Kendrick Lamar is facing legal action for copyright infringement, according to TMZ.
On the track ‘I Do This’ Kendrick Lamar is allegedly rapping on top of a Bill Withers song titled ‘Don’t You Want To Stay’ that was released back in 1975.
The lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Los Angeles and claims that Kendrick didn’t gain the correct permission to use the Withers song. The lawsuit was brought forward by Mattie Music Group, who claim that they own the rights to the Bill Withers song used, and therefore are claiming damages from Kendrick for the unauthorised use.
Matti Music Group say that Kendrick Lamar’s song ‘I Do This’ is a ‘direct and complete copy’ of Bill Withers song ‘Don’t You Want To Stay’ to the point where the only differences are the rapping and lyrics.
The lawsuit follows a string of copyright infringement lawsuits in the music industry. According to reports this lawsuit was filed in the same court that granted Marvin Gaye’s family $7.4 million after finding that Robin Thicke and Pharrell William’s song ‘Blurred Lines’ copied parts of Gaye’s 1977 song ‘Got to Give It Up’.
Listen to both songs below and see what you think.
(Image by Jon Elbaz, Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic, cc by 2.0)
The resemblance is striking. Bill Withers was a soulful songwriting genius vocalist who ironically walked away from the music industry due to its corruption to hold down a regular job and be a family man. Knowing the type of respectful artist Kendrick Lamar is according to his fans, he should not only pay the rights holders if his actions in recording that song violates any copyright laws as alleged, but publically pay homage to Bill Withers so that his young generations of fans could discover an extraordinary talent often overlooked in popular music history.
This.
If you’re a super star and a genius songwriter and producer you should have no need to go thirty years back into musical time to find a great artist like ‘ Bill Withers ‘ who became a soul legend by telling his audience and fans to : ‘ Use Me Up ‘. . .:: LX
Just pay the man.