Chris Brown and Drake have been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit over their song “No Guidance.”
The lawsuit was filed by Brandon Cooper and Timothy Valentine and they claim that Chris Brown and Drake had copied their 2016 song, “I Love Your Dress.” The plaintiffs claim that the hook “you got it” was stolen from them.
James G. Sammataro, the lawyer who is representing both Chris and Drake, is looking to have the lawsuit thrown out, calling the allegations “baseless.”
“Plaintiffs’ suit is premised upon the alleged similarity [to a] wholly generic lyrical phrase. No one, including plaintiffs, can own or monopolize the non-copyrightable phrase ‘you got it,’ and it should come as no surprise that this phrase appears in countless other works.”
Sammataro went on to answer the claims that “No Guidance” also copied the narrative context from the defendants’ songs.
“The Court can hear for itself that the total concept and feel of the songs are vastly different. The plaintiffs’ song is a slow, R&B love ballad about the writer’s wife featuring one vocalist and relatively few lyrics. In sharp contrast, ‘No Guidance’ is faster, longer, and sexually explicit rap and R&B song about a new romantic interest.”
Thoughts on this?