{"id":6914,"date":"2025-07-16T00:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T00:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/travis-scott-sza-future-say-kanyes-ok-dooms-telekinesis-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T00:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T00:33:09","slug":"travis-scott-sza-future-say-kanyes-ok-dooms-telekinesis-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/travis-scott-sza-future-say-kanyes-ok-dooms-telekinesis-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Travis Scott, SZA & Future Say Kanye’s OK Dooms \u2018Telekinesis\u2019 Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tTravis Scott, SZA and Future say a gospel singer\u2019s copyright lawsuit over their 2023 hit \u201cTelekinesis\u201d is fatally flawed because the demo at issue was co-written with Ye, who provided them with the track and green-lit its usage. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tVictory Boyd sued back in January over \u201cTelekinesis\u201d, which was adapted from an unreleased song by Ye (formerly Kanye West) called \u201cUltrasounds.\u201d Boyd says she wrote the lyrics to \u201cUltrasounds,\u201d originally titled \u201cLike the Way It Sounds,\u201d and did not authorize her work to be reused by Scott, SZA and Future.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut lawyers for the group of hitmakers say in a Monday (July 14) motion to dismiss the lawsuit that the claims are meritless because they had express permission to use \u201cUltrasounds\u201d from Ye, who created the demo\u2019s chords, beat and melody.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo the extent that plaintiffs\u2019 [complaint] survives this motion (which it should not), the facts will demonstrate that defendants\u2019 use, if any, of the LTWIS work was duly authorized by Mr. West, as a joint author of the LTWIS work, having the right and authority to authorize such use,\u201d write Scott, SZA and Future\u2019s attorneys from the firm McPherson LLP.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe defense attorneys say the claims should not even make it to the evidence phase, though, because basic issues with Boyd\u2019s copyright registration make the case invalid.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Scott, SZA and Future, Boyd filed a registration with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2023 naming herself as the sole author of \u201cLike the Way It Sounds.\u201d This was false, they say, since Ye created the song\u2019s melody.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoyd attempted to fix this issue last month by filing another Copyright Office registration for only the song\u2019s lyrics that she authored. But this is invalid, too, say the \u201cTelekinesis\u201d artists\u2019 lawyers, because \u201cas a matter of law, lyrics cannot be copyrighted as a standalone work when created in tandem with, or as part of, an inseparable musical composition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWithout a valid registration, plaintiffs cannot initiate or maintain a claim for infringement,\u201d says the motion to dismiss.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoyd\u2019s attorney, Keith White, <\/strong>tells Billboard<\/em> on Tuesday (July 15) that the motion is \u201can attempt to dismiss straight forward copyright and accounting claims as a delay tactic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe will file opposition papers within the next two weeks, and we fully expect Travis Scott\u2019s motion to be summarily denied in short order,\u201d adds White.<\/p>\n

\n\tReps for Scott, SZA, Future and Ye did not immediately return requests for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTelekinesis\u201d spent 11 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023, peaking at No. 26.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Travis Scott, SZA and Future say a gospel singer\u2019s copyright lawsuit over their 2023 hit \u201cTelekinesis\u201d is fatally flawed because the demo at issue was co-written with Ye, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6458,133,6457,303,421,6456,6459,420],"class_list":["post-6914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-dooms","tag-future","tag-kanyes","tag-lawsuit","tag-scott","tag-sza","tag-telekinesis","tag-travis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914","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=6914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}