Legal action has been taken against Drake over a song from his album “Honestly, Nevermind.”
Billboard reports the Canadian-born rapper is accused in a copyright lawsuit of taking the phrase “Killer cut, blood, killer cut,” which allegedly originated from the song “Oye Ohene” by Ghanaian rapper Obrafour.
This song is believed to have been sampled on the “Calling My Name” record.
“Defendants continue to engage in infringement, despite acknowledging that they needed to secure rights and authorization from Obrafour,” the Ghanaian rapper’s lawyers wrote, according to Billboard. “Defendants have never accounted to, credited, or otherwise compensated Obrafour for their unauthorized use of the copyrighted work.”
Additionally, Obrafour confirms receiving an email from Republic Records to clear the record. However, the email — which subject line read, “Drake ‘Darkness’ (working title) contains samples from ‘Oye Ohene’ Ft Tinny written and performed by Obrafour” — allegedly noted Drake had “used samples from the above referenced song” and was looking to secure approval for its release.
The lawsuit also claims that the song and “Honestly, Nevermind” album were released to fans within nine days of Obrafour receiving the initial email, which he had not yet replied to.
“Obrafour had not yet responded to the June 8, 2022 clearance email or the follow-up June 13, 2022 clearance email at the point when Drake’s ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ album was released,” his lawyers wrote in the complaint, according to Billboard. “Nonetheless, the infringing work is one of the songs appearing on the “Honestly, Nevermind” album, as released to the world by ‘surprise’ on June 17, 2022.”
In other news, rapper GloRilla has also been named in a lawsuit for sampling other artists’ work for her hit record “Tomorrow 2.”
TMZ reports the lawsuit was filed by Ivory Paynes of the rap group Dog House Posse. The NOLA-based rapper says GloRilla and the song’s producer Macaroni Toni sampled “Street of the Westbank” without the group’s permission.
Also named in the lawsuit are GloRilla’s record label, Collective Music Group, and publishing companies Warner Chappell Music and Sony/ATV Music.