Nicki Minaj Pays Tracy Chapman $450,000 in Copyright Dispute
The singer and songwriter sued after an unreleased Minaj song, which borrowed heavily from Chapman’s “Baby Can I Hold You,” was played on a radio show.
Tracy Chapman, right, sued Nicki Minaj in late 2018 over a song called “Sorry,” which borrowed heavily from Chapman’s “Baby Can I Hold You.”Credit.Associated Press
Jan. 8, 2021
For months, the entertainment industry’s legal calendar had an intriguing item on the horizon: a copyright trial pitting Tracy Chapman, the revered and reclusive singer-songwriter, against the firebrand rapper Nicki Minaj.
But that trial is not to be. Late last month, the parties agreed to a judgment of copyright infringement against Minaj, and a payment of $450,000 to Chapman, according to documents made public on Thursday in federal court in California, where the case was being adjudicated.
BBC News
By Mark Savage
image captionMinaj was initially unaware of her song s debt to Chapman s composition
Rapper Nicki Minaj will pay singer Tracy Chapman $450,000 (£332,000) to settle a copyright dispute after sampling one of her songs.
Chapman sued Minaj in 2018, saying she had used portions of Baby, Can I Hold You Tonight in her song Sorry.
Although the song was never released, a leaked version made its way to radio DJ Funkmaster Flex and went viral online.
Chapman accused Minaj of sharing the song with Flex, although both have denied that version of events. Creativity at risk
Minaj wrote Sorry with fellow rapper Nas while recording her fourth album Queen in 2018.
A judgment has been made in Nicki Minaj and Tracy Chapman’s copyright dispute that began in 2018 over Minaj’s sampling of Chapman’s 1988 song “Baby Can I Hold You” in her leaked track “Sorry.” According to documents filed in a California federal court this week and viewed by Pitchfork, Chapman and her team have accepted a $450,000 offer of judgment that Minaj and her team tendered in December. The sum includes all costs and attorney fees related to the case.
When reached by Pitchfork for comment, an attorney for Nicki Minaj stated: “We settled for one reason only. It would have cost us more to go to trial.”
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