Tag: LEGAL

In January, Ice Spice was sued by two musicians—Duval “D.Chamberz” Chamberlain and Kenley “Kass the Producer” Carmenate—who claimed that her Like..? EP hit “In Ha Mood” copied their original single “In That Mood,” which the two released on D.Chamberz’s Boom Bap 2 Drill Rap in July 2022. The lawsuit also named her producer RiotUSA, Universal Music Group, Capitol Records, and 10K Projects. Now, Ice Spice has reached a settlement with D.Chamberz and Kass the Producer, according to court documents viewed by Pitchfork.

The recent motion, which was filed in a New York federal court this past Friday, states that both parties’ attorneys agreed to resolve the lawsuit. Specific terms of the deal, however, were not disclosed, beyond that each side will “bear [their] own costs, attorneys’ fees, and expenses.” Pitchfork has reached out to both parties for comment.

In the initial lawsuit, D.Chamberz outlined how he and Kass the Producer made “In That Mood” before previewing it on Instagram on August 8, 2021. Apart from a two-week window where the song was on streaming platforms at the start of 2022, it wasn’t available to hear until Boom Bap 2 Drill Rap came out that summer. The Coney Island rapper also claimed that he performed “In That Mood” live in New York “no less than 36 times” before Ice Spice released “In Ha Mood” in January 2023, and that his song received “significant airplay” on local radio stations Hot 97 and Power 105.1, thus giving Ice Spice and her producer RiotUSA a chance to hear it.

D.Chamberz and Kass the Producer alleged that there were specific similarities between “In That Mood” and “In Ha Mood,” including that the two songs have similar titles, share “the same hip-hop rap and ‘drill’ style,” and use “similar hook/chorus lyrics.” They also claimed the songs share “an almost identical tempo” and “a similar rhythm.”

At the end of 2023, Ice Spice brought “In Ha Mood” to Saturday Night Live for her debut performance on the late-night TV program. Her first album, Y2K!, came out in the summer.

Note: This article contains references to alleged sexual assault that some readers may find disturbing.

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sued by a woman who claims that he and one of his employees raped her in 2001. The woman, Thalia Graves, filed her complaint today (September 24) in a New York federal court.

According to the lawsuit, obtained by Pitchfork, Graves met Diddy “in or around late 1999 or early 2000 through her then-boyfriend, who was an executive at [Diddy’s] Bad Boy [Records].” She claims that, “around the summer of 2001,” Diddy called her and said that “he wanted to meet with her in person to discuss her boyfriend’s supposed performance issues” at the record label. She says that she agreed to the meeting, and Diddy and Joseph “Big Joe” Sherman, “his bodyguard and head of security,” picked her up in an SUV.

In the SUV, Graves accepted a glass of wine from Diddy, but “she started to feel lightheaded, dizzy, and physically weak,” according to the complaint. “In retrospect, it is clear that Combs had caused a drug to be put into Plaintiff’s drink, as a few sips of wine had never impacted her that way.”

Eventually, Graves, Diddy, and Sherman arrived at Diddy’s New York recording studio, and Graves claims that she lost consciousness while in Diddy’s “personal lounge and office at the Bad Boy studio.” When she regained consciousness, Graves “was naked, and her hands were tied behind her back with what felt like a plastic grocery bag,” according to the lawsuit. She says that she “shouted for help,” at which point “Sherman lifted her up from the couch and forcefully slammed her face down on what was apparently a pool table.”

“Shortly thereafter, Combs entered the room naked,” and he anally and vaginally raped Graves, the lawsuit states. She says that she screamed for help throughout the alleged assault before losing consciousness. Once she regained consciousness, she alleges, she saw Sherman “standing in front of her with his bare penis in her face.” The bodyguard then “slapped [her] in the face and forcefully inserted his penis into her mouth,” according to the lawsuit.

After losing and regaining consciousness again, Graves “quickly got dressed and bolted out of the studio room” and “called a livery driver” to pick her up. “The driver drove her to the hospital and tried to convince her to report the rape and get a rape kit, but she was unable to leave the car, ‘shaking and crying hysterically’ and terrified of what Combs would do to her and her family if she reported him,” according to the complaint.

Danny Elfman was sued, last year, by a woman who claimed that the composer sexually abused her between 1997 and 2002. The lawsuit has now been dismissed, Rolling Stone reports. In court documents, viewed by Pitchfork, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lisa K. Sepe-Wiesenfeld ruled in favor of Elfman and his company, Musica de la Muerta, on the basis that the plaintiff (identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe XX) failed to provide evidence of sexual assault, and did not meet the statutes of limitations for multiple allegations.

In the original complaint, the plaintiff claimed that she met Elfman at a house party when she was 21 and the composer was 47. She alleged that, during a period of time between 1997 and 2002, there were instances when Elfman would walk around naked and expose his genitals to her. The lawsuit also stated that Elfman would sometimes sleep nude in the same bed next to a fully-clothed Doe when she was in-between apartments and staying at his home in 1998. In addition, the complaint detailed an instance, in 2002, when Elfman allegedly told Doe: “Every time you have ever slept next to me, I would masturbate next to you.”

In an August 13 motion for summary judgment, Elfman’s camp argued: “Plaintiff’s allegation that Elfman undressed in her presence and masturbated while she slept is not, as a matter of law, sexual assault, such that Plaintiff’s claims are fatally defective.” The composer’s lawyers also referred to Doe’s allegations as “speculative statements that it is possible she could have been sexually assaulted.” In addition, they pointed to a number of expired statutes of limitations pertaining to Doe’s allegations.

Judge Sepe-Wiesenfeld ruled in Elfman’s favor on Wednesday, September 4. One of Doe’s attorneys, Jeff Anderson, told Rolling Stone, “We are disappointed but not shocked that the court found that the law does not permit her case to proceed.”

Prior to Jane Doe XX’s complaint, Elfman was sued by by composer Nomi Abadi, who alleged that Elfman failed to pay two installments of $42,500 from a $830,000 settlement. The settlement related to Abadi accusing Elfman of multiple instances of sexual harassment that allegedly occurred in 2016, filing a report with the Los Angeles Police Department the following year.

Earlier this year, Abadi sued Elfman for defamation over statements he made in a Rolling Stone interview in 2023. Abadi accused Elfman of breaching the nondisclosure agreement put in place during their initial settlement.

Jane Doe XX and Danny Elfman’s respective attorneys have not returned multiple requests for comment from Pitchfork.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual assault, we encourage you to reach out for support:

RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline
http://www.rainn.org
1 800 656 HOPE (4673)

Crisis Text Line
SMS: Text “HELLO” or “HOLA” to 741-741

High Schoolers LLC, a trademark holding company controlled by Outkast’s André 3000 and Big Boi, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Atlanta electronic dance music duo ATLiens. In the lawsuit, obtained by Pitchfork, lawyers for the LLC claim that Outkast coined the term “ATLiens,” and that they’ve utilized it and owned the trademark for it since 1996. The EDM duo, the lawyers claim, has infringed on the Outkast trademark and been using the trademark without authorization.

In the complaint, the lawyers say that the band ATLiens registered for their trademark in 2020, claiming that they’d used the name since 2012—long after the 1996 release of Outkast’s beloved second studio album, ATLiens. The attorneys argue that the competing trademark “is preventing Plaintiff [High Schoolers LLC] from being able to obtain registrations for its senior ATLIENS mark.”

They also allege that the duo chose its name “to trade upon the tremendous fame and goodwill associated with Plaintiff’s ATLIENS album, song, and mark, or, at a minimum, to call to consumers’ minds Plaintiff’s famous ATLIENS album, song, and mark.”

Through the lawsuit, the LLC and its attorneys are asking the Georgia federal court to prevent the band ATLiens from using the “ATLiens” trademark. They’re also asking for the cancellation of the duo’s competing trademark, among other requests.

When reached by Pitchfork, attorneys Abigail J. Remore and Peter E. Nussbaum shared the following statement on behalf of High Schoolers LLC and André 3000: “This is a basic brand protection issue. Efforts to resolve this matter amicably were unfortunately unsuccessful and Outkast therefore had to file suit in order to protect the valuable name and trademark ATLIENS that it created and has continuously used for nearly 30 years.”

Pitchfork has also emailed an attorney for ATLiens Touring Inc. for comment.

Justin Timberlake has submitted a not guilty plea to a revised misdemeanor charge in connection to his June arrest for driving while intoxicated in Sag Harbor, New York, CNN reports. The singer’s drivers license was also suspended in the state of New York by Sag Harbor Village Justice Carl Irace.

Timberlake attended the hearing virtually from Europe, where he’s currently on tour behind his latest album Everything I Thought It Was. During the hearing, Irace urged caution and threatened Timberlake’s counsel with a gag order, referring to comments made outside of court to the media by the singer’s lawyer, Edward Burke. Burke previously disagreed with the claim that Timberlake was intoxicated, disputing to reporters that the police made “very significant errors” and asserting that “he was not intoxicated.”

Timberlake was attempting to drive home from a party in June in the Hamptons when police noticed him miss a stop sign and swerve out of his lane, police told TMZ. He declined to take a breathalyzer and failed a field sobriety test: to stand on one leg and do a walk-and-turn. “I had one martini and I followed my friends home,” he told the officer, according to the police report. A further conference hearing in the case is scheduled for August 9, which Timberlake is not required to attend.

The 1975 have been sued for $2.4 million by Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival, a year after Matthew Healy kissed Ross MacDonald onstage to protest the country’s homophobic laws, Variety reports. The damages, just shy of the $2.6 million originally requested last year, relate to the Malaysian government’s subsequent decision to cancel the festival altogether. Healy addressed the incident at a show in Texas last October, alluding to being “briefly imprisoned” in Malaysia. “If you truly believe that artists have a responsibility to uphold their liberal virtues by using their massive platforms, then those artists should be judged by the danger and inconvenience that they face for doing so, not by the rewards they receive for parroting consensus,” he said.

Festival organizers Future Sound Asia reportedly filed the lawsuit in the United Kingdom’s High Court, claiming the band deliberately flouted the country’s laws after numerous reminders. Among those rules were swearing, smoking and drinking on stage, taking off clothes, and talking about politics or religion, according to Variety. Other guidelines specifically banned kissing. The lawsuit reportedly notes that the band considered not performing, but decided instead to protest the rules by playing “a completely different setlist” and defying the guidelines on purpose, including Healy’s “provocative speech” and “long pretend passionate embrace” with MacDonald.

During the set, Healy had denounced Malaysian government policies that make homosexuality punishable by up to 20 years in prison. “If you want to invite me here to do a show, you can fuck off,” he told the crowd. “I’ll take your money, you can ban me, but I’ve done this before and it doesn’t feel good, and I’m fucked off.” The set came to an abrupt end, with Healy saying, “All right, we just got banned from Kuala Lumpur. See you later.” The band canceled shows in Jakarta and Taipei immediately after the festival.

Future Sound Asia filed its request for damages last year through the legal firm Steven Thiru & Sudhar Partnership, which cited Healy’s written agreement that the band would “adhere to all local guidelines and regulations.” It added, in a statement, at the time, “Their actions have had repercussions on local Malaysian artists and small businesses, who relied on the festival for creative opportunities and their livelihoods.”

After the Malaysian show, the 1975 posted a statement through We the Fest, which had been due to host their show in Jakarta, Indonesia. “The band never takes the decision to cancel a show lightly and had been eagerly looking forward to playing for fans in Jakarta and Taipei but unfortunately, due to current circumstances, it is impossible to proceed with the scheduled shows,” it read.

In 2022, DaBaby was charged with felony battery and accused of sucker-punching a Los Angeles County rental property owner during an unauthorized music video shoot. The rapper has now agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor simple battery, TMZ reports and Pitchfork can confirm. As a result of the plea deal, DaBaby has also been sentenced to one day in a Los Angeles County jail (which he has served), given a year of probation, and ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution to the victim.

The incident involving DaBaby and the rental property owner, Gary Pagar, took place in 2020. Pagar, in a lawsuit, claims that DaBaby rented one of his properties for a “private vacation,” promising that he would not have more than 12 people on the site. Instead, DaBaby allegedly hosted 40 people and a film crew to shoot a music video. Pagar, who is now 68 years old, says that DaBaby attacked him when he tried to enforce his capacity rules. The civil trial is scheduled to begin in September, according to Rolling Stone.

Pitchfork has reached out to DaBaby’s attorney, Blair Bernholz Berk, for comment on the rapper’s plea and sentencing.

Prince’s former business advisors L. Londell McMillan and Charles Spicer Jr. have won a key ruling in their ongoing estate lawsuit against several of the late artist’s heirs, reports Billboard. McMillan and Spicer are currently managers of Prince Legacy LLC, the estate management holding company they co-created with several of Prince’s legal heirs, but several of those family members—Prince’s half-sisters Sharon and Norrine Nelson, plus his niece and nephew Breanna and Allen Nelson—allegedly attempted to oust them from the company. On July 5, a Delaware judge ruled that those four family members could not amend the LLC agreement to remove McMillan and Spicer because it breaks the terms of the agreement.

“The LLC agreement is unambiguous and [McMillan and Spicer]’s interpretation is the only reasonable one,” Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick wrote in the decision, which Pitchfork has viewed. “Plaintiffs here allege that Defendants breached the LLC Agreement by purporting to remove the Managing Members and amend the LLC Agreement. As stated in the above analysis, that allegation is adequately alleged. Plaintiffs have stated a claim for breach of contract.”

In a statement to Pitchfork, McMillan said he and Spicer were “pleased” with the new ruling in this lawsuit, as was Johnny Nicholas Nelson Torres, another Prince relative who “strongly opposes” Nelson’s actions and joined their lawsuit as a plaintiff. “I have protected Prince and been his partner for decades. Nothing will change our history and my loyalty to him and his legacy,” said McMillan. “We are pleased with the Judge’s decision and wish we were not forced to take legal action for the wrongdoing of the Defendants (and their advisors) yet we have a heavy responsibility to preserve and protect Prince’s legacy and all he created, by any and all appropriate means necessary.”

An attorney for Sharon Nelson and the other defendants did not immediately return a request for comment to Pitchfork.

As previously reported, and reiterated in the court documents, six of Prince’s siblings inherited equal interests in his estate, with three of them assigning their combined 50% interest to Prince Legacy LLC. As Prince’s former business advisors, McMillan and Spicer assisted some of those heirs in the probate process and, in return, were each compensated with a 10% interest in Prince Legacy and “broad and exclusive management authority” as Managing Members of the LLC. “One of the heirs, Sharon Nelson, came to regret this decision and inserted herself into management decisions—by demanding, for example, that the entire staff of the Paisley Park Museum be replaced,” reads the decision. “When McMillan and Spicer did not acquiesce to her demands, Sharon led the defendants’ efforts to remove McMillan and Spicer as Managing Members by amending the LLC agreement.”

The lawsuit also claims that both Sharon and Breanna Nelson attempted to sell their shares to Primary Wave, which would seemingly tip the balance of the Prince estate’s current 50-50 divide. McMillan and Spicer’s complaint alleges that not only have the Nelsons sought to change bylaws to remove the two advisors, but to also sell their shares to a third party without unanimous consent from Prince Legacy’s membership.

Prince died of a fentanyl overdose in 2016. At the time, he did not have a written will – leading to a six-year-long legal battle in Minnesota probate court over the division of his estate and assets. When that case concluded in August 2022, the estate was split into two companies: Prince Legacy and Primary Wave.

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sued again, this time for alleged sex trafficking, sexual assault, and other allegations, TMZ and the Los Angeles Times report. Adria English, a former adult-film star, says Diddy hired her to work as a “go-go dancer” at a party in 2004, before rehiring her for parties where she alleges her drinks were laced with narcotics and she was eventually coerced into having sex with guests. One such guest, she claims, was celebrity jeweler Jacob “the Jeweler” Arabo, who is named in the lawsuit, along with several of Diddy’s enterprises, two media companies, a woman who allegedly facilitated the sex trafficking, and two people who are not named. Diddy has denied the claims.

In the lawsuit, English alleges that Diddy “groomed” her into sex trafficking as she attended more of his white parties, particularly when he learned of her background in adult entertainment. To refuse his “demands was not an option,” she says in the lawsuit, adding that Diddy threatened to blackball her and her boyfriend from the modeling industry if she did not comply. The music magazine Vibe is also named in the lawsuit for allegedly providing resources for the parties, inflicting emotional distress connected to the alleged sex trafficking, and publicizing her likeness in an article on the parties.

Jonathan Davis, an attorney for Diddy, said in a statement emailed to Pitchfork, “No matter how many lawsuits are filed it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone. We live in a world where anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason and without any proof. Fortunately, a fair and impartial judicial process exists to find the truth and Mr. Combs is confident he will prevail against these and other baseless claims in court.”

English’s complaint is the ninth filed against Diddy since November, when Cassie sued him for rape, sex trafficking, and years of physical violence. That suit was quickly settled, but several of the lawsuits are ongoing, as is a federal sex trafficking investigation by Homeland Security Investigations. He has denied all charges against him.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual assault, we encourage you to reach out for support:

RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline
http://www.rainn.org
1 800 656 HOPE (4673)

Crisis Text Line
SMS: Text “HELLO” or “HOLA” to 741-741