Juice WRLD estate, Dr. Luke sued over royalties for ‘Not Enough’

Producer Dr. Luke and the property of the late hip-hop artist Juice WRLD are dealing with a lawsuit over royalties for Juice’s 2022 monitor Not Sufficient.

Songwriter and performer Pierre DeJournette, who additionally goes by PD Beats, alleges in a brand new lawsuit that the track’s rightsholders haven’t been paying him his justifiable share for co-authoring Not Sufficient, which appeared on Juice WRLD’s posthumously launched 2021 album Preventing Demons.

“PD Beats contributed unique guitar, efficiency, and manufacturing to [Not Enough] along with writing the beats and programming the [drum machines] in [Not Enough],” states a grievance filed with the US District Court docket for the Central District of California on Tuesday (October 17).

“Defendants have launched, marketed, distributed, and monetized [Not Enough] with out accrediting or offering PD Beats his proportional share of the income.”

DeJournette and the opposite rightsholders “equally personal the copyrights within the composition” of the track, asserts the grievance, obtained by MBW, which could be learn in full here.

“As a result of [Not Enough] is a ‘joint work’ the co-authors should account to different co-authors for any earnings earned from licensing or utilizing the copyright.”

As defendants, the grievance names Universal Music Group, proprietor of Interscope Information, which launched Preventing Demons, in addition to Carmella Wallace, Juice WRLD’s mom, as a consultant of the artist’s property.

The lawsuit additionally names as a defendant music writer Opus Music Group, which acquired a large stake in Juice WRLD’s catalog earlier this yr.

As well as, the swimsuit lists plenty of Not Sufficient’s co-writers and producers, together with Lukasz Gottwald (aka Dr. Luke), Chris Barnett (aka CB Combine) and Keegan Christopher Bach (aka KBeazy).

MBW has reached out to UMG for remark.

Juice WRLD, whose given title was Jarad Anthony Higgins, signed to Interscope in 2017 and landed an enormous hit along with his first album, 2018’s Goodbye & Good Riddance. That album included the monitor Lucid Goals, which arguably stays Juice WRLD’s largest hit, with greater than 2.3 billion streams on Spotify and greater than 930 million views on YouTube.

Not Sufficient has additionally confirmed to be successful, regardless of by no means having been launched as a single. It has garnered greater than 59 million streams on Spotify and greater than 7 million streams on varied variations of the track on YouTube.

Juice WRLD died in December, 2019, after suffering a seizure at Chicago’s Halfway Airport following a flight from California.

Since his dying, Juice WRLD’s property has been releasing materials posthumously. Two of Juice WRLD’s 4 full-length albums have been launched on Interscope since his dying: 2020’s Legends By no means Die and 2021’s Preventing Demons, which incorporates Not Sufficient.

DeJournette’s grievance states that he believes the defendants “dispute [DeJournette’s] contentions with respect to the true authorship” of Not Sufficient.

DeJournette is listed as a co-author on the track.

The lawsuit asks for an official declaration that DeJournette “collectively authored the musical composition” for Not Sufficient and that he and the defendants maintain “equal undivided pursuits within the copyright and publishing rights” to the track. It additionally asks for the share of earnings attributable to DeJournette’s possession within the track, together with court docket prices.

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This isn’t the primary time Juice WRLD’s work has been the topic of a authorized dispute. In 2019, shortly earlier than the rapper’s dying, Lucid Goals was the topic of a copyright infringement suit introduced by pop punk band Yellowcard. The band alleged the track infringed on their 2006 monitor Holly Wooden Died.

That case was introduced by Nashville-based lawyer Richard S. Busch, a associate at King & Ballow Leisure Legislation who has been concerned in plenty of high-profile copyright circumstances. He represented the property of Marvin Gaye in its profitable copyright infringement case against the co-creators of Blurred Lines, Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke, which finally led to an award of virtually USD $5 million.

Nevertheless, Yellowcard dropped the Lucid Goals lawsuit following Juice WRLD’s dying.

“My purchasers are very sympathetic not solely of Juice WRLD’s dying, but additionally wanted time to determine whether or not they actually needed to pursue the case towards his grieving mom as the non-public consultant of his property,” Busch instructed the New York Instances on the time.Music Enterprise Worldwide