Roc Nation and Rita Ora sued over "How We Do" sample
Quote:
Rita Ora, the estate of the Notorious B.I.G., and several more players in hip hop are being sued for $24 million for allegedly stealing lyrics by musician and poet Abiodun Oyewole, and not compensating him for his copyrighted work. The suit, which was obtained by Gossip Cop, was filed in federal court in New York on Monday.
In his lawsuit, Oyewole claims Biggie Smalls infringed on his “copyrighted lyrics” when he released the 1993 single, “Party and Bullsh*t.” Oyewole maintains in his court filing that he “coined” the phrase “party and bullsh*t” when he and his spoken-word group The Last Poets recorded those lyrics for the hook of their 1970 song, “When the Revolution Comes.” Since then, alleges Oyewole, several other artists, including Ora, have “unlawfully used” and sampled the copyrighted phrase “without [his] consent or authorization.”
Among the allegations in Oyewole’s copyright infringement suit is that Biggie Smalls’ estate wrongfully licensed “Party and Bullsh*t” to Ora for her 2012 single, “How We Do (Party).” “The Defendants did not credit Plaintiff nor secure permission… to sell Plaintiff’s hook, copyrighted lyrics and recordings,” reads Oyewole’s complaint. As a result, in addition to suing Smalls and Ora, he’s also suing Jay Z’s Roc Nation and Diddy’s Justin Combs Company, which produced her song.
But they’re not the only ones caught in Oyewole’s crosshairs. He’s also named Eminem and Busta Rhymes as co-defendant for sampling Smalls’ “Party and Bullsh*t” in their 2014 collaboration “Calm Down.” Oyewole notes in his lawsuit that because of widespread alleged copyright infringement he has “sustained and continues to sustain damages,” as well as “suffered and continues to suffer irreparable injury.”
Oyewole estimates his damages and losses to be in excess of $24 million, which includes money from unpaid royalties. He’s also seeking an injunction so that the many defendants, including Biggie Smalls’ estate and Ora, cease using his copyrighted material.
The Biggie track, Party and ******** has long been known to be based on The Last Poets work, when The Revolution Comes. I am only surprised that Oyewole has waited until now to sue. If Rita's song sampled it without permission then she will lose the case. The full article does explain that Oyewole did not sue previously because Biggie Smalls was killed and he did not want to harrass his widow/estate and that he is suing now because subsequent artists have sampled the Biggie track.
Party and ******** is probably my favourite Biggie track ever. Biggie was an actual great rapper. Much better than Kanye or Kendrick. This is the song in question
You can quite clearly hear that Rita uses the sample at the beginning of her song, and the phrase in the chorus is based on the chorus of the Biggie track. Not only that but the original name of the Rita song was actually Party and ******** but they changed it for radio. And Biggie is credited as a writer on the song.
Here is the original spoken rap by The Last Poets, When the Revolution Comes. Listen to 2m10s for the relevant part.
