US rapper Quavo (real name Quavious Marshall) is facing a lawsuit in the United States over alleged copyright infringement on his 2018 track, Bubble Gum, from his debut solo album Quavo Huncho.
The lawsuit was filed in California on Friday (September 20) by an individual named Lamount London, who the lawsuit says is professionally known as the rapper ‘L.Mont‘.
London (L.Mont) alleges that Quavo ripped off parts of his own track called Bubblegum, which he says he wrote in 2015 and registered with the United States copyright office.
London also says that his track, titled Bubblegum, was released via all major music streaming platforms.
According to the lawsuit, which you can read in full here, L.Mont performed as an opening act for 2 Chainz and Migos, whose members included Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff, at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans, LA on February 9, 2016.
After that show, L.Mont claims that he and the members of the Migos, including Quavo attended an after-party at VLive in New Orleans.
L.Mont then alleges that during that after-party party, he gave Quavo a demo CD featuring his track Bubblegum, “with the hope that the two would be able to work together on music in the future”.
The lawsuit claims further that Quavo “accepted the CD” from L.Mont “and advised he would consider” London’s request to work together.
L.Mont alleges however, that Quavo “without express authorization copied protected elements of Bubblegum in his sound recording of the same name” , which the lawsuit notes “was released and distributed by Defendant [Universal Music Group] through its recording label imprints” as a part of Quavo’s album, Quavo Huncho.
The album was released via Quality Control Music, Capitol Records and Motown.
The complaint claims that “there are unmistakable similarities between the two works”.
The lawsuit adds: “The infringing works, Bubblegum by Quavo, misappropriates key protected elements of Plaintiff’s Bubblegum, to create an unauthorized derivative work. The infringing work copies and interpolates a portion of Plaintiff’s Bubblegum to create the infringing Bubblegum.
The lawsuit also claims that the “both songs have the similar tempos and form structure” and alleges that “recording and compositional analyses of the two works reveal that the infringing Bubblegum copies the lyrics and vocal melodies” from L.Mont song of the same name.
It continues: “Defendants, without authority, have willfully copied and sampled many protected elements of the Plaintiff’s copyrights and further infringed upon those copyrights by acts of reproduction, distribution, publish, display, and unauthorized creation of derivative works.”
This is the latest copyright infringement lawsuit to be filed against a superstar artist in recent weeks. Last week, Tempo Music filed a lawsuit against Miley Cyrus for allegedly copying Bruno Mars’ When I Was Your Man to create her 2023 hit Flowers.
In July, Snoop Dogg was sued for alleged copyright infringement by musician and producer Trevor Lawrence Jr. over the alleged use of two backing tracks on the 2022 album B.O.D.R.
Also in July, Cardi B was accused of copyright infringement on her US Top 10 hit Enough (Miami).Music Business Worldwide
