Hell N Again, the viral 2019 single by British artist Bakar, is on the middle of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed in New York on Tuesday (Could 6).
Filed by TufAmerica/Tuff Metropolis Information within the US District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York and obtained by MBW, the criticism claims that Bakar’s 2019 hit Hell N Again and its 2023 remix with Summer time Walker sampled the 1967 recording of Robert Parker’s Caught You In A Lie with out permission.
TufAmerica claims that it’s the proprietor of all rights to each the composition and grasp recording of I Caught You In A Lie, which was written by Wilbert Smith (aka Lee Diamond).
Lee Diamond is listed within the credit part devoted to Bakar’s Hell N Again on Spotify, the place the observe has racked up practically 630 million streams alone. The Summer time Walker Remix has over 260 million streams on Spotify.
The lawsuit facilities round a fancy possession dispute, with TufAmerica alleging that an organization known as Resnik Music Group has been falsely claiming possession of the composition by means of its web site, the place it lists the observe for licensing “with a full-length playable preview of a recording of the Composition.”
In accordance with the lawsuit: “Regardless of their information that his declare of possession within the Composition is fake, and regardless of being explicitly suggested by Plaintiff that his declare is fake … Resnik Music have listed and proceed to checklist the Composition on their web site for licensing.”
It provides: “Certainly, due to their false declare of possession within the Composition… Resnik Music have been licensing the usage of the Composition to others, and has been amassing monies to which they don’t seem to be entitled, and which ought to have been paid to Plaintiff.”
The criticism alleges that “with the attainable exception of the primary 4 beats at the beginning, and probably one or two beats on the finish of the 3½- and 3¼-minute songs, each HNB and HNB Remix pattern the complete rhythm observe (together with all the bass and drum sounds) from the Composition and the Grasp all through the complete length of these tracks.”
Bakar’s Hell N Again was first launched commercially in August 2019 by Black Butter Information, an imprint of Sony Music UK. The remix with Summer time Walker adopted in September 2023.
Bakar, Sony Music Leisure UK, and Black Butter are named as defendants within the lawsuit, which you’ll learn in full right here.
In accordance with the criticism, Sony UK entered into an settlement a person named as Maple Gaines (named as a defendant within the swimsuit) in October 2019 to be used of the grasp recording in Hell N Again, however, the lawsuit claims, Gaines “didn’t personal the Grasp, she was not licensed to enter into the settlement, and as she lacked the rights, the settlement was a nullity.”
The submitting notes that Hell N Again has had “important industrial success” and continues to be licensed for high-profile tasks, together with use within the teaser trailer for the 2023 Disney/Pixar movie Elemental and on American Idol in 2025.
The lawsuit states that as of 2023, “Sony UK was holding not less than $47,500 in undistributed royalties” because of the competing possession claims.
TufAmerica is searching for damages for willful copyright infringement, which might quantity to as much as $150,000 per infringed work, in addition to an injunction stopping additional distribution of “Hell N Again” and its remix.
This isn’t the primary time TufAmerica has been concerned in copyright disputes.
In 2012, it sued Kanye West, alleging the rapper’s 2010 album My Lovely Darkish Twisted Fantasy sampled Eddie Bo’s 1969 observe Hook and Sling Half One with out authorization. West settled that case out of courtroom.
TufAmerica sued Jay-Z in 2013, this time alleging that the rapper’s Run This City infringed on the copyright of Hook and Sling Half One with a one-syllable pattern. A federal choose in New York threw out the case in 2014.
In one other case, TufAmerica sued The Beastie Boys, alleging that their 1989 album Paul’s Boutique sampled funk trio Bother Funk with out permission. That case was additionally thrown out of a New York federal courtroom, in 2015.
Final 12 months, TufAmerica Inc. (aka Tuff Metropolis Information) filed a lawsuit towards Common Music Publishing Group, alleging that the composition behind Mary J. Blige’s Actual Love from 1992 incorporates a pattern of Impeach the President, a funk music recorded by The Honey Drippers in 1972.Music Enterprise Worldwide
