Photo Credit: Mac Downey for The Come Up Show / CC by 2.0
Dr. Luke and the estate of the late Juice WRLD face a copyright lawsuit alleging they did not credit a co-writer for the contribution of ‘key elements’ to the 2021 song ‘Not Enough.’
Producer Dr. Luke and the estate of the late rapper-singer Juice WRLD are being sued by an artist called PD Beats, who says he contributed “key elements” to the 2021 song “Not Enough,” but was not credited and has been denied his share of residuals.
Pierre Orpheus DeJournette, whose attorneys filed the lawsuit in California federal court last Tuesday (October 17), claims that as the artist PD Beats, he is a credited co-writer of the 2021 Juice WRLD song, “Not Enough.” But Dr. Luke (Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald) and the estate of Juice WRLD (Jarad Anthony Higgins) allegedly refuse to credit him or provide him with his share of the subsequent revenue.
The lawsuit claims that PD Beats contributed “original guitar, performance, and production” to the track, in addition to “writing the beats and programming the 808s” (the Roland TR-808 drum machine.) Without his contributions, the song would lack “key elements that form the basis of the subject song’s audience appeal,” DeJournette’s attorneys assert.
DeJournette claims he was listed as a co-writer in certain versions of the credits, but the lawsuit doesn’t specify which ones or where they can be found, and says that he and the other writers deserve to “equally own the copyrights.” The lawsuit requests judicial declaration that he is a co-owner, with a court-ordered accounting of the song’s revenue.
“Defendants have released, marketed, distributed, and monetized the subject song without accrediting or providing PD Beats his proportional share of the revenue,” reads the suit. “Defendants have failed to meaningfully respond, necessitating this action.”
Juice WRLD was a SoundCloud rap pioneer who died in December 2019 of a drug overdose while flying on a private jet from Los Angeles to Chicago. He was 21. “Not Enough” released on his posthumous 2021 album, Fighting Demons, and spent a week on the Billboard Hot 100. The album spent 72 weeks on the Billboard 200 and peaked at No. 2, a bigger hit overall than the song itself.