DAMN!
Kendrick Lamar was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit over his 2017 hit, “Loyalty” ft. Rihanna off his fourth studio album, Damn.
Reported on The Fader, American poet Terrance Hayes filed the lawsuit earlier this month against producer Terrace Martin, contributing artist Josef Leimberg and Top Dawg Entertainment. According to the suit, Hayes claims “Loyalty” copied the entire composition including the melody, harmony, and rhythm from Hayes original song with Leimberg back in 2011.
Hayes believes that Martin stole the original recording of his song from Leimberg’s computer and then “slowed it down with a synthesizer and combined it with another sample to disguise the copying.” However, back in 2017, Martin told FADER that the song was a sample of Bruno Mars “24K.”
In the suit, Hayes is seeking profits from the song, legal fees to be paid, plus “the equivalent of all losses to the plaintiff…any other monetary advantage gained by the Defendants.”
Kendrick has been laying super low on Instagram, he hasn’t posted since March. DAMN was actually the last album he released, which has fans wondering when will he drop new music. Last week a track titled “Gotta Love Me” leaked online featuring Baby Keem. So it’s possible we could get a single very soon! Plus, fans still want that J. Cole and Kendrick project so we’re hopeful!