Kendrick Lamar is facing a copyright infringement lawsuit over the Rihanna-featuring DAMN. track ‘LOYALTY.’, Music Business Worldwide reports. The lawsuit, filed on Friday, August 21 in a California federal court by musician Terrance Hayes, claims that ‘LOYALTY.’ lifts “the entire composition, including title, melody, harmony, and rhythm,” from his own song, also called ‘Loyalty.’
Hayes notes that he recorded the track in 2011 with Josef Leimberg, who went on to work with Kendrick Lamar on his 2015 album To Pimp A Butterfly. He alleges that producer Terrace Martin, with whom Leimberg had previously collaborated, had access to the track via Leimberg’s computer. He then adds that Lamar “slowed it down through a synthesizer and combined it with another sample to disguise the copying”.
Terrace Martin, Josef Leimberg, and Top Dawg Entertainment were all named as co-defendants along with Lamar.
Hayes is seeking all profits from the track, as well as the equivalent of “all losses of Plaintiff” that resulted from the infringement and “any other monetary advantage gained by the Defendants through their infringement, the exact sum to be proven at the time of trial,” plus legal fees. You can read the full complaint and listen to the track below.
