that might have been the end of it. However, Minaj allegedly leaked “Sorry” to Funkmaster Flex, after which it landed on the internet. The two women have ...
Nicki Minaj may have ushered in 2021 with adorable baby pictures of her son but the rapper has legal woes as she has been sued for $200 million. The lawsuit is over her song “Rich Sex” which Queens rapper and songwriter Jawara Headley says she stole from him after he played it for her. Jawara who goes by the name Brinx Billions is suing Nicki alongside Universal Music Group, Young Money, and Cash Money for damages. In court documents obtained by TMZ, Jawara who is already credited as a writer of “Rich Sex” according to the ASCAP database claims that he let Nicki listen to his version of “Rich Sex” in 2016. He also claims that he is the sole author/creator/composer/writer/producer of “Rich Sex” and Nicki told him it would be extremely marketable and become a global hit. The rapper and songw...
Source: FREDERIC J. BROWN / Getty Vanessa Bryant has been thru a lot over the last year and it seems as if her mother plans to make her life even more difficult after filing lawsuit citing neglect and unpaid wages—and now Vanessa is speaking out. According to published reports, Vanessa Bryant’s mother, Sofia Laine, has filed a lawsuit against her daughter for financial support, claiming she worked unpaid as a “longtime personal assistant and nanny” for the family. Adding that before his untimely death on Jan. 26, Kobe had “promised to take care of” his mother-in-law “for the rest of her life.” On Thursday (Dec 17), Vanessa Bryant took to social media to speak out against the “hurtful” lawsuit, calling the suit an “extortion attempt” that her mom is trying to legalize in court. “M...
Source: boonchai wedmakawand / Getty Spinrilla was one of the hottest music apps on the scene when it first launched but now it appears that a shift in business could come soon if recent legal maneuvers spark changes. A lawsuit brought by the RIAA on the behalf of a collective of record companies has culminated in a federal judge striking down Spinrilla’s defense that users are uploading music to the service thus making it exempt from DCMA takedowns. Digital Music News shared in a detailed report on Tuesday (Dec. 1) that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) launched a suit against Spinrilla on behalf of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group. The suit charges Spinrilla with infringing on the rights of its collection of artists and connected ...
Amber Heard (photo via Heard’s divorce filings) and Johnny Depp (photo from his defamation lawsuit) Johnny Depp was violent towards ex-wife Amber Heard during their tumultuous one-year marriage, and is thus by definition a wife beater. That’s according to a British judge who just ruled against Depp in a libel lawsuit the actor had filed against The Sun newspaper. Depp sued News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and its executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article that labeled him a “wife beater” without using the words “alleged” or “accused.” The actor has never been charged with any crimes of domestic abuse. However, after hearing testimony over the summer from both parties — including Heard and Depp themselves — Judge Andrew Nicol handed down a verdict that stated “t...
Source: Sakura/WENN.com / WENN Azealia Banks is back in the news after her former manager filed a lawsuit against the rapper. According to TMZ, Jeff Kwatinetz is suing the New York-bred MC, claiming she’s encouraging her fans to help her with a “coordinated campaign of extortion,” which he claims includes online harassment and threats. The ex-manager claims in the suit that Banks has been harassing him for a while, but recently crossed the line by threatening his family over what she claims are unpaid royalties. Court documents show that Banks signed to Kwatinetz in October 2014 when she was slated to release her debut album Broke with Expensive Taste but the partnership was short-lived after Jeff dropped her less than a year later in 2015 for her erratic behavior and her refusal to promot...