Kendrick Lamar‘s success has come, for the most part, without incident. He’s managed to stay clear of scandals and a lot of the pitfalls that young rappers usually fall victim to. Unfortunately, even the thorough Cornrow Kenny gets slapped with a lawsuit every once in a while.
A company called the Mattie Music Group, responsible for the rights to Bill Wither‘s classic 1975 record, “Don’t Want You To Stay,” is suing the Compton rapper for sampling the record on his 2009 project The Kendrick Lamar EP, on a fairly popular song called “I Do This,” featuring fellow TDE rapper Jay Rock. According to this TMZ report, Mattie Music Group–which abbreviates to MMG *chuckle*–is claiming that K. Dot rapped over their song without permission, and is seeking damages, and for Kendrick to “stop using” the song, which likely means they’d like him to remove it from The Kendrick Lamar EP wherever it appears on the internet. A remix of the song also appears on Kendrick’s 2010 project–his breakthrough mixtape–O.verly D.edicated.
Neither Kendrick nor reps from Top Dawg Entertainment have responded to the claims, but stay tuned for developments.
