Back in March, Kendrick Lamar cryptically teased a new media company with Dave Free, PgLang. Fans were hoping the project would result in new music from the rapper, whose latest work appeared in the form of the Black Panther soundtrack. But rather than release new music, instead Kendrick continues to thwart a multitude of copyright infringement cases.
According to HipHopDX, Kendrick and his label Top Dawg Entertainment were hit with yet another copyright lawsuit this week. This time, it’s over his DAMN track “Loyalty” with Rihanna. The lawsuit was brought on by a musician named Terrance Hayes, who alleges elements of his own track, also named “Loyalty,” were heavily lifted for Kendrick’s number.
Hayes’ lawsuit claims Kendrick’s producer, Terrace Martin, had access to Hayes’ track at the time he worked on “Loyalty.” The court documents allege Kendrick and Martin “copied the entire composition, including title, melody, harmony and rhythm” of Hayes’ song, “slowed it down through a synthesizer, and combined it with another sample to disguise the copying.”
Hayes filed the copyright infringement suit seeking money and asks to be awarded all profits from Kendrick’s track, as well as “any other monetary advantage gained by the Defendants through their infringement.” He says no one reached out to him prior to DAMN‘s release to ask permission or offer him a cut of profits.
Kendrick’s “Loyalty” suit is his latest in a succession of copyright infringement lawsuits. Most recently, defunct indie group Yeasayer dropped a high-profile case against the rapper over his Black Panther track “Pray For Me,” which the band alleged had aspects taken from their 2007 song “Sunrise.” Before that, Kendrick and SZA faced a suit over the video to their song “All The Stars,” which was dismissed in December of 2018.