S. Samuel
Young Money rapper Drake's "Best I Ever Had" hit is reportedly the target in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed this month by Playboy Enterprises.
According to reports, the smash hit illegally samples another song.
The suit accuses Drake, Cash Money Records and Universal of Copyright Infringement. The song sampled at the beginning of “Best I Ever Had” is allegedly their song, “Fallin’ In Love,” by Hamilton, Joe Frank and Dennison/Reynolds. The copyright for the music belongs to Playboy Music, Inc. and Plaintiff, Playboy Enterprises, is its successor in interest. Since Playboy claims that the “infringing conduct is continuing and ongoing,” they want the court to issue an injunction, which pretty much means that they want the defendants to stop selling/distributing the song, and to stop making money off of it. Of course, Playboy also wants Drake and his peeps to account for all profits, gains and advantages made off of their song, and they want Drake to pay costs and attorneys’ fees. (Miss Tila OMG)
Playboy claims Drake and company likely had prior knowledge of the sample.
“[They] knew or should have reasonably known, that the sound recording was protected by copyright…” and that “each Defendant continues to infringe upon Plaintiff’s rights in and to the copyrighted sound recording.” (Rap Radar)
The track recently made headlines after New York radio personality DJ Absolut filed a lawsuit against its original co-writer Kia Shine.
DJ Absolut says Shine, whose real name is Nakia Coleman, agreed in December 2008 to pay him 20% of all proceeds that came from the use of his beat. But Shine secretly went to Drake last September and cut a deal to get a 25% interest in the song’s copyright – an arrangement that has already netted him $1 million, the lawsuit claims. The lawyer for DJ Absolut says Shine’s representatives have refused to return his calls. “Kia Shine needs to uphold his end of the agreement,” said Muir’s lawyer, Brian Levy. “It wasn’t my client’s desire to resort to legal action to get him to do it. We’ve reached out to him, but he has not chosen to respond.” (New York Daily News)
Following this news, SOHH reached out to Kia to get his take on the suit and his involvement on “Best I Ever Had.”
“You know what’s funny about this situation is six months ago, when the story first broke, there was some doubt about the speculation about if I was even telling the truth about me even having a credit or a writer/co-writer share of the record, period. And now off the record I’ve made a million dollars from it and now I’m being sued for it. So which one is it? I just think my job as a businessman is to handle my business accordingly and always make sure to protect my intellectual property. There’s no issues with me and Drake, we settled that — and I think as far as Absolut is concerned, I’ve never really had an issue with him — it was not, and I repeat, it was not a co-production. The track was definitely made by myself and my squad and we have the necessary things to prove that…You can’t expect to receive 20 percent or be paid off of something you didn’t create. You have to have a part in the creation of the intellectual property to make profits. That’s just Music Business 101.” (SOHH)
Listen to the sampled “Fallin’ In Love” track below:
