Artist News Legal

Wiz Khalifa accused of rap-theft

By | Published on Monday 5 February 2018

Wiz Khalifa

Here’s your song-theft lawsuit of the day. Wiz Khalifa is being sued over allegations his 2016 track ‘Most Of Us’ rips off an earlier record of the same name by another rapper, Dustin Bennett, who performs under the name Cymple Man.

The lawsuit claims that Bennett met Khalifa at the Salt Lake City International Airport in 2012. During that meeting, it’s alleged, Bennett gave Khalifa a copy of his debut album, and that included his ‘Most Of Us’ track, which dates from 2010. Khalifa’s subsequent release, Bennett claims, “misappropriates” lyrical content from his earlier work.

Or in the words of the lawsuit itself, according to the New York Daily News: “Khalifa’s hit song ‘Most Of Us’ unmistakably copies the essential elements of Bennett’s 2010 copyrighted work ‘Most Of Us’, including by misappropriating both the essential lyrics of Bennett’s work as well as the refrain and chorus”.

The legal papers continue: “Both tracks have the same title, the exact words ‘most of us’ appear approximately 80 times throughout the Khalifa song and Khalifa used the exact lyrics in the exact manner as Bennett”.

Bennett says that he has been seeking credit and compensation from Khalifa’s labels since the 2016 release of the more famous rapper’s eponymous album, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Bennett’s lawyer got in an extra dig last week by stating “it’s remarkable that Wiz does, time and time again, steal work from other lyricists”.

Khalifa is yet to respond to the litigation.



READ MORE ABOUT: |