23-year-old rising star GloRilla faces a copyright infringement lawsuit over ‘Tomorrow’ and the hit remix ‘Tomorrow 2.’
A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Louisiana Federal Court alleges that GloRilla’s hit songs “Tomorrow” and “Tomorrow 2” use unlicensed samples from a ’90s hip-hop track by the group Dog House Posse, “Street of Westbank.”
The complaint alleges that GloRilla, whose real name is Gloria Woods, “misappropriated many of the recognizable and key protected elements” of the 1994 song, including “musical arrangements, percussion tracks, synthesized orchestration, including but not limited to piano, cello, violin, contrabass, and drum set,” as well as “tone and melody.”
Additionally, the lawsuit claims that GloRilla’s two songs mimic “the arrangement of ‘Street of Westbank’ by the choice of the instrumentation accompanying the rap lyrics, the choice of when the instruments drop out and reenter, and what instruments drop in and reenter.”
While the lawsuit at this stage remains decidedly vague, Dog House Posse is seeking damages “in addition to Defendants’ profits that are attributable to the copyrighted material,” as well as “other compensatory, statutory, and punitive damages” to be determined during the trial.
Other defendants named in the filing include producer Antonio Anderson, better known as Macaroni Toni, and Universal Music Group, Collective Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and Artist Publishing Group.
GloRilla’s biggest hit to date, “Tomorrow 2,” is a remix that features Cardi B. That track spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in October, peaking at No. 9.
In March, three people died after sustaining injuries during a crowd stampede event following a GloRilla concert in Rochester, NY. Several others were injured due to a “large crowd pushing towards the exits following accounts of individuals hearing what they believed to be gunshots,” said police at the time.
The Main Street Armory venue is currently barred from hosting any public events while the City of Rochester completes its investigation. The incident closely mirrors a similar event at the Brixton Academy in London following an Asake concert in December. Two people died of injuries sustained in that incident, while a third remains hospitalized.