Minaj to pay Chapman for song use
Singers Nicki Minaj and Tracy Chapman have settled a bitter lawsuit over Minaj’s sampling of the 1988 hit song “Baby Can I Hold You.”
Chapman decided to accept the rapper’s $450,000 offer to resolve the civil case, ending a two-year dispute and avoiding an even costlier trial, according to federal court records.
The lawsuit accused Minaj of copyright infringement for sampling Chapman’s song in her 2018 tune “Sorry,” which leaked on social media and almost made it onto Minaj’s album “Queen.”
Minaj’s version features rapper Nas and includes several verses from Chapman’s original track.
Minaj and her agents made multiple requests to license the song in
2018 — even though she had already recorded her version “without the requested license,” the lawsuit alleged. Chapman denied the requests, but Minaj provided a copy of “Sorry” to a popular DJ who later shared a link to the recording on Twitter, according to complaint.
The link would take users to a website that, until recently, included an embedded video player with the song “Sorry,” Chapman’s lawyers said.
“As a result of (Minaj’s) actions, the Infringing Work is available through multiple websites hosted by Internet service providers all of the world,” they wrote in the lawsuit.
The $450,000 settlement, filed Thursday, covers all costs and attorney fees incurred to date.
Styles, Ricch, Lipa honored for radio success: Harry Styles, Roddy Ricch and Dua Lipa are among the artists who received the iHeartRadio titanium award Friday in recognition of their success across all iHeartRadio stations last year.
The artists join other artists announced earlier in 2020 as recipients of the titanium award, which honors artists for surpassing 1 billion total audience spins on iHeartRadio with one of their hit songs. The songs that reached this milestone include Ricch’s “The Box” and collaboration with DaBaby “Rockstar,” Lipa’s “Break My Heart,” Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar,” Charlie Puth and Gabby Barrett’s “I Hope,” Lewis Capaldi’s “Before You Go,” and Marren Morris’ “The Bones.”
Lipa, Styles and Capaldi received earlier titanium awards in 2020 as well with other recent releases.
Roku buys Quibi library: Roku is buying the content library of Quibi, the shortlived streaming service, to bulk up its own free ad-supported channel.
Quibi, short for quick bites, produced shows that were released in 10to 12-minute increments or less. Quibi launched in April 2020 and shut down last month.
With the acquisition, Roku will acquire 75 staccato-style programming with some very big names attached, such as Idris Elba, Kevin Hart, Liam Hemsworth, Anna Kendrick, Nicole Richie, Chrissy Teigen and Lena Waithe.
Financial terms were undisclosed Friday.
Jan. 9 birthdays: Singer Joan Baez is 80. Guitarist Jimmy Page is 77. Singer Buster Poindexter is 71. Actor J.K. Simmons is 66. Actor Imelda Staunton is 65. Singer Dave Matthews is 54. Actor Joey Lauren Adams is 53. Actor Deon Cole is 49. Actor Omari Hardwick is 47. Singer A.J. McLean is 43. Actor Kerris Dorsey is 23.