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If you were thinking about selling unauthorized Rod Wave merch outside one of his concerts, you might want to think again.
The “Rags2Riches” rapper won a federal court order Tuesday empowering law enforcement to seize bootleg merchandise sold outside his Charlotte concert on Wednesday, regardless of who was selling it.
“The United States Marshals Service and state and local law enforcement officers may seize and impound any infringing merchandise (i.e. unauthorized goods bearing the full name Rod Wave) that is found for sale between 3:00 PM on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 and 3:00 AM on Thursday, November 16, 2023 and is within 5 miles of the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.”
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Wave is the latest artist to turn to the courts to fight fake merch. Metallica‘s authorized vendor filed a similar case in October to quash bootleggers at two St. Louis shows, and SZA won a similar seizure ruling ahead of a September show at TD Garden in Boston. Post Malone, Cher, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Bruno Mars, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Jimmy Buffet, Aerosmith, Dead & Co. and many others have filed similar cases, which argue that such unauthorized gear violates artists’ trademarks as well as their likeness rights.
Those cases – and the legal bills it takes to fight them — are a sign of just how valuable concert merch has become to artists. According to data from atVenu, the average concertgoer spent $8.16 on t-shirts, posters and other goods in 2022, a 46% leap from what they spent back in 2019. The average show brought in a whopping $20,778 in gross merch sales.
Restraining orders and injunctions typically require a plaintiff to identify who they’re targeting – a fundamental legal safeguard designed to allow an accused party to defend themselves. But like other judges in previous fake merch cases, Judge Kenneth D. Bell ruled the order should apply to any “John Doe” bootleggers who show up at the venue.
“It is impossible to identify potential defendants until they have already begun to infringe upon Mr. Green’s trademarks, at which point he will have suffered irreparable injuries,” the judge wrote. “The lost profits at even one venue may be significant. Counsel has stated that it is impossible to identify defendants in advance and difficult even to ascertain their identities when confronted at the venue.”
The judge included key limits in his ruling. He required Wave to post a $5000 security bond to cover any merchandise that was wrongfully seized, and said that any alleged bootleggers should be “immediately served” with the lawsuit and “given a receipt if merchandise is seized.” Such defendants can then challenge the order in court
But Judge Bell also paved the way for Wave to win a more-expansive injunction that “reaches beyond Charlotte,” banning bootleggers and allowing for seizures at “future stops on his tour.” A hearing on such an order is set for later this month, where Wave himself must be present and his lawyers will “bring representative samples of any seized merchandise.”
A spokesperson for Wave (born Rodarius Green) declined to comment when asked by Billboard on Thursday about the order and how it had been used at Wednesday’s concert.
Attorneys for Eothen “Egon” Alapatt are firing back at a lawsuit that claims he stole dozens of private notebooks belonging to the late hip-hop legend MF Doom, calling the case “baseless and libelous” and telling his side of the disputed story.
MF Doom’s widow sued last month, claiming that Egon (a label exec and a former collaborator with the famed rapper) wrongfully took possession of the notebooks as Doom spent a decade in his native England ahead of his shocking death in 2020, and has refused to return them ever since.
But in a strongly worded response filed in court Tuesday (Nov. 14), Alapatt’s attorney, Kenneth Freundlich, sharply disputed those allegations, saying that the “frivolous” case contained “knowingly false statements” about his client.
“Plaintiffs’ complaint is the continuation of a year-long smear campaign filled with baseless and libelous attacks on Alapatt’s integrity and character,” Freundlich wrote.
Doom, whose real name was Daniel Dumile, traveled to the United Kingdom in 2010 to perform but was later prohibited from returning to the United States due to immigration issues. He remained overseas until his sudden passing on Oct. 31, 2020, at the age of 49, from rare complications related to blood pressure medication.
In her lawsuit, Doom’s widow, Jasmine Dumile Thompson, says that when the rapper left the country, he left behind a collection of 31 “rhyme books” in his Los Angeles studio. She says they include “musings and other creative ideations,” including original lyrics to released music, lyrics to unreleased songs and song ideas — a veritable treasure trove for Doom fans and hip-hop historians.
Thompson’s lawyers say that Alapatt “took advantage of Doom’s being out of the country” to buy the notebooks from his landlord for $12,500 without ever consulting the rapper. When Doom himself asked for their return, the lawsuit claims, Alapatt “delayed, obfuscated and deflected” and then ultimately refused to return them. And since Doom’s death, Thompson says Alapatt has made the “astonishing” demand that the notebooks must be donated to an archive — a choice that she says runs contrary to Doom’s wishes that they remain “secret and confidential.”
“Who is Alapatt to decide that the notebooks containing the personal and intellectual property of Doom, the rights to which are plaintiffs’ alone, must be donated to an archive against the will of the deceased artist and his surviving family?” Thompson’s lawyers wrote in their complaint. “Setting aside the fact that the notebooks were stolen, Alapatt’s arrogant paternalism and extreme tone-deafness in trying to dictate that the notebooks be donated is astonishing.”
In Tuesday’s response, Alapatt’s lawyers admit that he took possession of Doom’s materials but denied that Doom had actually been their legal owner when he died. The real owner, they say, was the studio landlord because the notebooks had been left behind at his property and a large amount of rent had been left unpaid. If not for Alapatt’s actions, his lawyers argued that the landlord “would have either sold or possibly destroyed the notebooks.”
“Contrary to the knowingly false statements contained in the complaint, Alapatt saved and preserved the notebooks after he purchased them from DOOM’s former landlord who owned and controlled the notebooks because DOOM had abandoned his studio and was in years’ long arrears on rent,” Freundlich wrote in the court documents.
Alapatt’s lawyers say he later repeatedly tried to make arrangements with Doom and his reps to return the materials during his lifetime, but that the artist had failed to follow up. At one point, his attorneys say, Doom “seemed to have completely forgotten his prior discussion with Alapatt” about returning the notebooks.
Tuesday’s response confirms one key allegation of Thompson’s lawsuit: That Alapatt had said he would only return the notebooks if a digital copy of them was donated to an archive. (In the filing, his lawyers say he suggested “the Cornell Hip-Hop Archive, the Smithsonian, or another accredited archive of their choosing.”)
But his lawyers argue that the request was a fair one because donating the materials would help protect “precious artifacts of hip-hop history” and allow “scholars and researchers to study DOOM’s creativity and further entrench his creative genius — not just in hip-hop but in American history.”
“Rather than accept Alapatt’s generous offer,” Freundlich writes in Tuesday’s filing, “plaintiffs chose to continue their hurtful, and defamatory attacks against Alapatt by filing this frivolous complaint.”
Attorneys for Thompson did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.
The bitter legal battle between Sean “Diddy” Combs and alcohol giant Diageo over their soured tequila venture is going to be paused until at least next spring, an appeals court says.
In a ruling on Tuesday, a panel of judges on New York’s appellate division granted Diageo’s request for a so-called stay of the lawsuit, in which Combs accused the company of racism and failing to adequately support his DeLeon brand of tequila.
Diageo’s attorneys asked for the pause while they try to convince the appeals court to overturn a ruling this summer for Diddy and send the case to private arbitration, which would negate the need for continued litigation. Combs’ attorneys had called Diageo’s request a “desperate attempt to delay judicial scrutiny for its discriminatory conduct.”
Tuesday’s decision means any progress in the underlying case will be paused until at least April, which is when the appeals court said Diageo’s appeal must be ready to be heard.
Following the ruling, Combs’ attorney John Hurston told Billboard: “Once the appellate court considers the actual merits, we are confident that they will reach the same conclusion as two separate judges already: that Diageo can’t avoid a public trial.”
A spokeswoman for Diageo did not immediately return a request for comment.
Combs sued in May, claiming Diageo breached his partnership deal for DeLeon Tequila by failing to properly support the brand. But he also went a lot further than that, leveling accusations of racism and claiming Diageo had treated his product line “worse than others because he is Black.”
“Cloaking itself in the language of diversity and equality is good for Diageo’s business, but it is a lie,” Combs’ lawyers wrote. “While Diageo may conspicuously include images of its Black partners in advertising materials and press releases, its words only provide the illusion of inclusion.”
The case claimed that Diageo had “typecast” his DeLeón Tequila as a “Black brand” that could only be sold to “urban” consumers, harming its sales and leaving it lagging behind competing Diageo brands like Casamigos and Don Julio.
Diageo responded a month later, calling the lawsuit a “bad faith, sham action” filed by a star who had “amassed nearly one billion dollars” from their partnership but now wanted to “extract” billions more.
“These allegations are nothing more than opportunistic attempts to garner press attention and distract the court from the fact that plaintiff’s breach-of-contract claim is entirely without merit,” the company’s attorneys wrote. “Diageo categorically denies these accusations.”
Diageo demanded that the case be sent to private arbitration, citing a provision in Diddy’s partnership contract that they said required such disputes be handled out of court. The company argued that, if Diddy’s “inflammatory rhetoric” about racism was removed, the case was nothing more than a “garden variety” business dispute that must be arbitrated.
But in September, the judge overseeing the case rejected that argument, meaning the case would move forward in state court, with the trial open to the public.
Diageo quickly appealed that ruling, and asked for a stay to prevent the case from moving forward while the appeal played out. Without a pause, the company said it faced “irreparable harm” because it would be forced to “arbitrate and litigate the same issues at the same time.”
After Tuesday’s ruling granting that request, the case will not proceed until the appellate court rules on Diageo’s appeal. Tuesday’s order said the appeal must be “perfected for the April 2024 Term of this Court,” but it’s unclear if that means the case will be decided by then, or merely argued and briefed.
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: An Atlanta judge rules that Young Thug’s rap lyrics can be used as evidence in his upcoming gang trial; two new sexual assault cases are filed against powerful music executives; R. Kelly sues the federal prison system for allegedly leaking private info to a gossip blogger; and more.
THE BIG STORY: Rap Lyrics Headed To Trial
After years of reporting on “rap on trial” — the controversial use of lyrics as criminal evidence against the artist who wrote them — it was remarkable to watch last week as prosecutors from America’s rap capital battled with defense attorneys for one of hip-hop’s biggest stars over that very subject in open court.
Is Atlanta’s district attorney “targeting the right to free speech” by using Young Thug’s lyrics in the upcoming gang trial? Or are prosecutors merely pointing out glaring admissions of criminal activity that “just happen to come in the form of lyrics”?
In the end, as they often do when it comes to lyrics, the judge sided with prosecutors: “They’re not prosecuting your clients because of the songs they wrote,” said Judge Ural Glanville, speaking to Thug’s lawyer Brian Steel during the hearing. “They’re using the songs to prove other things your clients may have been involved in. I don’t think it’s an attack on free speech.”
For a full recap of the hours-long hearing, go read our full story here. And look out for our upcoming coverage on the YSL trial, which is set to start Nov. 27.
THE OTHER BIG STORY: More Music #MeToo
The music industry saw two new lawsuits last week alleging sexual abuse by powerful men, continuing a wave of such cases filed over the past year.
The first, filed Wednesday (Nov. 8) in New York state court, accused former Recording Academy president/CEO Neil Portnow of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2018. Those are the same allegations that were partially aired four years ago in an explosive discrimination complaint filed by Deborah Dugan, who briefly replaced Portnow as Academy boss after he stepped down in August 2019.
The second lawsuit, filed later that same day in New York federal court, accused legendary industry exec Antonio “L.A.” Reid of sexually assaulting A&R executive Drew Dixon and then derailing her once-promising career when she refused his further advances. Those claims, too, were already public to some extent: Dixon previously accused Reid of harassment in a 2017 article for The New York Times as well as a subsequent documentary.
Over the past year, such accusations have become troublingly common.
Two women are suing Atlantic Records over abuse allegations against late co-founder Ahmet Ertegun; country star Jimmie Allen is facing two sexual assault lawsuits; Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter has been sued by three different women who claim he sexually assaulted them as minors in the 2000s; Kenny MacPherson, the CEO of Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s publishing unit, is facing a lawsuit claiming he subjected an employee at a previous company to an “onslaught of unwanted sexual advances”; a woman is suing singer Jason Derulo for allegedly harassing her and then dropping her from a deal with his Atlantic imprint after she rebuffed him; and Kobalt Music Group is facing claims that it enabled former exec Sam Taylor as he leveraged his position of power to demand sex from a songwriter.
Other top stories this week…
R. KELLY SUES FEDS OVER LEAKS – The disgraced R&B singer filed a lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons over allegations that someone at the agency leaked private information about him — including recordings of private phone calls with his girlfriend and lawyers — to social media personality Tasha K, who then shared them with millions of followers. Before you ask: Yes, that’s the same YouTube gossip host that Cardi B successfully sued for defamation last year after Tasha K posted false stories about drug use, STDs and prostitution by the superstar rapper.
LINKIN PARK LITIGATION – The band was hit with a lawsuit over the anniversary re-release of its smash hit 2000 debut album Hybrid Theory, filed by a bassist who says he performed on rare and unreleased recordings that were featured as part of the deluxe box set but has “never been paid a penny.”
OFFSET ASSAULT ACCUSATION – The Migos rapper (real name Kiari Kendrell Cephus) was sued by a security guard who claims he was assaulted two years ago by Offset and YRN Murk after he turned them away from ComplexCon, a cultural festival hosted by Buzzfeed’s Complex Networks.
R. Kelly is suing the federal Bureau of Prisons over allegations that the agency leaked private information about the disgraced singer to social media personality Tasha K — the same YouTube gossip host that Cardi B sued for defamation last year.
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In a complaint filed Monday (Nov. 13) in Chicago federal court, Kelly’s lawyers say an unnamed Bureau of Prisons (BOP) agent illegally accessed Kelly’s digital prison records — including recordings of private phone calls with his girlfriend and lawyers — and sold them to Tasha, who then broadcast them online to more than 1 million followers.
“The defendant United States of America breached its duty of care to the plaintiff when it allowed countless BOP officers to access plaintiff’s confidential information without any legal basis to do so,” Kelly’s lawyer Jennifer Bonjean writes.
The lawsuit, which also names Tasha K (Latasha Kebe) as a defendant, claims that the influencer then “rallied her massive following to harass the plaintiff with the use of the stolen information and created chaos in plaintiff’s personal life.”
The leaks left Kelly “isolated and fearful to communicate with his attorneys or other third parties,” the lawsuit claims, because he knew it could be “released to the general public for mass exploitation.”
Kelly was convicted in 2021 on racketeering and sex trafficking charges stemming from accusations that he orchestrated a long-running scheme to abuse women. In September 2022, he was convicted in Chicago on separate federal charges of child pornography and enticement of minors for sex. The singer, who is currently appealing both convictions, was later sentenced to 30 years in prison.
If Kebe’s name sounds familiar, it should. Last year, Cardi B won a $3.9 million defamation judgment against the blogger over false statements Kebe made about drug use, STDs and prostitution on her YouTube channel “UnWinewithTashaK.” Kebe has since filed for federal bankruptcy, citing her inability to pay that huge judgment.
In his new lawsuit, Kelly claims that Kebe first published private information in November 2019, starting with a video called “R. Kelly Can’t Control his Girlfriends while Behind Bars” that contained information Kebe said came from a “phone tap somewhere.” Later posts allegedly divulged more personal information, including highly-sensitive communications with his legal team.
“The communications … related to personal and family problems, romantic interests, health problems, literacy issues, and issues related to the defense of his pending criminal cases,” Kelly’s lawyers write.
According to the lawsuit, an internal BOP investigation revealed that an unnamed officer had pulled Kelly’s records from the agency’s TruView system, a digital database of information on prisoners. The officer then allegedly scanned them and “emailed that scan to third parties, including defendant Kebe.” But that probe ended without any action against the officer, Kelly’s lawyers claim.
“No charges were brought against defendant BOP Officer A, and the government has refused to reveal any details about the investigation including the identity of Officer A,” Bonjean wrote in Monday’s complaint. “In short, there has been a cover-up of the rampant BOP misconduct that is ongoing.”
Kelly’s lawyers claim that illegal leaks continued even after the BOP was made aware of the initial disclosures to Kebe. They cited a report last summer by the Washington Post about Kelly’s $25,000 in commissary funds — a report that resulted in federal prosecutors seizing the money to pay off his victims.
In technical legal terms, Kelly’s lawyers allege that the leaks amounted to negligence, an invasion of his privacy, an intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil theft and civil conspiracy. They also claim that the officer who stole the records violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — a federal statute that makes computer hacking illegal.
A spokesperson for the BOP declined to comment, citing agency policy on pending litigation. An attorney who has represented Tasha K on other matters did not immediately return a request for comment.
Linkin Park is facing a lawsuit that claims it has refused to credit or pay royalties to an ex-bassist who played with the band in the late 1990s — a legal battle triggered by an anniversary re-release of the band’s smash hit 2000 debut album.
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In a complaint filed Wednesday (Nov. 8) federal court, Kyle Christner says he helped creating many songs that were included on the 2020 box-set edition of Hybrid Theory, which holds the lofty distinction as the best-selling rock album of the 21st century. But he says his contributions have been effectively erased.
“Christner has never been paid a penny for his work with Linkin Park, nor has he been properly credited, even as defendants have benefitted from his creative efforts,” his lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.
Christner claims he was a member of Linkin Park for several months in 1999, until he was “abruptly informed” that he had been fired shortly before the band signed a record deal with Warner Records. But before his exit, Christner claims he played bass on a self-released EP and on several demo recordings, some of which he says he “helped compose.”
His lawsuit claims that as many as 20 of those recordings were released as goodies on the 2020 re-release, making him “a joint creator of many tracks in the box set.” That includes a song called “Could Have Been,” a never-before-released demo track that has amassed 949,000 views on YouTube.
According to Christner, the situation came to a head earlier this year when he was contacted by a Linkin Park representative offering him royalties for the Hybrid Theory re-release. The email allegedly read: “You get mechanical royalties for 3 demos and the 6-song Hybrid Theory EP that you performed on.”
Christner responded by pressing the band for a more detailed explanation of his royalty breakdown, and arguing that he was entitled to a cut from a greater number of tracks — “more than twenty songs.” He later told the band: “If you do not believe I deserve writing credits on these songs, please state your reasons for that in your response.”
Later, after lawyers got involved, Christner says the band backtracked, denying that his work appeared in the box set at all.
“In other words, after admitting that Christner played on at least some tracks included in the box set and admitting that Christner was entitled to at least some ‘mechanical’ royalties, which are royalties paid for compositions, defendants repudiated Christner’s co-authorship and co-ownership of the works at issue,” his lawyers wrote in Wednesday’s complaint.
In technical terms, the lawsuit is asking a judge to issue a so-called declaratory judgment that says Christner is a co-author and co-owner of the copyrights in question, and to weigh in on the “rights and obligations of the parties” — meaning, whether the band owes him a cut of royalties and how much. He also is asking for a court-ordered accounting of royalties for the disputed songs.
As defendants, the lawsuit personally names Linkin Park’s living members (Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon, Brad Delson and Joseph Hahn), as well as its business entity, Machine Shop Entertainment LLC, and the band’s label Warner Records.
A rep for Linkin Park did not immediately return a request for comment.
An Atlanta judge ruled Thursday that he would allow many of Young Thug’s rap lyrics to be used as evidence against him and other alleged gang members in their upcoming criminal trial, rejecting arguments that doing so would violate the First Amendment.
The ruling came a day after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville held a hotly-anticipated hearing about the use of lyrics as evidence – a controversial practice that has drawn backlash from the music industry and efforts by lawmakers to stop it.
The lyrics could play a key role in the trial, which will kick off later this month. Prosecutors allege that Thug (Jeffery Williams) and his “YSL” were not really a popular music collective called “Young Stoner Life,” but a violent Atlanta gang called “Young Slime Life” that committed murders, carjackings, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.
Representing the superstar artist, attorney Brian Steel blasted prosecutors for attempting to use creative expression to convict his client. “They are targeting the right to free speech, and that’s wrong,” Steel said. “They are saying that just because he his singing about it, he is now part of a crime.”
But after an hours-long hearing that ran until nearly 9 pm on Wednesday evening, Judge Glanville largely rejected those arguments. “They’re not prosecuting your clients because of the songs they wrote,” Glanville said from the bench. “They’re using the songs to prove other things your clients may have been involved in. I don’t think it’s an attack on free speech.”
In a formal ruling on Thursday morning, the judge denied Thug’s request to ban the lyrics entirely, and granted a motion by prosecutors to preliminarily admit them. Though Judge Glanville said prosecutors would still need to establish why they were using them and that Steel could object during the trial, the judge repeatedly suggested at Wednesday’s hearing that he would allow lyrics to be admitted as evidence and that it would be up to jurors to decide how much weight to give them.
At the hearing, prosecutor Michael Carlson urged Judge Glanville to avoid sweeping questions about free speech. He said the actual issue before the court was not rap lyrics but rather “proclamations of violence” by alleged gang members that are “highly relevant in this case.”
“The issue here is not rap,” Carlson said. “This is not randomly the state attempting to bring in Run DMC from the 80s. This is specific. These are party admissions. They just happen come in the form of lyrics.”
Near the end of the hearing, Carlson sharply criticized the suggestion that the rap lyrics in question were simply works of art without a direct link to real events. “People can look at that indictment and see one thing that’s for sure not fantasy: People are dead. Murdered.”
“That’s not fantasy, your honor,” Carlson said. “That’s tragically real.”
Earlier on Wednesday, prosecutor Symone Hylton highlighted specific lyrics that the state plans to play for jurors during the trial and explained why they were relevant enough to be admitted. They included lines from Thug’s 2016 song “Slime Shit,” in which he raps about “killin’ 12 shit” and “hundred rounds in a Tahoe.”
Hylton argued that “12” is a well-known euphemism for police officers, and that the lyric referred to a specific incident in which an officer was shot by a YSL member. And she said that the “Tahoe” lyric was a boast about the 2015 murder of Donovan Thomas – a key allegation in the indictment.
“Not only did Donovan Thomas drive a Tahoe, there were multiple rounds of shell casings laid out on the ground where he was killed in front of his barber shop,” Hylton said. “While [the lyric] may on the surface seem irrelevant, when you put it to the facts that are going to come out in this case, that particular verse becomes very relevant.”
Among other songs, she also referenced the 2018 track “Anybody,” in which Thug raps “I never killed anybody/ But I got somethin’ to do with that body”; and the song “Really Be Slime,” a 2021 compilation track released by Young Stoner Life Records that features the line “You wanna be slime? Go catch you a body.”
“It’s the state’s contention that [the lyric] means you go out and you go murder someone,” Hylton said. “That’s how you become ‘slime’.”
Young Thug, Gunna and dozens of other alleged YSL members were indicted in May 2022. Gunna and several other defendants eventually reached plea deals, and other defendants were separated from the main case, leaving just Thug and five others to face a jury. If fully convicted, he could face a life sentence.
After months of delays, a jury was finally seated last week, clearing the way for the trial to kick off on Nov. 27 – proceedings that are expected to last well into 2024. But before then, Judge Ural Glanville must decide on whether the jury can hear his lyrics as part of the prosecution’s case.
Civil liberties activists and defense attorneys have long criticized the use of rap lyrics to win criminal convictions. They argue that it unfairly targets constitutionally protected speech, treating hyperbolic verse as literal confessions; they also say it can unfairly sway juries by tapping into racial biases.
Lawmakers in California enacted legislation last year restricting the use of creative expression as evidence in criminal cases, and a federal bill in Congress that would impose similar restrictions has been widely supported by the music industry. But absent such statutes, courts around the country have mostly upheld the right of prosecutors to cite rap lyrics, particularly in gang-related cases.
In his arguments Wednesday, Thug’s lawyer Steel echoed such concerns in pushing to exclude the lyrics from the case. He noted that many other artists had used similar phrases – he name-dropped Rick Ross, Meek Mill and Cardi B — and that rap lyrics are often exaggerated or wholly fictional. Steel argued that individual lyrics should only be admitted when prosecutors have linked them much more specifically to actual alleged actions – an analysis he said the DA’s office had failed to perform.
But Steel’s main message for Judge Glanville was that using the lyrics would violate the First Amendment and its protections for free speech, arguing that it would effectively criminalize the output of a “prolific songwriter.”
“A person in America can say I hate Brian Steel, I hate criminal defense lawyers, I hate prosecutors, I hate judges,” Steel said. “We believe that we flourish when we can share ideas even when they’re repugnant, even when you don’t agree with them.”
“If you allow this evidence,” Steel said, “it’s going to have a chilling effect.”
But Judge Glanville was skeptical of Steel’s arguments from the beginning, repeatedly suggesting that he believed some of the lyrics were relevant enough to be admitted in the case — and occasionally showing frustration with Steel’s arguments to the contrary. At one point, he interrupted Steel to say that “the First Amendment is not on trial.”
Later, Steel said that prosecutors were using Thug’s “words” to convince jurors that he was “a bad man” — the kind of improper “character” evidence that is typically rejected. But Judge Glanville again had a quick retort: “No they’re not. They’re using his words to show that he’s involved in a gang.”
Migos rapper Offset is facing a lawsuit that claims he assaulted a security guard two years ago at Complex’s yearly Los Angeles festival. In a complaint filed Tuesday (Nov . 7) in Los Angeles court, Daveon Clark says he was attacked by Offset (real name Kiari Kendrell Cephus) and fellow rapper YRN Murk (real name […]
With Young Thug’s gang trial set to start later this month, Atlanta prosecutors are defending their plans to cite his rap lyrics as evidence against him — including by arguing that a manifesto written by the infamous Unabomber would not be inadmissible in court merely if it had been “set to music.”
Thug’s lawyers say his music should be off-limits at the upcoming trial, echoing widespread criticism that the tactic violates the First Amendment and unfairly sways juries. But with a judge set to decide that issue this week, prosecutors aren’t exactly shying away from the controversial practice.
In a motion filed Friday (Nov. 3), the Fulton County District Attorney’s office argued that the lyrics are clearly fair game because they allegedly show Thug (real name Jeffery Williams) and others admitting to being members of a criminal enterprise called YSL — the very crime they’re accused of committing.
“Gang lyric evidence pertaining to the predicate offenses, YSL, its rivals, expectations, and behaviors are all highly pertinent to the defendants’ states of mind and intent in this case,” the DA’s office wrote. “The defendants associated with YSL for criminal purposes.”
In making those arguments, prosecutors also attacked the broader claim that rap music is often unfairly targeted in criminal cases. They accused Thug’s lawyers of seeking an unreasonable “genre-based blanket exclusion” against any evidence that was set “to a beat” — an outcome they said would lead to “an absurd result.” To illustrate how “ridiculous” that position is, prosecutors made a striking comparison.
“Taken to its logical outcome, the defense would seem to opine that if the Unabomber’s manifesto had been set to music, it could not be used against him in any court,” the DA’s office wrote. “According to the defense’s argument, had the Turner Diaries been read with background music, it could not have been introduced against Timothy McVeigh.”
The “Unabomber” refers to terrorist Ted Kaczynski, who killed three and injured dozens by mailing bombs to victims between 1978 and 1995. McVeigh was the white supremacist behind the Oklahoma City bombing in 1994, which left 168 people dead, including 19 children.
In court documents, prosecutors also laid out exactly which Thug lyrics they plan to quote in court during the trial, including: “F– the snitches, need to be in ditches”; “Gave the lawyer close to 2 mil’ he handle all the killings;” and “I was a capo in my hood way before a plaque or a mention.” Prosecutors also listed many other lyrics, including by other YSL members, that they might reference to jurors.
Civil liberties activists and defense attorneys have long criticized the use of rap lyrics to win criminal convictions. They argue that it unfairly targets constitutionally protected speech, treating hyperbolic verse as literal confessions; they also say it can unfairly sway juries by tapping into racial biases.
Lawmakers in California passed legislation last year restricting the use of rap lyrics and other creative expression as evidence in criminal cases, and a federal bill in Congress that would impose similar restrictions has been widely supported by the music industry. But absent such statutes, courts around the country have mostly upheld the right of prosecutors to cite rap lyrics, particularly in gang-related cases.
Thug and dozens of others were indicted in May 2022 over allegations that his “YSL” group was not really a record label called “Young Stoner Life” but a violent Atlanta gang called “Young Slime Life.” Prosecutors claim the group committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.
After months of delays, a jury was finally seated last week, clearing the way for the trial to kick off on Nov. 27 against Thug and five other remaining defendants. But before then, Judge Ural Glanville must decide on whether the jury can hear his lyrics as part of the prosecution’s case.
In a motion last year, Thug’s attorney, Brian Steel, argued that using the lyrics as evidence was “racist and discriminatory” and would leave the jury “poisoned” against his client. The use of that term was perhaps an allusion to a 2014 ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court, which overturned a shooting conviction on the grounds that “inflammatory rap verses” had risked “poisoning the jury against the defendant.”
“The admission and use of these lyrics/poetry/artistry against Mr. Williams in his upcoming trial would be a Constitutional violation and an abuse of discretion,” Steele wrote last year in his motion to exclude them from the case. “Mr. Williams has the absolute right, like all persons in America, to exercise lawful speech/expression.”
A hearing over the admissibility of lyrics is set for Wednesday morning (Nov. 8).
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: Mariah Carey is hit with a copyright lawsuit over “All I Want for Christmas Is You”; a federal appeals court issues a first-of-its-kind ruling on copyright protections for dance routines; Taylor Swift gets named-dropped at the Supreme Court; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Mariah Sued Over Iconic Christmas Track (Again)
Just in time for the holidays, Mariah Carey is facing rebooted allegations that she ripped off her perennially-chart-topping “All I Want for Christmas Is You” from an earlier song of the same name.
Vince Vance (real name Andy Stone) first sued Carey last summer, claiming her 1994 holiday blockbuster infringed the copyrights to a 1989 song of the exact same name recorded by his Vince Vance and the Valiants. But the bare-bones complaint included few details about the alleged infringement, and the case was quickly dropped a few months later.
Now, Stone is back — both with new lawyers and with a more fleshed-out lawsuit.
Those new attorneys hail from Gerard Fox Law, the same firm that represented two songwriters in their lawsuit accusing Taylor Swift of stealing the lyrics to “Shake It Off” from 3LW’s “Playas Gon’ Play,” which also featured lyrics about “playas” and “haters.” After five years of litigation against the biggest pop star in the world, including a successful trip to the Ninth Circuit, Stone has certainly found himself battle-tested plaintiff lawyers to go after Carey.
And where the original complaint was short on specifics, the new one is chock full of them, including that she made up the story of how she wrote the song and that her own co-writer, Walter Afanasieff, has disputed that story.
“Carey has without licensing, palmed off these works with her incredulous origin story, as if those works were her own,” Vance’s new lawyers wrote in the re-filed complaint. “Her hubris knowing no bounds, even her co-credited songwriter doesn’t believe the story she has spun. This is simply a case of actionable infringement.”
Go read our entire story here, including the full complaint filed against Carey.
Other top stories this week…
CHOREOGRAPHY COPYRIGHTS – The Ninth Circuit issued a first-of-its-kind ruling on copyright protections for dance routines, reviving a case that accuses Fortnite creator Epic Games of stealing copyrighted moves from choreographer Kyle Hanagami, who’s worked with BTS, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber and Britney Spears. The decision came after years of efforts by other dancers to secure better ownership of their routines, including Beyoncé and Megan Thee Stallion choreographer JaQuel Knight, as detailed by Rebecca Milzoff in her excellent 2020 Billboard cover story.
SCOTUS SWIFTIES? – Capping a year in which Taylor Swift’s name has dropped on Capitol Hill, at the Department of Justice and on NFL broadcasts, it came up last week during Supreme Court arguments in a major case over social media and the First Amendment, as part of legal hypothetical raised by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
YSL CASE SET FOR TRIAL – After months of delays, a jury was finally seated in the massive criminal case against Young Thug and other alleged members of an Atlanta street gang, clearing the way for a trial to begin later this month. But will it feature rap lyrics as evidence? Stay tuned this week…
STEVEN TYLER ACCUSED AGAIN – The Aerosmith frontman was hit with a second lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting a minor decades ago, this time by a woman who says he forcibly kissed and groped her in New York City in 1975 when she was just 17.
AI FAIR USE ARGUMENT – Artificial intelligence firm Anthropic PBC told the U.S. Copyright Office this week that the massive scraping of copyrighted materials to train AI models ought to be considered “quintessentially lawful” – perhaps offering a preview of arguments the company will make in its upcoming legal battle with Universal Music Group (UMG) over those very same issues.
TICKET BOT CRACKDOWN – As reported by Billboard’s Dave Brooks, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) announced that she would roll out new legislation to beef up the BOTS ACT — a rarely-enforced 2016 law that outlawed the use of bots to attack ticket sales and jump the line to buy tickets ahead of consumers. If passed, the amendment will create a new forum for online ticket sellers to report successful bot attacks to the Federal Trade Commission, which is tasked with enforcing the statute.
CONTRACT RESTRICTIONS (TAYLOR’S VERSION) – Will trying to prevent the next ‘Taylor’s Version’ backfire on record labels? Following up on Steve Knopper’s reporting on new contractual restrictions pushed by labels in the wake of Taylor Swift‘s massively-successful re-recording campaign, music attorney Chris Castle argues that record companies might want to think twice.