A producer is suing Kendrick Lamar after claiming that one of his tracks was allegedly used to create the rapper’s hit song “Loyalty”.
“According to court documents, producers for Lamar’s 2018 Grammy-award winning song for best rap/sung performance, which featured hip-hop heavyweight Rihanna, “Loyalty,” didn’t correctly credit everyone who had been responsible for the iconic track’s creation.
Musician Terrance Hayes is suing Lamar and producers Josef Leimberg and Terrance Martin claiming that he had worked alongside at least one of them over a period of years and that an alternate, unfinished version of the track was used to create the hit single.
The producer claimed that his original version was recorded in 2011 on the computer in Leimberg’s studio during g relationship that spanned almost a decade.
Hayes went as far to claim that both songs even share the same name, but says he is yet to receive any credit as a writer or producer for the song.
“The infringing song copies substantial qualitative and quantitative portions of the subject track, including the same song title, similar subject matter, substantially similar note combinations, and structures, melodies, themes, rhythm, and kick and snare patterns,” stated Hayes in his lawsuit.
He continued, “Both the subject track and the infringing song use the same chord progressions, melodies, and other aspects throughout, and neither song features any changes in the musical elements as the recordings progress toward their conclusions.”
“The musical arrangements of both the infringing song and the subject track are identical,” he continued to explain. “Employing the same instruments played with the same timbre. In both recordings, the drums enter at exactly the same time.”
Hayes is seeking “unspecified damages and a permanent injunction preventing the defendants from further infringement” in his lawsuit. He is also requesting to receive all profits from the song and any publishing perks that might have come along with writing a global hit.
Kendrick Lamar is yet to comment on the lawsuit.
