While we all wait for Kung Fu Kenny to drop his next album, this surely isn’t the Kendrick related news we wanted to hear about.
Lamar, along with a few other people credited on the 2017 Rihanna featured hit record, “LOYALTY”, is being sued by Terrance Hayes for copyright infringement. Hayes alleges that “the entire composition, including title, melody, harmony, and rhythm,” was stolen from his own 2011 track of the same name. Terrace Martin, To Pimp a Butterfly contributor Josef Leimberg, and Top Dawg Entertainment are also defendants in the case.
According to Hayes’s complaint, he and Martin both collaborated with Leimberg. Hayes allegedly wrote his song “Loyalty” in 2011 and recorded a song with Leimberg that same year. The project was kept on Leimberg’s computer. Martin allegedly had access to Hayes’ two tracks – the original 2011 version and the 2016 remix – and that Kendrick’s “LOYALTY” “copied the entire composition, including title, melody, harmony and rhythm” from Hayes’ work.
Hayes also alleges that Martin took his track and “slowed it down through a synthesizer and combined it with another sample to disguise the copying.”
Hayes is looking to get all the profits from the song and any other money that the other defendants have gotten from the song as well. He also wants his legal fees covered.
Hopefully, as this story progresses, Hayes 2011 track will be made available to the public, so we can see whether or not the two songs are alike.
