{"id":1811,"date":"2024-07-17T15:54:47","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T15:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/snoop-dogg-faces-copyright-lawsuit-over-uncleared-backing-tracks\/"},"modified":"2024-07-17T15:54:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T15:54:47","slug":"snoop-dogg-faces-copyright-lawsuit-over-uncleared-backing-tracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/snoop-dogg-faces-copyright-lawsuit-over-uncleared-backing-tracks\/","title":{"rendered":"Snoop Dogg Faces Copyright Lawsuit Over Uncleared Backing Tracks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tSnoop Dogg<\/a> is facing a copyright lawsuit that claims the legendary rapper has refused to pay a veteran studio musician after using two of his backing tracks \u2013 a case that cites an earlier battle between Tracy Chapman and Nicki Minaj.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles federal court, was lodged by Trevor Lawrence Jr.<\/strong>, a well-known producer and drummer who has been credited on songs by Bruno Mars, Alicia Keys, Ed Sheeran, Mariah Carey and other top artists.<\/p>\n

\n\tLawrence claims that he created two backing tracks \u201con spec\u201d and allowed Snoop (Calvin Broadus<\/strong>) to \u201cexperiment with the tracks in-studio,\u201d but made clear that he would need to be paid an upfront fee and an ongoing royalties if the final songs were released commercially.<\/p>\n

\n\tSnoop allegedly did just that, using Lawrence\u2019s material on his songs \u201cPop Pop\u201d and \u201cGet This Dick\u201d from his 2022 album BODR<\/em>. But Lawrence\u2019s attorneys say no actual licensing deal was ever struck, and no money has ever been sent to their client.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo date, defendants have refused to properly license the Lawrence tracks or compensate Lawrence for their use in the Broadus tracks,\u201d Lawrence\u2019s attorneys write in the lawsuit, which also named Death Row Records as a defendant.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit offers a glimpse at industry practices surrounding the use of backing tracks \u2013 pre-recorded instrumental elements that artists can add to a final product. Lawrence says he often creates such tracks \u201cof his own initiative\u201d and then shops them around to prominent artists. But he says he does so with the understanding that \u201ca proper license will and must be negotiated\u201d before a song is commercially released.<\/p>\n

\n\tNotably, the new case points to a high-profile legal battle in which singer Tracy Chapman accused rapper Nicki Minaj of illegally sampling one of her songs. In that case, a federal judge ruled in 2020 that artists like Minaj are free to \u201cexperiment\u201d with materials in the studio to help foster \u201cinnovation within the music industry,\u201d but violate copyrights if a song is released. Minaj eventually paid $450,000 to settle the case. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn the current case, Lawrence says that in 2020 he offered Snoop access to two backing tracks for use in the studio. Two years later, when a Snoop rep said the star wanted to use the tracks, Lawrence says he made his licensing requirements clear: a $10,000 flat fee producer advance and a 50% interest in the underlying musical composition. \u201cThe [Snoop] representative confirmed that these anticipated terms were acceptable,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut when \u201cPop Pop\u201d and \u201cGet This Dick\u201d were released a month later, Lawrence says he had never received a formal licensing offer \u2013 and has never been paid or credited in the two years since the songs were released. He also claims the songs were not only released on the album, but as NFTs (non-fungible tokens) that generated \u201ctens of millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt no point in time did defendants \u2026 communicate to Lawrence any intention to exploit the Lawrence tracks in connection with a bundled offering such as [the NFT sale], nor did Lawrence authorize any such exploitation of his work, which was never within his prior contemplation,\u201d his lawyers write.<\/p>\n

\n\tA rep for Snoop Dogg did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Snoop Dogg is facing a copyright lawsuit that claims the legendary rapper has refused to pay a veteran studio musician after using two of his backing tracks \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2538,429,2536,458,303,2535,940,2537],"class_list":["post-1811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-backing","tag-copyright","tag-dogg","tag-faces","tag-lawsuit","tag-snoop","tag-tracks","tag-uncleared"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}