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TufAmerica sues over Frank Ocean sample
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 11 February 2014
New York-based indie TufAmerica has sued Universal Music over Frank Ocean’s ‘Channel Orange’ track ‘Super Rich Kids’, which it claims sampled Mary J Blige’s ‘Real Love’ without permission.
It’s an interesting case, in that TufAmerica only has a 3.15% stake in ‘Real Love’, a share it secured as a result of a previous sample dispute, after the indie accused Blige’s label of also sampling a song in its catalogue – The Honeydrippers 1973 track ‘Impeach The President’ – without permission.
Blige’s track was released by the now defunct Uptown Records, a label that was mainly absorbed by Universal in the late 1990s. Which means the mega-major likely controls the majority of the track it’s now accused of illegally sampling.
Says TufAmerica’s lawsuit, according to Billboard: “Defendants have failed and refused to secure a license from TufAmerica for its share of the rights to use ‘Real Love’ in ‘Super Rich Kids'”. So that’s fun.